Mrs IELTS has been teaching at the local school for decades. She’s old, traditional and well-resp…

Mrs IELTS has been teaching at the local school for decades. She’s old, traditional and well-respected. She knows her grammar back-to-front and is a walking dictionary. She insists that you use pencil and paper in class and there are certainly no games. She’s very good at what she does and everybody knows it.

Ms PTE has just graduated from college. She’s fresh, fun and very smart. Because she’s young you can use laptops or tablets in class, which is exciting. Her English tests are a bit ‘friendlier’ than Mrs IELTS’.

Word in the playground has it that Ms PTE’s English tests are easier than Mrs IELTS, but is it really true?

The short answer to this question is NO. The difficulty of IELTS compared to PTE is the same. Neither test is easier than the other. They are both demanding and require fundamental skill building as well as knowledge of the test format.

The only real differences are:

PTE is delivered via a computer while IELTS is completed with pen and paper (but this is changing!). PTE has 20 different, shorter tasks while the IELTS has 5 longer tasks. When thinking about whether to choose IELTS or PTE consider the following questions: IELTS or PTE: Am I digitally literate? That is, can I use a computer?