ielts or pte academic

[Azstafford93]

im just wondering how people found the english tests. I am English so im only getting it for more points. 

[ali]

A lot of members have said that the PTE is easier

[Ausvisitor]

I can't comment on which is easier but I can say I did both and I passed the PTE so draw from that what you will

 

By passed I mean reached the superior score level for max points

[KangaKit]

6 hours ago, Ausvisitor said:

I can't comment on which is easier but I can say I did both and I passed the PTE so draw from that what you will

 

By passed I mean reached the superior score level for max points

The opposite for me! Have a look and see what will suit you..pte is all computer marked, ielts you actually sit a proper test..my pte came back as 0 as the mic didn't pick up! So that was a waste of money. 

[CapitalS]

My husband and I both have English as our first language. I passed ielts first time with top marks but he struggled and he just missed top marks three times. He ended up doing the Pte. And passed with superior 2nd time. 
 

we forked out hundreds!!

 

i did English at uni so found the ielts test pretty easy. However, it is easy to get distracted, so I lost half a point in the listening just for missing a question. Neither of the tests truly measure your English language ability. My advice would be to do a couple of online tests and see which one suits you better. The ielts is pretty straight forward  with reading, writing, listening and reading but if you miss more than 2 questions in any component then you won’t get superior marks. The writing section just needs practise to understand the format that they require.

the pte academic is a more complex layout but the marking is fairer. I think once you understand what is required of you then it is marked in a fairer way. I’m sure someone else can explain the pte marking system better than I can. Again, the pte requires you to understand the layout that they want you to answer in. Practise both tests and see how you get on. More studying was required for the pte because there were so many more components within the test compared to ielts. 

[Ausvisitor]

2 hours ago, CapitalS said:

My husband and I both have English as our first language. I passed ielts first time with top marks but he struggled and he just missed top marks three times. He ended up doing the Pte. And passed with superior 2nd time. 
 

we forked out hundreds!!

 

i did English at uni so found the ielts test pretty easy. However, it is easy to get distracted, so I lost half a point in the listening just for missing a question. Neither of the tests truly measure your English language ability. My advice would be to do a couple of online tests and see which one suits you better. The ielts is pretty straight forward  with reading, writing, listening and reading but if you miss more than 2 questions in any component then you won’t get superior marks. The writing section just needs practise to understand the format that they require.

the pte academic is a more complex layout but the marking is fairer. I think once you understand what is required of you then it is marked in a fairer way. I’m sure someone else can explain the pte marking system better than I can. Again, the pte requires you to understand the layout that they want you to answer in. Practise both tests and see how you get on. More studying was required for the pte because there were so many more components within the test compared to ielts. 

I have a masters in English and still stuffed up IELTS; I did PTE 4 days after getting my IELTS result and got 90 in every section including the non-point-scoring ones

[CapitalS]

4 hours ago, Ausvisitor said:

I have a masters in English and still stuffed up IELTS; I did PTE 4 days after getting my IELTS result and got 90 in every section including the non-point-scoring ones

I found the ielts frustrating. The listening section started with listening to a sentence and then answering a question but then after a few questions changed to a passage where you had to answer 5 or 6 questions in a row, without getting to hear it again. A moment’s distraction and miss a question and lose marks. Crazy system! Just a money making scheme in my humble opinion. If you come from an English speaking country and completed both school and university in English then I can’t understand why you then need to prove your ability to speak, read and write English! 
 

My only knowledge of the PTE is through my husband so I Cant comment as much although saw the the layout which seemed to have far more components and looked as if it was just a case of learning certain techniques to get you through. I think what was better about it as a test was that the marking was more balanced in the sense that it took more factors into account such a vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure etc. It also seemed as though even if you made some spelling mistakes, for example, in one section it didn’t affect your overall score. So you could still make mistakes and get full marks if you had spelled enough words correctly throughout the whole test. This seems a fairer way to assess a test rather than 1 mistake bring you down 1/2 a point so 3 mistakes in any section and you won’t get superior. 

[Ausvisitor]

28 minutes ago, CapitalS said:

I found the ielts frustrating. The listening section started with listening to a sentence and then answering a question but then after a few questions changed to a passage where you had to answer 5 or 6 questions in a row, without getting to hear it again. A moment’s distraction and miss a question and lose marks. Crazy system! Just a money making scheme in my humble opinion. If you come from an English speaking country and completed both school and university in English then I can’t understand why you then need to prove your ability to speak, read and write English! 
 

My only knowledge of the PTE is through my husband so I Cant comment as much although saw the the layout which seemed to have far more components and looked as if it was just a case of learning certain techniques to get you through. I think what was better about it as a test was that the marking was more balanced in the sense that it took more factors into account such a vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure etc. It also seemed as though even if you made some spelling mistakes, for example, in one section it didn’t affect your overall score. So you could still make mistakes and get full marks if you had spelled enough words correctly throughout the whole test. This seems a fairer way to assess a test rather than 1 mistake bring you down 1/2 a point so 3 mistakes in any section and you won’t get superior. 

"then after a few questions changed to a passage where you had to answer 5 or 6 questions in a row, without getting to hear it again"

That's exactly what it is designed to test though. When you listen to an announcement at a shopping centre/travel terminal they don't repeat but you may need to know the instruction

Both IELTS and PTE were designed to test academic english so that students coming to English speaking universities would not hold up lectures through their inability to understand

Listening is easy if you know to expect it and get a second chance to hear it; it's much harder to hear it once and understand