Competent vs Proficient vs Superior English (IELTS, PTE, TOEFL, OET)

The exact score thresholds Home Affairs uses for competent, proficient, and superior English on a skilled visa — IELTS, PTE Academic, TOEFL iBT, and OET, including OET's 2025 change from letter grades to numbers. Every component must independently meet the threshold; there's no averaging. Figures as at September 2026.

Read the full guide, with official sources →

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Chapters

  1. 0:00 Your English score: 0, 10, or 20 points
  2. 0:13 IELTS, per component
  3. 0:27 7.5 / 7.0 / 7.0 / 6.5
  4. 0:43 PTE Academic — competent English
  5. 0:54 TOEFL iBT — competent English
  6. 1:04 OET: letter grades before 7 August 2025,
  7. 1:20 OET — since 7 August 2025
  8. 1:45 One Skill Retake:
  9. 1:57 Where competent English applies
  10. 2:18 No averaging.
  11. 2:32 Where to read more

Transcript

Home Affairs measures your English against three defined levels. They're worth 0, 10, or 20 points on the skilled visa points test.

For IELTS, competent English needs 6.0 in each of the four components. Proficient needs 7.0 in each, for 10 points. Superior needs 8.0 in each, for 20 points.

Every component has to hit the threshold on its own. Score 7.5, 7.0, 7.0, and 6.5, and you have NOT reached proficient English — because 6.5 in speaking is below the 7.0 you need.

PTE Academic's competent thresholds aren't one number. You need 47 in listening, 48 in reading, 51 in writing, and 54 in speaking.

TOEFL iBT's competent thresholds are 16 for listening, 16 for reading, 19 for writing, and 19 for speaking.

OET changed its scoring on 7 August 2025 — from letter grades, A to E, to a numeric scale. Before that date, grade B in each section met competent English, and those older results are valid until 6 August 2028.

OET's numeric thresholds, in listening, reading, writing, speaking order: competent is 290, 310, 290, 330. Proficient is 350, 360, 380, 360. Superior is 390, 400, 420, 400.

If you narrowly miss one component, IELTS offers a One Skill Retake — resit that single component within 60 days of your original test, instead of sitting the whole test again.

Competent English is the eligibility floor for the skilled visas — subclass 189, subclass 190, and subclass 491. The graduate visa, subclass 485, is separate: it sets its own score under its own legislative instrument, currently IELTS 6.5 overall with no component below 5.5.

The most common mistake is assuming one great score can offset a weak one. It can't. Every component has to independently clear the threshold, for competent, proficient, or superior English.

The full guide, with the official sources, is on migratio.com.au. The link is in the description.

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