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Using PTE Academic
at your institution
For degree-level study and above
Contents
About Pearson
Welcome to Pearson. We have a simple
mission: to help people make more of their
lives through learning.
We are the world’s leading learning
company, with 40,000 employees in more
than 80 countries helping people of all ages
to make measurable progress in their lives.
We provide a range of education products
and services to institutions, governments
and direct to individual learners, that help
people everywhere aim higher and fulfil
their true potential.
Pearson has a long history of developing
and delivering secure, robust, tests. Each
year more than 14 million people around
the world take an exam with Pearson
and our security, accuracy or relevant is
paramount.
Our commitment to learners requires a
holistic approach to education. It begins by
using research to understand what sort of
learning works best, it continues by bringing
together people and organisations to
develop ideas, and it comes back round by
measuring the outcomes of our products.
Message from Emma
Stubbs, Senior Vice
President, Pearson
Language Testing
3
Changes to the UK
SELT list, April
6th 2015
4
Security
5
Scoring
7
Changes to the UK SELT list,
April 6th 2015
In the UK, any approved Higher
Education Institution (HEI) can use PTE
Academic to assess a student’s level of
English as part of a Tier 4 application
(studying at degree level and above).
Provided the applicant achieves B2 level
English, PTE Academic can be used as
part of a visa application.
Key Dates:PTE Academic tests
taken on or before April 5th
2015 can be used for UK visa
applications until 5th November
2015.
Any PTE Academic tests taken
after April 6th 2015 will not be
accepted as part of the UK visa
application process.
In order to accept PTE Academic scores
as part of an application for degree
level study or above, the Home Office
stipulate that students must achieve B2
Level English.
To meet this requirement, test takers
must achieve an overall score of 51with
minimum scores in each component of:
Reading: 51
Listening: 51
Writing: 51
Speaking: 51
We understand that choosing which
English language test to use to vouch
for students is a critical part of the
admissions process.
In this document, we will show:
• how PTE Academic’s security
measures will continue to help
you minimise fraud;
• how PTE Academic’s accurate,
relevant testing and scoring will
deliver results you can trust
• scoring system works; and
why you can trust in the
authenticity and accuracy of
PTE Academic scores.
Message from Emma Stubbs,
Senior Vice President,
Pearson Language Testing
As you may be aware, in late 2014 the UK Home Office invited providers to
tender for Secure English Language Test (SELT) licenses to provide and deliver
English tests for visa applications.
As a global education company, Pearson regularly receives and assesses Requests
for Proposals (RFPs) for government contracts. In this instance, after careful
consideration, Pearson took the decision that there were a small number of
conditions which we were unable to agree to.
Consequently, the Home Office did not assess our application and Pearson Test of
English Academic (PTE Academic) will not be accepted as a UK Home Office SELT
from 6th April 2015. Tests taken on or before 5th April 2015 will continue to be
accepted by the UK Home Office until 5th November 2015.
We are very disappointed that we will not be able to continue to offer PTE
Academic as a UK SELT as we believe that the unrivalled security, speed and
convenience of PTE Academic delivers an outstanding service to visa applicants
and score users.
Security
You may have heard about new security
measures being put in place by SELT
providers. PTE Academic has always put
security at the heart of our approach and
many changes that will be implemented
by other providers simply replicate
measures that PTE Academic has employed
throughout its history.
From registration through to the final
delivery of results, PTE Academic is
the only fully computerised, paperless,
SUBMITTING
SCORES
• Once a score has been
released, it is only
accessible to the test
taker by logging in via
our secure online portal.
We do not issue paper
certificates, in order to
minimise tampering
• Students assign their
score to institutions
academic English language test in the
world. Paperless testing enhances test
security by eliminating the possibility of
exam papers being copied, stolen,
leaked or lost and prevents certificates
being forged.
The simplest way to understand our
security measures is to look at the PTE
Academic testing journey as a whole, from
its inception through to the final delivery of
every score.
To deliver secure, computer-based exams, every centre
must be fitted with:
• Approved Computer workstations.
• One CCTV camera for every two candidates
• No more than 15 test takers for each administrator;
PTE Academic has the lowest invigilator ratio of all
the major academic English tests.
By using consistent
security measures, PTE
Academic guarantees
an equally high level
of security for all
test results, no
matter where the
test is taken.
SCORING
DURING THE TEST
AT CHECK IN
• Once a PTE Academic test has been taken, the
test results file and biometric data are packaged
for upload to the Pearson hub. No data remains
in the test centre. This ensures minimal human
interference and offers an unbiased score
• Candidates enter the test room and
are assigned their computer by the
administrator
When candidates check-in to take PTE
Academic, they must:
• scan their palms using our palm-vein
scanner
• During this process, our system checks for any
anomalies which may indicate test fraud
• If no anomalies are found, the test is scored and
returned to the test taker. If anything unusual
is found, the score will be placed on hold for
investigation.
SECURE ONLINE VERIFICATION
Users of the PTE Academic
Results Service access score
reports via a secure verification
website. In order to avoid the
potential for forgery, only PTE
Academic scores stored on
this site are guaranteed to be
authentic. Score Report
website users can view:
AT THE TEST CENTRE
SRW users can access:
• Voice sample
• Test taker photograph
• Overall Score with
a breakdown of
communicative skills
scores and enabling
skills scores
• Candidates record a spoken introduction,
which is made available to institutions for
review
• Every candidate sees a different test: no two
test takers will be taking the same test at the
same time in the same test centre. This is
possible due to our randomised test forms.
• All administrator actions, such as starting/
stopping exams, are logged and reported
ABOUT RANDOMISED TEST
FORMS:
‘PTE Academic is built from a large pool
of content and, through a process of
using the best possible assembly, each
test ends up with an almost identical
level of difficult even it contains
different content from the next.
• present approved photo identification
• sign their name using our digital technology
• have a high-quality, digital photograph taken
• ensure all details are checked by the
administrator
• leave all of their possessions in a secure
locker
ABOUT PALM-VEIN SCANNING:
PTE Academic’s palm-vein scanner
captures and recognises the unique
patterns in a test taker’s palm veins,
which is virtually impossible to forge.
PTE Academic is the only test to offer
this type of biometric assessment as an
automated security feature.
Scoring
In order to accept PTE Academic scores
as part of an application for degree
level study or above, the Home Office
stipulate that students must achieve B2
Level English.
To meet this requirement, test takers
must achieve an overall score of 51with
minimum scores in each component of:
Reading: 51
Listening: 51
Writing: 51
Speaking: 51
The capabilities of learners at Level
B2 have been summarised in the
CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001,
Table 1, p. 24) as follows:
RELEVANT:
ACCURATE:
• Can understand the main
ideas of complex text on both
concrete and abstract topics,
including technical discussions in
his/her field of specialisation.
PTE Academic uses genuine academic
content so students will be better prepared
to use their English at your institution.
We do this;
We believe that PTE Academic is the most accurate test
of academic English in the world. We demonstrate the
accuracy of our tests through a lower standard error of
measurement and the precision of our scores.
• Can interact with a degree of
fluency and spontaneity that
makes regular interaction with
native speakers quite possible
without strain for either party.
• Can produce clear, detailed text
on a wide range of subjects and
explain a viewpoint on a topical
issue giving the advantages and
Independent disadvantages of
various options.
• through the use of genuine academic test
content;
• by setting academically relevant tasks;
• by measuring skills in an integrated way.
For example, assessing the ability to
listen to a lecture and then provide an
oral summary.
• the use of international and non-native
English accents, making PTE Academic a
more appropriate test for modern global
universities of today
We also use an automated scoring system, which helps
improve accuracy and also remove any bias on the part
of the assessor. We now find that the standard error
measurement between our system and a human rater is
less than between one human rater to another.
Our automated
scoring system is
based on complex
algorithms that
were trained by
testing a data
sample of over
10,000 students
with over 120
native languages.