MET for Australian Visas: The Score Table Changes Shape

Australia's Department of Home Affairs recognises the Michigan English Test for visa purposes, and Michigan publishes the exact scores accepted at each English level.

Put those four rows in one table and the interesting thing is not any single number. The table changes shape as you climb. Writing carries the lowest target at the bottom level and the highest target at the top.

SpeakShark is free to work on the section that never gets easier to fake, three AI conversation sessions a day with no card.

In this guide: the published table · what moves fastest · the shape flip · conditions · one section retake · what to do · limits · method · FAQ

Key takeaways

Australia accepts MET at four English levels, and Michigan publishes the section scores for each.
From Vocational to Proficient, writing climbs 29 points while listening climbs 12.
Writing is the lowest required section score at Vocational and the highest at Proficient.
Only a 4-skill MET, at an approved test center, taken on or after 7 August 2025 counts.
Michigan states Home Affairs accepts MET including a single section retake.

The published score table

These are the figures Michigan Language Assessment publishes on its MET for Australia page.

English level	Listening	Reading	Writing	Speaking
Functional	38 overall	38 overall	38 overall	38 overall
Vocational	49	47	45	38
Competent	56	55	57	48
Proficient	61	63	74	59

Functional is different in kind from the other three. It is stated as a single overall score of 38 rather than four section minimums, so there is no section you can fail on its own at that level.

The other three are all section minimums. You do not average them. Missing one target means missing the level, no matter how far above the others you land.

Which level you need is decided by your visa, not by the test. The Department of Home Affairs is the authority on that, and the levels above are the English bands its system uses.

Writing climbs more than twice as fast as listening

Take the three levels that publish section minimums and measure the climb from the bottom to the top of them.

Listening: 49 to 61, plus 12.
Reading: 47 to 63, plus 16.
Speaking: 38 to 59, plus 21.
Writing: 45 to 74, plus 29.

Writing rises by 29 points across the same span in which listening rises by 12. It escalates more than twice as steeply as the gentlest section.

That is a statement about the targets, and it holds regardless of how the sections are scaled internally, because we are comparing each section against itself at two different levels rather than against another section.

The hardest section changes as you go up

Now read each row across, and watch which section carries the biggest number.

At Vocational, the highest requirement is listening at 49, and writing is the lowest of the four at 45.
At Competent, writing has moved to the top at 57, with listening just behind at 56.
At Proficient, writing is 74 while the next highest, reading, is 63. An eleven point gap has opened.

Writing goes from the easiest box to tick to the hardest, and it does so without anybody announcing it. A candidate who prepared for Vocational, cleared it comfortably, and then came back a year later for Proficient would find the section that gave them least trouble is now the one standing in the way.

Speaking sits at the bottom of every row that lists sections. We are deliberately not drawing the obvious conclusion from that, and the reason is in what we could not verify.

Three conditions that void a result

Michigan attaches three conditions to the entire table, and each one can invalidate an otherwise good score.

It must be a 4-skill MET. Michigan notes a shorter 2-skill version exists, covering listening and reading only. It does not carry a speaking or writing score, so it cannot satisfy any of the section minimums above.
It must be taken at an approved test center. MET can be taken remotely in some countries, and the Australian wording specifies an approved test center.
It must be taken on or after 7 August 2025. An older MET does not qualify however good the numbers are.

That third condition is a date gate rather than a difficulty gate, and it is the kind of detail that costs somebody a visa application rather than a mark.

You can retake a single section

Michigan states that Home Affairs accepts MET "including a single section retake", and separately describes a retake policy that lets a test taker redo just one section.

Set that against the structure above and it changes the arithmetic of a near miss. Under a whole exam retake, missing the writing target by two points means paying for and sitting all 155 minutes again, and putting three already sufficient scores back at risk. Under a single section retake, you re-sit writing.

It also changes how you should allocate preparation. When one weak section can be fixed on its own afterwards, the expensive mistake is not a weak section, it is a weak section you did not see coming.

We would still confirm the current position directly with the Department of Home Affairs before relying on it. Acceptance rules belong to the visa authority, and a test provider describing them accurately today is not the same as a guarantee they hold on the day you apply.

What this means for your preparation

MET runs 155 minutes: writing 45, listening 35, reading 65, speaking 10. Speaking is the shortest section on the paper and the one candidates most often leave until last.

Find out your required level first. The gap between Vocational and Proficient writing is 29 points, so preparing for the wrong one wastes months.
Aim above the target, not at it. Section minimums with no averaging mean there is no credit for overshooting elsewhere.
Treat writing as the escalating section. It moves fastest as levels rise.
Do not neglect the 10 minute section. It is short, it is scored by certified raters rather than automatically, and at Proficient it still asks for 59.

For the tasks and timing inside that speaking section, see MET speaking tasks and timing. For how Michigan's other exams handle speaking very differently, see ECCE against ECPE. If you are weighing MET against other options, Linguaskill and Aptis are the closest comparisons we have written up, and Cambridge speaking criteria by level shows what examiners actually reward when a human is doing the marking.

If you are a nurse rather than a general skilled applicant, the requirements are different again and come from state boards rather than an immigration department. Speaking practice for nurses covers the clinical vocabulary side, and English in Italian public competitions is a worked example of why the notice or the board, rather than the law, decides your target.

Speaking practice is a conversation problem rather than a study problem, which is why role play scenarios and a daily speaking partner tend to move it faster than a workbook. Test your speaking level free before you book anything, and CEFR levels for speaking explains the scale the result maps onto.

What we could not verify

We are not claiming speaking is the easiest section. Speaking carries the lowest number in every row that lists sections, and it would be easy to write that up as "speaking is the cheapest target". We searched Michigan's MET and preparation pages for any statement that the four sections share one scale and found none. Without that, a lower number is not evidence of an easier task, and the honest reading is that these are simply the targets.

We did not verify the table against the Department of Home Affairs. Every figure here comes from Michigan Language Assessment. The visa authority is the authority on visa requirements, and its site is the place to confirm both the level your subclass needs and the current acceptance position.

We did not confirm the MET score range. Neither page we read publishes the maximum score, so we cannot tell you how far 74 sits from the ceiling.

We did not verify which visa subclasses map to which level. Functional, Vocational, Competent and Proficient are Australian English bands used across several subclasses, and matching one to your application is a job for the Home Affairs site.

The single section retake policy is described but not detailed here. Michigan points to its test policies and procedures for the full rules, including any limits on how often it applies.

How we researched this guide

Every number comes from Michigan Language Assessment's own MET for Australia page and its main MET page, opened in a browser and read on screen.

The finding came from arithmetic on the published table rather than from anything the page says. Michigan presents four levels as four separate blocks of requirements. It does not compare them, and it does not point out that writing escalates faster than everything else or that the top requirement moves from listening to writing. Those only appear when the rows sit in one table and you read down each column.

We checked the MET section timings sum to the published total before quoting them, because timings that do not reconcile usually mean a component is missing from the page: 45 plus 35 plus 65 plus 10 is 155, which matches exactly.

A verification note on the links below. Michigan's server refuses ordinary automated requests to these pages, returning 403 rather than the page, while serving them normally in a browser. Everything here was read in a real browser session. We also ran a control before trusting any bulk extraction from the site, by checking that a page we had already read on screen produced the same facts when pulled programmatically. It did, on all five facts we tested.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, and it suits MET for a structural reason. MET speaking is 10 minutes of onscreen tasks with no examiner in the room, so the useful preparation is short, frequent and spoken aloud rather than long and rehearsed with a tutor.

You talk, the AI answers what you actually said, and you get speaking feedback while the conversation is still running. The free tier gives basic feedback; the detailed pronunciation and grammar breakdown is on Premium.

Being straight about the limits: a free session runs five minutes with four turns. That is daily practice rather than a timed simulation of the section, and we are a practice tool rather than a route to a visa.

Start free with three sessions a day and no card. Paid sessions run ten minutes with unlimited turns. Limits are on the pricing page, and how it works walks through a session. Sign up here if you would rather practise speaking than read about it.

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

Site: speakshark.com
Support: speaksharksupport@gmail.com
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Sources

Michigan Language Assessment, MET for Australia: the full score table for Functional, Vocational, Competent and Proficient, the 4-skill and approved test center conditions, the 7 August 2025 date, the single section retake statement and the five day results figure
Michigan Language Assessment, MET: the 155 minute total and the per section timings, the CEFR A2 to C1 range, the digital on demand format, the existence of a 2-skill version, and the statement that certified raters grade speaking and writing while other sections are scored automatically
Michigan Language Assessment, MET for Work: the restatement of the Australian conditions and the retake one section wording
Australian Department of Home Affairs: the authority on which English level each visa subclass requires and on current test acceptance
Council of Europe, CEFR Table 1, common reference levels global scale: the level scale MET reports against

FAQ

Does Australia accept the Michigan English Test for visas?

Yes. Michigan Language Assessment states that Australia's Department of Home Affairs recognises MET for visa purposes, and publishes the score levels accepted. There are conditions attached: the result must come from a 4-skill MET, taken at an approved test center, on or after 7 August 2025. A 2-skill MET does not qualify, and neither does a test taken before that date.

What MET score do I need for an Australian visa?

It depends which English level your visa requires. Michigan publishes four: Functional needs 38 overall. Vocational needs 49 listening, 47 reading, 45 writing and 38 speaking. Competent needs 56 listening, 55 reading, 57 writing and 48 speaking. Proficient needs 61 listening, 63 reading, 74 writing and 59 speaking. Check which level your own visa subclass requires with the Department of Home Affairs.

Which MET section has the highest requirement for Australian visas?

It changes with the level, which is the part most candidates miss. At Vocational the highest required number is listening at 49 and writing is the lowest at 45. At Proficient the highest is writing at 74 and listening has fallen to 61. So the section carrying the toughest target flips from listening to writing as you move up the scale.

Can I retake just one section of MET for an Australian visa?

Michigan states that Australia's Department of Home Affairs accepts MET including a single section retake. That matters financially and practically, because a candidate who meets three targets and misses one does not have to re-sit the whole exam. Confirm the current position with the Department of Home Affairs before relying on it, since acceptance policies are set by them and not by the test provider.

Is a lower MET score requirement for speaking proof that speaking is easier?

No, and we are careful not to claim that. Michigan does not publish a statement that the four section scores sit on one shared difficulty scale, so a lower number for one section is not evidence that the section is easier to pass. What the table does tell you reliably is the target you must hit in each section, which is what you plan your preparation around.

How long does MET take and how fast are results?

MET runs 155 minutes in total: writing 45 minutes, listening 35, reading 65 and speaking 10. It is a digital test available on demand rather than on fixed dates, at test centers and remotely in some countries. Michigan states results are typically available within five days and can be shared with as many organisations as you like at no extra charge.