Can I convert my scores skill by skill?

The published concordance maps overall scores. Applying it per skill gives a reasonable estimate, but where a per-skill requirement is legally binding — Australian migration, for example — you must use the authority's own published table rather than a concordance conversion.

Will a university accept a converted score?

No. Converting tells you what score to aim for; you still have to sit the test the institution accepts. Check which tests your institution recognises before you book.

PTE to IELTS Converter — Official Concordance Table

PTE score65

IELTS band

7

CEFR

B2

Upper intermediate

Full concordance table

Full concordance table
PTE Academic	IELTS
90–90	9
86–89	8.5
79–85	8
71–78	7.5
63–70	7
55–62	6.5
47–54	6
39–46	5.5
31–38	5
24–30	4.5

Concordance is a statistical equivalence published by Pearson, not an official exchange rate. Institutions and visa authorities may apply their own equivalencies, and Australia assesses each skill separately.

What a concordance actually measures

A concordance is a statistical alignment between two different tests. Pearson tested a population of candidates on both examinations and identified the scores at which performance corresponded, then published the resulting bands. That is a description of how the two score scales line up across many people, not a claim that the tests measure the same things in the same way. The task formats differ, the response conditions differ, and the way each test weights speaking and writing differs. So the conversion tells you which PTE score sits in the same part of the ability distribution as a given IELTS band. It does not tell you that you would personally have scored the equivalent band had you sat the other test, and it does not make one result substitutable for the other.

How to read the number you get

Treat the output as an estimate with a band around it rather than a precise translation. Because the PTE scale is finer than the IELTS scale, a group of PTE scores maps onto a single IELTS band, and a score near the edge of a band is only just inside it. If you are near a boundary, plan as though you might land on the other side of it. The converter also works from the overall score. Applying it separately to each of your four skills gives a rough picture, but the published alignment was established on overall performance, so per-skill conversions carry more uncertainty than the overall one. Where a requirement is written in per-skill terms, the authority setting it will have its own table, and that table is the one that counts.

The institution is always the authority

Converting a score tells you what to aim for. It does not tell you what will be accepted. An institution that lists an IELTS requirement will also publish the PTE score it wants, and that published figure may not be the one a concordance would predict; universities are free to set their own equivalencies and departments within the same university sometimes set different ones. Some programmes, particularly in teaching, nursing and other regulated fields, apply requirements set by a professional body rather than the university, and those can be stricter again. So check the requirement page for the specific course, in the specific intake you are applying for, and use this converter to understand the relationship between the two scales rather than as evidence of what you qualify for.

Frequently asked questions

Pearson publishes a concordance study mapping PTE Academic scores to IELTS bands, and that is what this converter uses. It is a statistical equivalence, not an official exchange rate — institutions and visa authorities are free to set their own equivalencies, and many do.

PTE to IELTS Converter