The various English tests that can be taken to show your English proficiency and immigrate to Australia** can be tricky to pass without studying, even for native English-speakers like myself. I first took the IELTS and passed with a score that only gave me 10 points toward immigration. Obviously frustrated by this, I then sat the PTE. I will share with you my experiences of both exams.
The first exam I took was the IELTS. I originally signed up for the Academic test, but switched at the last minute to the General Training test when I realized the Academic test was not required. The format of the IELTS is as follows. You start with a short face-to-face interview with an English-speaker who asks you to introduce yourself and answer a few questions. These questions can be quite irrelevant, so you must be prepared to make up random information on the spot. The remainder of the test are a listening portion, in which you listen to recorded passages and answer questions; a reading portion, in which you read passages and answer questions; and a writing portion, where you are asked to write a friendly letter and a short essay. The Academic test is similar, but includes the interpretation of diagrams and graphs.
From what I had read, the written portion of the test is most difficult, so I spent a good 3-4 hours at the library preparing for the test using some of the IELTS practice books. For the rest, I basically winged it. My scores for IELTS were as follows: listening 8.5, reading 9.0, speaking 8.5, but writing? A mere 7.0. ("Superior English requires all 8's or above.) At the time, I thought the 10 points I would get for my visa for having "proficient English" was enough, and I did not think much about it . . . after all, I had 65 of the required 60 points. However, after completing my application for an invitation and sitting on my thumbs waiting for an invite, I started reading how competitive immigration is. While invitations in years past were extended to applicants with 60-65 points, this is no longer the case. More and more, applicants are clustered around the 75 point mark. I realized that to fast-track my future, I needed to take action and swallow my pride.
The exam that I next came across is the Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic. Be aware that the PTE is entirely computer-based and scored. In the PTE, there are a variety of tasks, or question types, that you complete. Examples of these are "summarize written text," "retell lecture," and "write from dictation." Many of these tasks require multiple skills - for example "write from dictation" requires you to listen to a sentence and then type it out exactly as it was spoken. Therefore points go toward both your listening and writing scores. This is in comparison to the IELTS in which all of your written score comes from the two essays that you write. My thinking was that some of these simpler tasks would boost my writing score--if indeed I am truly struggling in this area. I studied for each of these strange categories of questions using YouTube and a Pearson practice test book from the library. The YouTube channel by E2Learning was really helpful in this regard.
In the end, I did pass my PTE test with flying colors (90's across the board), and have now added 10 extra (20 total) points to my Expression of Interest for immigration. I believe the studying and YouTube made a big difference, especially for the PTE, which has a very unusual format.
**Tests accepted as of 2018: International English Language Testing System (IELTS), Occupational English Test (OET), Test of English as a Foreign Language internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT), Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic, and Cambridge English: Advanced.