PTE scores for Australian visas, skill by skill
For tests taken on or after 7 August 2025, the Competent English bar in PTE Academic is not one number: each skill carries its own minimum, and the spread decides who clears it.
What changed on 7 August 2025
Home Affairs rewrote its English-language tables for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025. Under the old table, Competent English read as a flat 50 in every PTE skill. The rewrite splits it into per-skill minimums, so a balanced profile is no longer enough if one skill sits at the old bar.
Two facts make this rewrite unusually easy to get wrong. IELTS stayed flat at 6.0 in each skill, so second-hand advice built on IELTS does not transfer to PTE. And results from tests taken before the rewrite keep being assessed under the old flat-50 table until 6 August 2028, which is why both tables still circulate and why most prep sites are still publishing the stale one.
The table that matters
Competent English, skill by skill
PTE Academic minimums for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025, out of 90 per skill.
| English level | Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competent English | 47 | 48 | 51 | 54 |
Competent English: Per-skill minimums for PTE Academic tests taken on or after 7 Aug 2025. Results from tests taken before that date stay under the previous flat-50 table until 6 Aug 2028.
Source: the Home Affairs English-language requirements for tests on or after 7 August 2025. Rules change: confirm your visa's requirement on the official source before you book.
The spread is the point. Speaking carries the highest minimum of the four skills and listening the lowest, so the profile that misses Competent usually misses it on speaking: the skill where a few points decide the outcome, and the skill generic practice covers least. Read the row against the skill you are weakest in, not the one you practised most.
Which level does your visa need
Australian visas set English at one of four named levels: Competent, Vocational, Proficient or Superior. Most skilled visas ask for Competent English, but the requirement climbs for streams that award points or provisional stays for stronger English, and some employer-sponsored streams set their own bar.
Each level carries its own per-skill table. This page publishes the one level its sources fix at the sourcing standard the rest of this site holds: Competent English. The levels above it appear here when they can be cited at the same bar; a page that lists their minimums without naming a source is guessing.
Which level does your subclass need? There is no single answer: the requirement is set per visa, so check the Home Affairs visa listing for your own stream, and the test format and score scale on Pearson's PTE site.
Preparing for the bar itself: Wobzzy's practice and full mock test mirror the exam, so a scored run reads directly against the per-skill splits above, and preparation covers the two newer speaking task types the current exam added.
Rules change. Verify your score requirement on the official Home Affairs source before you book, and treat this page as general information, not immigration advice.
The cluster
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Answers
Frequently asked questions
For PTE Academic tests taken on or after 7 August 2025, no. Competent English is per-skill now, and each skill carries its own minimum, shown in the table above. The flat 50 belongs to the previous table, which still applies to results from tests taken before the rewrite, until 6 August 2028.
Check if you'd score that today
Sit a full mock test under the real clock and read your per-skill split against the table above. The mock test is free forever; AI scoring is the paid part: Pro is $15 once.