Every video or article on the Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic) will make you think that cracking this exam is a piece of cake. There is hardly an exam that is hated as much as IELTS. So when an alternative comes along which is somewhat different people like it immediately. For last couple of years it was all about how easy PTE was compared to IELTS and so on. But slowly people have begun to realize that you can’t just one fine day get up and go take PTE exam. It is as difficult or easy as IELTS without proper preparation, though if you have access to a real PTE Exam questions bank things can become much easier.

I am not going to lie to you about your chances in PTE Academic.  I will tell you the things the others might not. Here we go.

1. PTE is not for you if you are not used to a computer. If you are not comfortable writing on a keyboard or speaking into a microphone, you will have a bit of a learning curve. I am not saying you can’t overcome the problem but it will not be a cakewalk. You will first have to put in good amount of effort becoming comfortable with using a computer for testing purpose.

2. There are several new types of questions to learn and practice. IELTS is an old school exam which has the same type of questions that come in school or university exams. Anyone who has seen the fill in the blanks or multiple choice questions will feel comfortable dealing with the questions in IELTS. But not so much in PTE. In PTE there are many new innovative kind of questions. Even if you are good in English in general but are not familiar with these questions you will not be able to score well. So that means you must spend time becoming well versed with the PTE question types and exam format.

3. The scoring in PTE depends upon a computer. So certainly there is no human bias, but that doesn’t mean that the luck plays no role at all. Pearson constantly tweaks, improves and modifies its PTE Academic algorithm. Sometimes because of that your perfect response might not receive a perfect score. Luck has a role to play in PTE as much as in IELTS.

But all said and done I would enthusiastically recommend you to go ahead and attempt PTE. IELTS is riddled with human bias and old exam methods. PTE is the new wave and a sign of hope for many.

Once again though I would advise you to not wait too long. The PTE landscape is fluent and changing every day. The exam has been accused of inaccuracies by sections of media. United Kingdom stopped using PTE altogether. So, who knows how long will Australia continue accepting PTE Academic?

This might just be a small window of opportunity for those looking for an easy way to fulfil their visa conditions.