Is PTE Accepted by the NMC? The Short Answer Is No

If you are asking whether you can use a PTE result to register as a nurse or midwife in the UK, the answer is no.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council accepts two English language tests: IELTS Academic and the Occupational English Test. PTE is not on the list, and the NMC is unusually direct about why there is no point waiting for it to appear.

If you are still choosing a test, SpeakShark is free for daily speaking practice with three AI conversation sessions a day and no card, each capped at five minutes and four turns.

In this guide: the answer in the NMC's words · the two tests it does accept · why bodies disagree · combining two sittings · the date trap · what to practise · what we could not verify · how we researched this · FAQ

Key takeaways

The NMC accepts IELTS Academic and OET. PTE is not accepted for registration.
The NMC's own wording is that it is not looking to accept any other tests at the moment, and that it will update its website if that changes.
IELTS Academic needs 7 listening, 7 reading, 6.5 writing, 7 speaking. OET needs B in listening, reading and speaking, and C+ in writing.
You may combine two sittings of the same test type, taken within 12 months of each other, both under two years old when the NMC assesses your complete application.
The clock runs on your test date, not your certificate date, and it stops when the NMC assesses your application, not when you submit it.

The answer in the NMC's own words

Most pages that answer this question just list the accepted tests and leave you to infer the rest. The NMC goes further, and the sentence it adds is the one worth reading:

We're not looking to accept any other tests at the moment. We will update this section of our website if there are any changes to this position.

That is not a gap in the list. It is a stated position, with a commitment to publish any change in the same place.

The practical consequence is worth being blunt about. There is no PTE score high enough to work, no supporting letter that changes it, and no benefit in sitting PTE first to see how you do. If your plan runs through NMC registration, a PTE booking is money spent on the wrong exam.

The two tests the NMC does accept

The NMC requires you to reach its minimum in each of the four domains. An excellent overall score with one domain below the line is a fail for this purpose.

Test	Listening	Reading	Writing	Speaking
IELTS Academic	7	7	6.5	7
OET	B (350 or above)	B (350 or above)	C+ (300 or above)	B (350 or above)

Two details in that table decide a lot of applications.

Writing sits lower than the rest, in both tests. IELTS Academic asks 6.5 for writing against 7 elsewhere, and OET asks C+ against B. That is the NMC acknowledging where candidates lose marks, and it is the reason so many nurses pass three domains and stall on one.

It must be IELTS Academic, not General Training. Those are different papers with different reading and writing sections, and the wrong one is not a near miss, it is unusable evidence. Our guide to IELTS UKVI, Academic and General Training covers how easily people book the wrong version.

If you are weighing the two accepted options, OET is written around healthcare tasks and IELTS Academic is not. We cover what OET actually asks in OET Speaking for nurses, the OET speaking criteria and OET role play cards.

Why one UK body accepts PTE and another does not

This is the part that catches people out, and it is not anyone being careless.

A visa, a university place and a professional registration are three separate decisions made by three separate organisations, each publishing its own approved list. The Home Office decides what proves English for immigration. A university decides what proves English for a course. The NMC decides what proves English for the register.

They overlap, but they are not the same list, and none of them is bound by the others. A nurse can hold a test result that satisfied a visa and still be told it does not satisfy the regulator, because the two bodies never agreed to use one list.

The habit that protects you is small: before booking any English test, open the page belonging to the specific process you are in, not a general article about tests in that country. Our guides to which English test a UK visa needs, the B1 speaking test for UK settlement and the A1 test for a spouse visa each cover a different Home Office route, and none of them governs NMC registration.

Combining scores across two sittings

If you miss one domain, you do not necessarily have to pass everything again. The NMC allows you to combine across two sittings, under conditions it sets out precisely:

Combine tests of the same type. Two IELTS results or two OET results. You cannot combine an IELTS test with an OET test.
Sit the two tests within 12 months of each other.
Complete both no more than two years before the date the NMC assesses your complete application.
Be tested in all four domains at the same time at each sitting. You cannot retake individual domains separately.
Gain a required pass score in each of the four domains across the two sittings.

The NMC also publishes a test combining calculator on its own site, which is the right tool for checking a specific pair of results rather than any table on a blog, including this one.

One thing that surprises people: the rule says you must meet the required minimum scores across all domains in both sittings, so a very weak second sitting does not simply get ignored. Read the NMC page against your own two score reports before assuming a combination works.

The date trap that costs people a retake

Two sentences on the NMC page quietly decide whether a valid result is still valid.

The clock runs on your test date, not your certificate date. The NMC says this explicitly: your test dates, not certificate dates, must be within 12 months of each other. Certificates arrive days or weeks after the exam, so counting from the certificate flatters your timeline by exactly the amount that gets people caught.

The clock stops when the NMC assesses your application, not when you submit it. Both tests must be no more than two years old at the point the NMC reviews a complete application. Missing documents that delay completeness therefore eat into the same two years.

Put together, a result that looks comfortably inside the window on the day you upload it can be outside the window on the day it is read. If your certificate is approaching the edge, the safe reading is the strict one.

This is the same shape as the trap in the English test for Canada immigration, where validity is checked at two separate moments rather than one.

What to actually practise

Both accepted tests score speaking as its own domain, and it is the one you cannot improve by reading.

Speak every day, unscripted. Both formats measure retrieval under pressure. Free methods to raise fluency and a 30 day plan to improve speaking cover the habit.
Rehearse the healthcare situations if you are taking OET: breaking bad news, warm up questions and speaking practice for nurses.
Protect writing, because it is the lower bar and still the common fail. A lower required score is not an easier score when it is the domain you neglect.
Fix clarity rather than accent. Six pronunciation fixes in fourteen days and reducing mother tongue influence target what blocks understanding.
Get a baseline before booking. Test your English speaking level free, and read why your English speaking is not improving if study alone has not moved it.
Build the habit before the date is set, because the two year window starts running the moment you sit. Start a free session.

What we could not verify

We could not find a published reason for excluding PTE. The NMC states its position but does not explain it on the accepted tests page. We are not going to guess at one.

We are not reproducing the combining calculator's logic. The NMC hosts a calculator for exactly this, and a table on a blog cannot see your two score reports.

We have not checked every other UK healthcare regulator. This post covers the NMC. The General Medical Council and other regulators publish their own lists, and we did not verify them here.

We are not publishing test fees or booking lead times, which vary by country and change without notice.

How we researched this guide

The accepted tests, the per domain minimum scores, the combining conditions, the two year validity and the test date rule all come from the NMC's accepted English language tests page, read directly.

For the PTE question we did not rely on the absence of a mention. We searched the page's raw HTML for both "PTE" and "Pearson" and found zero occurrences, then confirmed the NMC's positive statement that it is not looking to accept other tests. A negative claim about a page deserves more than one look, because a page that renders content after loading can make a missing thing look absent when it is merely late.

The NMC page carried a last updated date of 8 March 2024 when we read it. Regulator rules change, and the NMC has committed to publishing changes in that same section, so check the page itself before you book.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, and it is our pick for NMC preparation because of the domain problem above. You do not need a higher average, you need the one domain that is short to come up, and speaking is the domain that only improves by speaking. You talk, the AI answers what you actually said, and you get speaking feedback while the conversation is still going. The free tier gives basic feedback; the detailed pronunciation and grammar breakdown is on Premium.

Start free with three sessions a day and no card, each free session capped at five minutes and four turns. Paid sessions run ten minutes with unlimited turns. Limits are on the pricing page, and how it works walks through a full session.

We are a speaking improvement tool. We are not an exam preparation provider, not a regulator, and we are not affiliated with the NMC, Cambridge, Pearson, the IELTS partners, OET or any exam board. For test format, booking and official practice material, go to the exam body directly, and for what registration requires, read nmc.org.uk. Use SpeakShark to make your spoken English stronger, and use official material to learn the test.

Site: speakshark.com
Support: speaksharksupport@gmail.com
Free tier: 3 AI conversation sessions per day, no card

Sources

NMC, accepted English language tests: the two accepted tests, the statement that no others are being considered, the per domain minimum scores, the combining conditions and the two year validity rule
NMC, guidance on registration language requirements: the underlying guidance document behind the accepted tests page
Home Office, approved secure English language tests: the separate visa list, cited to show that a different UK body publishes a different set of accepted tests

FAQ

Is PTE accepted by the NMC?

No. The Nursing and Midwifery Council accepts two English language tests for registration, IELTS Academic and the Occupational English Test, and PTE is not one of them. The NMC states its position plainly on its accepted tests page: we're not looking to accept any other tests at the moment. A PTE Academic result cannot be used as your English evidence for NMC registration, however high the score, so check this before you book rather than after.

Which English tests does the NMC accept?

Two. IELTS Academic and the Occupational English Test, usually called OET. The NMC requires you to reach its minimum score in each of the four domains of reading, writing, listening and speaking. For IELTS Academic that is 7 in listening, 7 in reading, 6.5 in writing and 7 in speaking. For OET it is grade B, meaning 350 or above, in listening, reading and speaking, and grade C+, meaning 300 or above, in writing.

Why does the NMC not accept PTE when other bodies do?

The NMC has not published a reason on its accepted tests page. It states only that it is not looking to accept any other tests at the moment and that it will update that section of its website if the position changes. Other UK bodies make their own decisions, so a test accepted by the Home Office for a visa or by a university for a course is not automatically accepted by a professional regulator. Each organisation publishes its own list.

Can I combine two test results for the NMC?

Yes, within strict limits. You must combine tests of the same type, so two IELTS results or two OET results, never one of each. You must sit the two tests within 12 months of each other, and both must be no more than two years old when the NMC assesses your complete application. You must be tested in all four domains at each sitting, and you must reach a required pass score in each of the four domains across the two sittings.

How long is an NMC English test result valid?

Two years. The NMC measures that window to the date it assesses your complete application, not to the date you submit it or the date on your certificate. It also states that the relevant date is your test date rather than your certificate date. That distinction matters because certificates are issued days or weeks after the test, and a nurse who counts from the wrong date can find a result has aged out mid application.

Does the NMC accept PTE for the OSCE or for a visa?

Those are separate processes with separate rules. The NMC's accepted tests page governs the English evidence for registration only. Visa English requirements are set by the Home Office and published on gov.uk, and they use a different approved list. Do not assume that clearing one clears the other, and read the page that belongs to the process you are actually in.