No — with one exception, your health profession does not change the English score you need for registration in Australia. All 15 National Boards accept the same five tests and, since 23 April 2026, the same minimum scores: IELTS Academic 7.0 overall, OET 350 / 360 / 350 / 360, PTE Academic 63 overall with 76 in Speaking, TOEFL iBT 91 overall, and Cambridge C1 Advanced 178 overall. The single exception is the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board, which does not use test scores at all.
Ahpra (the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) states it plainly on its accepted-tests page:
“All National Boards (except the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board of Australia) accept the same English tests and require the same minimum scores.”
— Ahpra, Accepted English language tests
What does change by profession is which document you read, which extra routes exist, and whether OET has built a version of the test for your job. Those three things are what this page sets out, board by board.
Which English standard applies to your profession
Thirteen of the 15 National Boards share one document, the Ahpra Registration standard: English language skills (in effect 18 March 2025). Nursing and midwifery has its own copy of that standard with the same scores. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practice has a genuinely different standard.
| National Board | Which English standard applies | Test scores in the table below? |
|---|---|---|
| Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board | Its own standard, approved 30 June 2019, in effect 1 December 2019 | No — no test scores |
| Nursing and Midwifery Board | Its own copy: Registration standard: English language skills (2025), effect 18 March 2025 | Yes — same scores |
| Medical Board | Shared Ahpra standard, plus two profession-specific exams (NZREX, PLAB) | Yes |
| Chinese Medicine Board | Shared Ahpra standard | Yes |
| Chiropractic Board | Shared Ahpra standard | Yes |
| Dental Board | Shared Ahpra standard | Yes |
| Medical Radiation Practice Board | Shared Ahpra standard | Yes |
| Occupational Therapy Board | Shared Ahpra standard | Yes |
| Optometry Board | Shared Ahpra standard | Yes |
| Osteopathy Board | Shared Ahpra standard | Yes |
| Paramedicine Board | Shared Ahpra standard | Yes |
| Pharmacy Board | Shared Ahpra standard | Yes |
| Physiotherapy Board | Shared Ahpra standard | Yes |
| Podiatry Board | Shared Ahpra standard | Yes |
| Psychology Board | Shared Ahpra standard | Yes |
The minimum scores, from 23 April 2026
These are the scores in Table 2 of the National Boards’ transition arrangements policy. They apply to a test taken on or after 23 April 2026, in every profession except Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practice.
| Test | Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IELTS Academic | 7.0 | 7.0 | 6.5 | 7.0 | 7.0 |
| OET | 350 | 360 | 350 | 360 | n/a |
| PTE Academic | 58 | 59 | 60 | 76 | 63 |
| TOEFL iBT | 22 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 91 |
| Cambridge C1 Advanced | 175 | 179 | 180 | 194 | 178 |
| Cambridge C2 Proficiency | 185 | 185 | 176 | 185 | 185 |
A test taken on or before 22 April 2026 is judged against the older Table 1 instead: Cambridge 185 / 185 / 176 / 185 with 185 overall, IELTS Academic 7.0 with 6.5 in Writing, OET grade B with C+ in Writing, PTE Academic 66 / 66 / 56 / 66 with 66 overall, and TOEFL iBT 24 / 24 / 24 / 23 with 94 overall. We wrote up what moved and why in the 2026 Ahpra score change.
The Boards are explicit that this was a recalibration, not a new bar:
“Importantly, these changes do not change the level of English language proficiency required for registration.”
— Ahpra, Accepted English language tests
Where profession actually does make a difference
1. Doctors have two extra routes
Medicine is the only profession with profession-specific exams that substitute for an English test:
“The Medical Board of Australia will also accept successful completion of the profession specific New Zealand Registration Examination (NZREX) or Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test (PLAB test).”
— Ahpra, Registration standard: English language skills
2. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practice uses no test at all
That Board’s standard asks for qualifications, not band scores. An applicant demonstrates English competency through “the successful completion of an approved program of study, or holding a qualification that is at the level of Certificate IV or higher”, and the Board notes that practitioners in this profession “will only be trained in Australia”. The Board keeps a power to ask for formal testing under section 80 of the National Law if it needs to.
3. OET has not built a version for every profession
OET is written profession by profession: the Writing and Speaking sub-tests use your own workplace scenarios. OET currently offers 12 professional versions — Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Dietetics, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Podiatry, Radiology, Occupational Therapy, Veterinary Science, Optometry and Speech Pathology — and three of those (dietetics, veterinary science, speech pathology) are not professions Ahpra registers at all. The gap runs the other way too, and Ahpra says what to do about it:
“OET has not yet developed a specific test for some professions. An OET test from another registered profession that meets the requirements as set out in the ELS standard will be accepted.”
— Ahpra, Accepted English language tests
| Your Ahpra-regulated profession | OET version? | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine | Yes — Medicine | Sit your own version |
| Nursing and midwifery | Yes — Nursing | Sit your own version |
| Dental | Yes — Dentistry | Sit your own version |
| Pharmacy | Yes — Pharmacy | Sit your own version |
| Physiotherapy | Yes — Physiotherapy | Sit your own version |
| Podiatry | Yes — Podiatry | Sit your own version |
| Occupational therapy | Yes — Occupational Therapy | Sit your own version |
| Optometry | Yes — Optometry | Sit your own version |
| Medical radiation practice | Closest is Radiology | OET lists Radiology, which is not a formal one-to-one match with Australian medical radiation practice — confirm with OET before you book |
| Chinese medicine | No | Use another profession’s OET version, or sit IELTS Academic, PTE Academic, TOEFL iBT or Cambridge instead |
| Chiropractic | No | As above |
| Osteopathy | No | As above |
| Paramedicine | No | As above |
| Psychology | No | As above |
| Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practice | Not applicable | That Board has no test pathway — qualifications are the evidence |
What this means for you
- Do not go looking for “the nurse score” or “the pharmacist score”. There is one set of numbers. If a website quotes you a different figure for your profession, it is either out of date or wrong.
- Check the date of your sitting before you compare anything. 23 April 2026 is the line. A test on 22 April is judged by the old table, a test on 23 April by the new one — and if you are combining two sittings, each result is judged by the table in force on its own day.
- Nurses and midwives: read the NMBA document, not the Ahpra one. The scores are identical, but the pathways diagram, evidence guide and fact sheet are published separately by the Nursing and Midwifery Board.
- Doctors: NZREX or PLAB can replace the English test entirely. No other profession has that option.
- Most applicants never sit a test. The standard has four pathways — combined education, school education, advanced education, and test — and Ahpra calls the combined education pathway and the test pathway “the pathways suitable for most applicants”.
- Registration English and visa English are two separate hurdles with two separate tables. We put them side by side in OET scores for Ahpra and for your visa.
This page sets out what the regulators have published. It is not advice about your own application — check your case with Ahpra or your National Board, and anything visa-related with your own registered migration agent.
Frequently asked questions
Do nurses need a different English score from doctors in Australia?
No. The Nursing and Midwifery Board publishes its own English language skills registration standard, but the accepted tests and the minimum scores are the same ones every other Board uses. Since 23 April 2026 that means IELTS Academic 7.0 overall with no less than 6.5 in Writing, or OET 350 / 360 / 350 / 360, or PTE Academic 63 overall with 76 in Speaking.
Can I use an OET test for a different profession than my own?
Ahpra says yes, where OET has not built a version for your profession: an OET test from another registered profession is accepted if it meets the requirements in the standard. This matters for chiropractors, osteopaths, paramedics, psychologists and Chinese medicine practitioners, who have no OET version of their own.
I already met the English standard for one profession. Do I have to do it again for another?
Generally no. The standard says you do not need to meet it again if you previously met a National Board English language skills standard without conditions and are now applying for registration in another profession in the National Scheme. The standard adds one caveat: if the new profession has a higher minimum test score, the Board may ask for additional evidence.
Can I combine results from two test sittings?
Yes, within limits. In Ahpra’s words: “National Boards will accept test results either from one sitting, or a maximum of two test sittings within a 12-month period.” Both sittings must meet the requirements, the dates must be no more than 12 months apart, and results from different test providers cannot be combined.
My test was before 23 April 2026 — which scores apply to me?
The older Table 1 scores. If your first test was on or before 22 April 2026 and your second on or after 23 April 2026, the first is judged against Table 1 and the second against Table 2.
Which professions does the shared Ahpra standard cover?
Thirteen: Chinese medicine, chiropractic, dental, medical, medical radiation practice, occupational therapy, optometry, osteopathy, paramedicine, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry and psychology. Nursing and midwifery and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health practice have their own documents.
Do I have to re-sit a test every two years to stay registered?
The standard applies to applicants for registration, not to keeping registration. It applies to anyone seeking registration in Australia for the first time, and to some applicants who have not used English as their main language for more than five years — but not to students, and not as a renewal condition.
Preparing for the test you actually need
Green School, an online school in Australia, has been preparing candidates for English exams since 2018 and has worked with more than 3,500 students across all the exams it teaches. For health practitioners that usually means OET or IELTS Academic, and the decision is rarely about the test — it is about which single component is standing between you and the table above. If you are still choosing, start with our comparison of the best English tests in 2026.
Sources
- Ahpra — Accepted English language tests (page reviewed 23/04/2026; checked 29 September 2026)
- Ahpra — Registration standard: English language skills (page reviewed 23/04/2026; checked 29 September 2026)
- Ahpra — English language skills (checked 29 September 2026)
- National Boards — Transition arrangements policy for changes to minimum scores for accepted English tests, April 2026, Tables 1 and 2 (PDF; checked 29 September 2026)
- Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia — English language skills (page reviewed 21/04/2026; checked 29 September 2026)
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board of Australia — English language skills (page reviewed 2/12/2019; checked 29 September 2026)
- Ahpra — National Boards (checked 29 September 2026)
- OET — OET Test, list of 12 professions (checked 29 September 2026)