Type your PTE Academic score and instantly see what it means: your CEFR level, the approximate IELTS band, and whether it's strong enough for university, Australian PR or Canada. Below the checker you'll find the full 10–90 PTE score chart and how the scale actually works.
Every PTE Academic score range mapped to its CEFR level and an approximate IELTS band, using Pearson's current July 2025 concordance.
| PTE score | CEFR level | ≈ IELTS (overall) | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85–90 | C2 | ~8.0–9.0 | Mastery — near-native precision and fluency |
| 76–84 | C1 | ~7.5–8.0 | Advanced — effective in academic and professional settings |
| 59–75 | B2 | ~6.5–7.5 | Upper-intermediate — an independent user; many university entry requirements sit here |
| 43–58 | B1 | ~5.5–6.5 | Intermediate — copes with routine work and study contexts |
| 30–42 | A2 | ~4.5–5.5 | Elementary — basic everyday communication |
| 10–29 | A1 | 4.5 or below | Beginner — very limited range |
Three honesty notes. First, the IELTS column uses Pearson's July 2025 concordance — the current one. Older charts mapped the bands differently, so if a website or agent quotes other numbers, check which version they are using. Second, a concordance is a statistical approximation, not an official equivalence: the university, employer or immigration body you apply to decides which table it uses. Third, these are overall mappings — individual skills convert differently. For band-by-band conversion in both directions, overall and per skill, use the PTE to IELTS converter or the IELTS to PTE converter.
There's no single "good" score — it's whatever your goal asks for. This is the ladder the checker above uses.
| PTE score | Verdict | In plain English |
|---|---|---|
| 79–90 | Excellent | A top-band score — meets even strict academic requirements (visa English levels are judged per section, not overall) |
| 65–78 | Strong | Accepted by many universities; visa streams set per-section minimums, so check yours |
| 58–64 | Good | Meets a lot of course and general requirements — check the exact minimum for your goal |
| 50–57 | Moderate | A common course minimum |
| 43–49 | Basic | Below many academic and visa minimums |
| 10–42 | Below most requirements | Under the level most universities and visas ask for — build the fundamentals first |
Commonly PTE 50–65 overall, with some top courses wanting 65+ and a minimum in each skill. Check the exact English requirement on your course page.
For tests taken on or after 7 August 2025, Australian skilled migration judges PTE Academic per section, in three tiers: Competent (the entry level) needs Listening 47, Reading 48, Writing 51 and Speaking 54; Proficient (worth 10 points) needs 58/59/69/76 in the same order; and Superior (worth 20 points) needs 69/70/85/88. Every section must clear the bar in one test — and Superior's real walls are Writing 85 and Speaking 88, so for those tests the old "79 in each" shorthand is no longer correct (the rule change explained). If you took PTE on or before 6 August 2025, your result is assessed under the old scores and stays valid until 6 August 2028. Work out your level with the points calculator; full tables and strategy are in PTE score for Australia PR and how to get 20 points.
Canada's Express Entry accepts PTE Core, not PTE Academic, and IRCC converts scores to CLB levels per skill, with your lowest skill governing. Map your scores with the Core → CLB calculator; the two exams are compared in PTE Academic vs PTE Core.
Working toward a number? Step-by-step guides: how to get 65 (≈ 7 bands) or 79 and beyond (≈ 8–9 bands). The study plan generator builds a schedule from your current and target scores, and a free mock test gives you a score estimate today (Reading and Listening marked exactly, Speaking and Writing a rough guide).
It is not a percentage, and it is not marks out of 90.
PTE reports on the Global Scale of English (GSE), Pearson's granular proficiency scale running from 10 to 90. It is criterion-referenced: your score reflects the English you demonstrated against fixed descriptors, not your rank against other candidates on the day. That is why there is no "pass mark" — a 58 means the same thing in every sitting.
Your score report shows five numbers: an overall score plus four communicative skills scores (Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing), each on the same 10–90 scale. The overall is not a simple average of the four — it is computed from your performance across all scored items.
Some tasks count twice. Eight of PTE Academic's 22 task types are integrated, so one answer feeds two skill scores; the other 14 each score a single skill — including two that are widely misreported: Read Aloud scores Speaking only (not Reading), and Answer Short Question scores Listening only. Knowing which tasks feed which skill is the fastest way to target a weak section. Every task is explained in our PTE question types guide, with timings and word limits on the word limits and timings page. Most tasks have no negative marking, but a few item types do deduct for wrong picks — the list is on the negative marking page.
Did the chart change in August 2025? The 10–90 scale itself did not, but things around it did: Pearson's July 2025 IELTS concordance replaced the older chart, the 7 August 2025 update added two Speaking tasks (Summarize Group Discussion and Respond to a Situation, for 22 task types in total), and Australia replaced its flat 65/79 cut-offs with per-section thresholds. What changed, plus the full task-to-skill map, is on our August 2025 scoring changes page.
Comparing with another test? TOEFL iBT and the Duolingo English Test use their own scales, and we don't publish a point-by-point conversion — each university or visa authority sets its own accepted score for each test. See PTE vs TOEFL, PTE vs Duolingo and PTE vs IELTS.
Pearson keeps PTE Academic scores valid for 2 years from your test date, then removes them from the portal — download your report before then, and note that some organisations set their own window (details: PTE score validity). Results usually arrive within about 2 business days, occasionally up to 5 — see how long PTE results take.
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