English test scores for doctors: what the GMC, Ireland's Medical Council and Australia's Medical Board accept

These are the minimums for a doctor who proves English with a test. Each regulator has other routes too, such as a medical degree taught in English in a listed country.

The GMC accepts IELTS Academic (including UKVI) taken in person, IELTS Online, and the IELTS One Skill Retake, but not the IELTS Indicator. It wants 7.0 in each skill and 7.5 overall, in the same test and in your most recent sitting. Our reading of that last clause: if you sit again and score lower, the earlier, better result no longer counts.

If you miss in one section, the GMC accepts a One Skill Retake pass in that section, once, within 60 days of the full test, and only if the full test was IELTS on computer at a centre that offers it.

For OET, the GMC accepts paper, computer and OET@Home, Medicine version only, with grade B in all four skills, in the same test and your most recent sitting. Choose the General Medical Council as recognising organisation in your OET account so it can verify the result.

Certificates are valid for two years: on the day of PLAB 1 if you are sitting PLAB, or when the GMC approves your registration. If you passed PLAB 2 less than three months before applying and your certificate is less than three years old, the GMC may extend its validity. It will not on the sponsorship route.

For applications received on or after 1 March 2025, the Medical Council of Ireland accepts IELTS Academic with 7.0 overall and 6.5 in each module, OET Medicine with grade B in each module, and a Cambridge C1 Advanced pass at C1 or C2. Each must be achieved in a single sitting and dated within two years, of both your application and your registration.

It does not accept IELTS Online, the IELTS Indicator or OET@Home. Other tests may be submitted as equivalent, but it keeps no list of them and does not guarantee acceptance.

Some applicants do not have to prove English at all for now: graduates of Irish, EU/EEA, UK, Australian, New Zealand and US medical schools, EU citizens, and applicants for specialist, visiting EEA or internship registration. The Council says this will likely change.

If your certificate expires before you can be registered, you need not resit it if you can provide references covering at least three months of recent full-time study or work in a country where English is the predominant language.

Ahpra states that all National Boards except the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board accept the same tests and the same minimum scores. For doctors, the Medical Board of Australia also accepts a pass in PLAB or NZREX.

From 23 April 2026 the minimums changed for tests taken from that date: OET is now 350 listening, 360 reading, 350 writing, 360 speaking; PTE Academic 63 overall with 58, 59, 60 and 76; TOEFL iBT 91 with 22, 22, 23 and 24. IELTS stays at 7 overall, 7 in listening, reading and speaking, and 6.5 in writing. Two sittings within 12 months may be combined, with floors, and the IELTS One Skill Retake is accepted. The full tables are in our nurses' guide, which uses the same Ahpra rules.

This comparison is ours. An IELTS of 7.0 overall with 6.5 in writing meets Ireland and Australia but not the GMC, which needs 7.5 overall and 7.0 in writing. OET Medicine at B in every skill meets the UK and Ireland; for Australia, an OET taken from 23 April 2026 needs 360 in reading and speaking, which is inside grade B but not at its bottom.

Format matters as much as score: IELTS Online and OET@Home count for the GMC but not for Ireland, and Australia accepts neither. If Ireland is on your list, sit at a test centre.

For how the tests score, see IELTS bands, OET scores and the Cambridge English Scale.