Blog
Tips, guides, and insights for English learners.
How Long Each Step of an English Requirement Takes
Thirteen days for a result, sixty for a retake window, twelve months for a reference, nine years for one endorsement. The published timings, in one place.
One OET Grade, Nine Different Passing Scores
Nine bodies accept OET and no two ask for the same thing. Some want letters, some want numbers, and one gives two different numbers for the same letter grade.
The Professions Nobody Warns About an English Test
Orthoptists, hearing aid dispensers, dental technicians and clinical laboratory scientists all face published English requirements, and almost nobody writes about them.
Nine Questions to Ask Before Booking an English Test
The score is the question everybody researches and rarely the one that goes wrong. These nine are the ones that actually waste a fee, drawn from twenty regulators.
Speaking Is the Highest Bar in Four Countries
Read enough published requirements and one pattern survives every change of country, test and profession. Speaking carries the highest number, and rarely the lowest.
Where a Real Person Must Listen to You Speak
One regulator refuses any test whose speaking section is computer marked. Others require two examiners, or a second independent rating. Here is who insists on a human.
Where the Real Rule Hides on a Regulator's Page
Ten places the decisive sentence turned up while reading twenty English requirements, and none of them is where the score is. A method rather than a fact.
A Degree Taught in English Needs an Ecctis Code
You can skip the UK visa English test with a degree taught in English. If a UK institution did not award it, a third party has to assess it and issue a code first.
Expired Test Scores That Might Still Count
Two years is treated as a wall almost everywhere. Two regulators say otherwise, and one of them asks you to send the expired certificate in anyway.
One French Route Asks B1 Where the Others Ask C1
Ontario's teaching regulator accepts four French qualifications. Three require C1 and one requires B1, and the two diplomas never expire while the two tests do.