22Sep 2026
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Entrance exams: what is live
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Entrance Exams
International Exams
International tests are not interchangeable, and the choice is made by the destination rather than the candidate. Universities decide which admissions test they take — GRE or GMAT for graduate programmes, SAT or ACT for undergraduate, LSAT for North American law, UCAT and LNAT for UK medicine and law — and which English test at what score. Visa authorities and professional regulators keep their own lists: Australia refuses at-home tests, the UK names its Secure English Language Tests, Canada’s immigration streams want CLB levels that CELPIP or IELTS General Training give directly, and healthcare regulators quote OET grades.
Read the institution’s admissions page and the visa authority’s page before booking anything, because one score can often serve both if the stricter rule is followed first. Then the visa process — an offer document, a financial case, English in the accepted form, the application and, for the United States, an interview — is its own project with its own calendar.
Entrance exams · checked 19 September 2026
Entrance exams this month, from the official portals
Notifications, application windows, exam dates, answer keys and results as the conducting bodies published them, each with its source and a link to the exam guide.
Decision guide
Match the test to the requirement
- English for admission
- IELTS Academic, TOEFL iBT and PTE Academic are accepted almost everywhere; the Duolingo English Test by 6,500+ institutions for admission but rarely for visas. Compare by format — a face-to-face speaking test, a centre computer, or a home test — and by the score the programme names.
- English for visas and migration
- Australia and the UK publish their own accepted lists; PTE Academic UKVI, IELTS for UKVI and OET are among the UK SELT routes. Canada’s economic immigration wants CLB levels, which CELPIP-General and IELTS General Training report directly; CELPIP-General LS serves citizenship.
- English for healthcare registration
- OET, written for twelve healthcare professions and quoted by the NMC, GMC, AHPRA and US nursing boards in grades, is the alternative to IELTS for nurses, doctors and allied professionals.
- Graduate admission
- GRE for most graduate programmes and many business schools; GMAT for business school. Check each programme’s policy rather than assuming.
- Undergraduate admission
- SAT or ACT for the United States and for universities elsewhere that use them; every US college accepts both and compares them by concordance. Policies may be test-required, test-optional or test-blind.
- Professional schools
- LSAT for law schools in the United States and Canada; UCAT for medicine and dentistry at UK consortium universities and Singapore partners; LNAT for law at nine UK universities and partners including Jindal Global Law School.
English proficiency tests
After the offer
Compare
The tests at a glance
| Test | For | Format | Scale | Results | Valid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IELTS | Admission; UK and Australian visas; Canadian immigration (General Training) | Four papers with a face-to-face speaking test; paper or computer | Bands 0–9 | Days | 2 years |
| PTE Academic | Admission; Australian and NZ visas; UK via the UKVI version | One two-hour computer sitting at a centre | 10–90 | About 2 days | 2 years |
| TOEFL iBT | Admission, mainly North America | Under two hours at a centre or at home | 0–120 | Days | 2 years |
| Duolingo English Test | Admission at 6,500+ institutions | One hour at home, adaptive | 10–160 | 2 days | 2 years |
| CELPIP | Canadian PR and citizenship; Australian visas | Under three hours on computer, one sitting | Levels 1–12 = CLB | 2–4 business days | 2 years |
| OET | Healthcare registration | Four sub-tests; paper, computer or at home | 0–500, grades A–E | From 2 to 13 days by mode | Set by regulator |
| GRE | Graduate and many business schools | Under two hours, section-adaptive | 130–170 per measure | Days | 5 years |
| SAT | Undergraduate | Digital, adaptive, about two hours | 400–1600 | Days | Set by college |
| ACT | Undergraduate | English, math, reading; optional science and writing | 1–36 composite | From 4 business days internationally | Set by college |
| LSAT | US and Canadian law schools | Four 35-minute sections at a centre; essay at home | 120–180 | About 3 weeks | 5 testing years |
| UCAT | UK and partner medicine and dentistry | Just under two hours, four subtests, July–September | 900–2700 plus SJT band | Same day | One cycle |
| LNAT | UK and partner law | 2¼ hours: 42 questions and an essay | Score out of 42 | To universities within days; to candidates in February or August | One cycle |
Before you book
What to settle before paying a test fee
These examinations are booked individually, cost real money and have their own scheduling and score-reporting rules. Most of the avoidable waste in international test preparation happens before any studying starts, in decisions that take an evening to check.
- Which test the programme actually accepts — this is set by the institution and the programme, not by the test provider, and it is not safe to generalise from one department to another within the same university. Read the admissions page for each programme on your list.
- The score validity period — results expire, and a score taken too early can be outside the accepted window by the time you apply. Work backwards from the application deadline rather than forwards from today.
- Whether section minimums apply — several programmes set a minimum on individual sections in addition to an overall requirement, which changes preparation priorities entirely for a candidate who is strong overall and weak in one skill.
- The delivery mode the programme accepts — tests are offered in more than one mode, and acceptance of each is an institutional decision that has changed over time.
- How and when scores are sent — reporting to institutions has its own process and timing, and a valid score that arrives after a deadline is not useful.
The official test site is the only authority on its own rules
Format, section structure, timing, permitted retakes, score reporting and fees are set by the organisation that runs each test and are revised from time to time. Any description of them elsewhere, including here, can be out of date. Check the test’s own current information before booking and again before preparing to a structure.
Preparation
Aptitude tests and proficiency tests need different work
The tests on this page divide into two kinds, and treating them alike is the most common preparation error. One kind measures reasoning under time; the other measures language ability against a described standard.
| Aptitude tests | Proficiency tests | |
|---|---|---|
| What is measured | Reasoning, quantitative ability and reading under strict time. | Listening, reading, writing and speaking against a defined descriptor. |
| What improves a score | Volume of timed practice, and learning which questions to leave. | Building the underlying skill, plus familiarity with the task types and the marking criteria. |
| How long it takes | Months, with progress that plateaus and then moves. | Depends on your starting level far more than on the number of hours. |
| Where candidates lose marks | Time allocation and unfinished sections rather than knowledge. | Productive skills — writing and speaking — which are practised least and marked hardest. |
| Most useful practice | Full timed sections, reviewed by cause of error. | Producing work under the real task conditions and having it assessed against the published criteria. |
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International Exams
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Questions
International Exams — FAQs
Should I take IELTS or TOEFL?
Start from what your target programmes accept rather than from which test suits you, because acceptance is an institutional decision and some programmes name only one. Where both are accepted, the practical differences are in task types and delivery — one is more conversational in its speaking assessment, the other more standardised — so try an official practice section of each and choose the one whose format you handle more comfortably. Neither is generally regarded as easier.
Should I take the GRE or the GMAT?
Again, the programme decides. Many business schools accept both and many graduate departments outside business accept only the GRE, so the answer usually falls out of your programme list rather than from a comparison of the tests. Where you genuinely have a choice, the deciding factor is which paper’s reasoning style you perform better on, which an official practice test answers in an afternoon.
How long should I prepare before booking a date?
Long enough to have sat at least one full official practice test under real conditions, because that result is the only honest input to the decision. Booking first and preparing afterwards is common and it wastes fees when a candidate is further from their target than they assumed. Work backwards from your earliest application deadline, allow room for a retake if the rules permit one, and book once a practice score is within reach of the requirement.
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