Verified against official sources — 1 November 2026

Tests for US University Applications: TOEFL, IELTS, GRE, GMAT, SAT and Duolingo, Explained

NEW Published 1 November 2026

Eight tests, four owners' rulebooks and one decision-maker: the university you are applying to. This guide explains what each test is for, how long its scores live, how scores reach a university, what retaking involves and what you will actually pay — using only what ETS, the IELTS partners, Duolingo, Pearson, GMAC, the College Board, ACT and EducationUSA publish.

SECTION 01Who Decides What You Need: The University, Not the Government

Start with the fact that organises everything else. EducationUSA, the US Department of State's advising network, puts it plainly: there is no national college entrance examination administered by the government that students must pass to gain admission to higher education; instead, different universities and schools establish their own admission requirements, including which third-party standardised test they accept. Admission requirements vary, so the only reliable statement of what you need is the admissions page of each institution — and, for graduate study, of each programme — on your shortlist.

That has three practical consequences. First, a test is only worth booking once a named university has asked for it, in writing, for your intake; advice from agents, forums and last year's applicants is not a requirement. Second, the same test can carry different minimum scores at different universities, and different validity rules: one programme may accept a score up to the owner's limit, another may insist on a more recent one. Third, requirements change between cycles. A programme that required the GRE two years ago may be test-optional now; a university that accepted Duolingo for one intake may not for the next. Everything in this guide about the tests themselves — scales, validity, retakes, fees — comes from the owners and is stable in a way requirements are not. Treat the owners' facts as fixed and the universities' requirements as something to re-check for your exact intake.

One boundary: professional programmes run their own admissions tests — the LSAT for law, the MCAT and DAT for medicine and dentistry, among others EducationUSA lists. Those are outside this guide, which covers the general academic tests most applicants meet.

SECTION 02The English-Proficiency Tests: Proving You Can Study in English

If English is not your native language, EducationUSA notes, US colleges and universities will probably ask you to take an English-language proficiency test before admission. Four tests dominate US applications: TOEFL iBT (ETS), IELTS Academic (the IELTS partners), the Duolingo English Test (Duolingo) and PTE Academic (Pearson). All four test the same four skills — reading, listening, speaking and writing — but they report them on incompatible scales, so a score in one can never be converted into a score in another by you or by an agent; where owners publish comparisons, those are research tools, not exchange rates.

Two features are shared. The first is shelf life: English scores are treated as a snapshot of a changing ability, and all four owners work to roughly a two-year horizon — ETS stops reporting TOEFL scores after two years, a PTE score expires at two years, a Duolingo certificate expires at two years, and the IELTS partners recommend that a result older than two years not be accepted without proof the taker kept their English up. The second is delivery: universities do not accept a score because you show them a PDF or a screenshot. Each owner sends or verifies the result through its own channel — ETS and GMAC send official reports, IELTS results can be verified by the organisation through the IELTS Results Service, Pearson sends through its portal or a score code, and Duolingo sharing happens from your own account while the certificate is valid. Your job is to trigger the official send in time; the university's job is to receive and verify it.

Which of the four should you take? The one your shortlist accepts, in the format you perform best in — a test-centre test with a human speaking examiner (IELTS), a test-centre or at-home computer test (TOEFL, PTE), or a fully online at-home test (Duolingo). Acceptance is the filter: a cheaper or easier test that your university does not list is worth nothing.

SECTION 03TOEFL iBT (ETS): The Long-Established Academic English Test

The TOEFL iBT, run by ETS, measures academic English across Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing — the four areas ETS says its score report covers. ETS is explicit that there are no passing or failing scores set by the TOEFL Program or ETS: each institution sets its own score requirements, so a "good TOEFL score" is only ever the score your universities ask for.

The score scale changed in January 2026 — read requirements carefully. For tests taken from 21 January 2026, ETS reports four section scores and an overall score on a new 1–6 scale, in half-point increments; the overall score is the average of the four sections, rounded to the nearest half band. For a two-year transition period, reports also carry a comparable overall score on the familiar 0–120 scale, and ETS notes that institutions are updating their published requirements to the 1–6 format at different speeds — some still list 0–120 requirements. Your official report includes both, so you can meet either format without converting anything yourself; never convert a requirement on your own and assume — check with the institution if its page and your report seem to speak different languages.

Validity, sending and retakes. Your scores appear in your ETS account 3 days after the test date, and they are valid for 2 years: ETS will not report or send scores after 2 years, so an old TOEFL score cannot be revived — you retake. The test fee includes up to four free official score reports to recipients you add through your ETS account until 10 p.m. on the day of your test; after that, additional reports cost US$25 per institution or agency. Score reports also show your MyBest scores — your best section scores across sittings within the validity window — alongside the scores from the date you selected, but whether a university accepts MyBest is that university's decision, so check before relying on it. If you need to retake, ETS sets no limit on the number of attempts, but you cannot take the test more than once in a 3-day period — a rule that applies even if you cancelled your earlier scores — and the full registration fee is due each time.

SECTION 04IELTS Academic: The Partner-Run Test With a Human Speaking Examiner

IELTS is run by its three partners — the British Council, IDP IELTS and Cambridge University Press & Assessment — and comes in two versions; the one for US university applications is IELTS Academic, designed for undergraduate and postgraduate applicants who plan to study where courses are delivered in English. Its four sections test listening, reading, writing and speaking, with the speaking test conducted as a conversation with an examiner.

Scores and validity. IELTS reports on a 9-band scale: each section gets a band score in whole or half bands, and the Overall Band Score is the average of the four, rounded to the nearest half band. Validity works slightly differently from ETS's hard stop. The IELTS partners recommend that a result demonstrates a test taker's English ability for a maximum of two years, on the basis that an unused second language fades; they recommend a Test Report Form more than two years old be accepted only with proof the taker has actively maintained or tried to improve their English. In practice, treat two years as your planning limit — a university following the partners' recommendation will not take an older result at face value.

Sending and retakes. You choose the institutions to receive your results when you register, or you can wait for your results and then ask the test centre where you took the test to send them; organisations verify results through the IELTS Results Service rather than trusting a copy you hand them. Results for IELTS on computer are available 1–5 days after the test. There is no limit on how many times you can retake the full test. IELTS also offers One Skill Retake: if one section let you down, you can reattempt that single skill — Listening, Reading, Writing or Speaking — once, within 60 days of your original test, instead of resitting everything; whether your university accepts a One Skill Retake result is its choice, so confirm before booking it.

SECTION 05Duolingo English Test: The Fully Online Option

The Duolingo English Test is operated by Duolingo, Inc. and taken online, on your own computer, under remote proctoring rules — there is no test centre visit. That convenience is real, but acceptance is narrower and more variable than TOEFL's or IELTS's: some universities list it, some list it only for certain levels or intakes, and some do not list it at all. It is the test where checking each university's own list matters most.

Scores and validity. Duolingo scores the test on a scale from 10 to 160, in 5-point increments, across reading, writing, listening and speaking. Alongside the overall score you receive integrated subscores that combine skills the way study actually uses them: Literacy (reading + writing), Comprehension (reading + listening), Conversation (speaking + listening) and Production (speaking + writing). Your certificate is valid for two years from the date you take the test; after two years, Duolingo's terms say, the certificate is marked expired and you can no longer share it with third parties. Sharing happens from your Duolingo account while the certificate is valid — an expired or invalidated result cannot be sent. Two cautions from the same terms: payments are non-refundable, and Duolingo may invalidate results — even previously certified ones — if it decides its test rules were broken, notifying everyone who received them. The strict at-home rules (being alone, staying on camera, not wearing headphones) are therefore part of the test, not fine print.

SECTION 06PTE Academic (Pearson): Machine-Scored, Fast Results

PTE Academic, Pearson's test, assesses listening, reading, speaking and writing entirely by computer in a single two-hour test session, and all responses are machine scored by its automated scoring system — there is no human examiner in the chain. Pearson reports an overall score and a breakdown by skill on the Global Scale of English, from 10 to 90.

Validity, sending and retakes. A PTE Academic score is valid for two years from the test date; after that it expires, can no longer be used, and you cannot even access the result — scores must be assigned to institutions within the two years. Results typically arrive within about 2 days. Sending is the most open of the four: you can send your scores to an unlimited number of institutions free of charge, through the myPTE portal or by sharing your Score Report Code, and the institution can usually see the score about 48 hours after you send it. Two details matter: institutions do not accept paper or PDF versions of PTE score reports, so your own copy proves nothing; and an institution sees only the score you choose to share, not your other attempts. If you retake, Pearson's rules are mechanical: you can book a new test only once you have received the scores from your last one, you may hold only one booking at a time, and you may take the test up to 12 times within a 12-month window.

SECTION 07The GRE General Test (ETS): The General Graduate Test

The GRE General Test is ETS's admissions test for graduate and professional programmes — master's, PhD and, at many schools, business and law. It reports three scores: Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning, each on a 130–170 scale in 1-point increments, and Analytical Writing on a 0–6 scale in half-point increments. The test itself takes about 1 hour 58 minutes. (Separate GRE Subject Tests exist in a few fields; a programme that wants one will say so.)

Validity and sending. GRE scores are reportable for five years following your test date — far longer than the English tests — which is why taking the GRE early is a defensible strategy in a way an early TOEFL is not. Official scores are typically available in your ETS account 8–10 days after the test. On test day you can designate up to four institutions or fellowship sponsors to receive your scores as part of the test fee. Afterwards, Additional Score Reports cost US$40 per recipient and take about 5 business days to process. ETS's ScoreSelect option lets you choose which scores from the last five years each institution sees — your most recent, all of them, or any selection — but note ETS's own warning: some programmes require applicants who tested more than once to report all their administrations, so check each programme's reporting rule before using ScoreSelect to hide a sitting.

Retakes. You can take the GRE once every 21 days, up to five times within any continuous rolling 12-month period, and the limit applies even if you cancelled scores from a previous sitting. ETS enforces it strictly: if a violation surfaces after scores were reported, the invalid scores are cancelled, recipients are notified and fees are forfeited. Budget for one retake in your timeline rather than planning a series — five sittings in a year is a ceiling, not a strategy.

SECTION 08The GMAT (GMAC): The Business-School Test

The GMAT is run by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) and built specifically for graduate business programmes — MBA and business master's degrees. The current exam has three sections — Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning and Data Insights — each 45 minutes, for a total testing time of 2 hours 15 minutes, and you can take the sections in an order you choose.

Scores and validity. Your Total Score runs from 205 to 805, in 10-point intervals (all totals end in 5), built equally from the three sections, which are each scored 60–90. Scores are valid for five years. Official scores typically arrive in 3–5 days, and the sending model rewards prompt action: you have 48 hours after receiving your official score to send five free score reports; reports sent later are charged per programme. If you test more than once, GMAC automatically calculates a Superscore from your highest section scores across your valid attempts and includes it in your Official Score Report — though whether a school uses the Superscore or a single sitting is the school's call.

Retakes. You can retake after just 16 days, up to five attempts in a rolling 12-month period across the test-centre and online formats combined. As with the GRE, that ceiling is a limit, not a plan: programmes see the scores you send, and a string of hurried attempts buys little. One further reality, shared with the GRE in Section 10: a growing number of business programmes make the GMAT optional or offer waivers for experienced candidates — the programme's admissions page, not the test's marketing, decides whether you need it at all.

SECTION 09Undergraduate Tests: The SAT (College Board) and the ACT

For first-degree (bachelor's) applications, the two names are the SAT and the ACT. Neither is an English-proficiency test — both were designed around US high-school curricula — and international applicants usually meet them alongside, not instead of, an English test where one is required.

The SAT is the College Board's digital test, in two sections — Reading and Writing, and Math — taken in College Board's Bluebook app. Each section scores 200–800, giving a total range of 400–1600. Each registration includes up to four free score sends to colleges or scholarship programmes: you can name recipients when you register, any time before the test, or up to nine days after it; additional score reports cost $15 each. Use the free sends deliberately — they are chosen before you know your score, so many students name only institutions where they are confident the score helps, and pay for later sends once the score is known.

The ACT, run by ACT, now consists of English, Math and Reading as the core test, with Science and Writing as optional add-ons. Each subject scores 1–36, and the Composite is the average of the English, Math and Reading scores, rounded to the nearest whole number — since September 2025, all ACT tests use that calculation, with Science no longer part of the Composite. Writing, if you take it, is scored on a 2–12 scale. Registration includes score reports to your high school and up to four colleges you name when you register; later sends cost $20 per test date through your MyACT account, with an additional $30 archive fee for scores older than three years. ACT puts the sending choice in your hands: you decide which test date's scores a college receives, and you can instead send a Superscore combining your best section scores across sittings. Most scores are available online within 1–4 weeks of the test date — the slowest reporting clock in this guide, and one more reason undergraduate testing belongs early in the timeline. ACT's current policy pages place no cap on how many times you may test, but every sitting costs a full fee, and colleges' own policies decide how old a score they will use.

SECTION 10Test-Optional, Test-Blind and Waivers: What the Words Actually Mean

The vocabulary matters because each word is a different rule. Test-required means the application is incomplete without a score. Test-optional — the policy the College Board notes many colleges and universities have shifted to — means you choose whether to submit; at a test-optional institution you are not required to send scores, and if you do send them, they are considered as part of your file. Neither required nor recommended (wording the College Board's BigFuture profiles use for some colleges) is stronger: the college does not want scores and will not build them into the decision. Graduate programmes use their own versions of the same ideas: a programme may be test-optional for the GRE or GMAT, or may offer a waiver — an individual exemption granted on conditions the programme itself publishes, such as a prior degree or work experience. ETS itself now addresses applicants to test-optional programmes about whether to submit scores anyway, which tells you the category is real and growing; it does not tell you any particular programme's policy.

Three rules protect you here. First, "optional" is a property of one programme, one degree and one intake — the same university can require the GRE for one master's and waive it for another. Second, a strong score can still help at a test-optional programme, because optional scores, once submitted, are considered; a weak one can simply not be sent. Third, an English-proficiency requirement is separate from all of this: a university can be test-optional for the SAT or GRE and still require TOEFL or IELTS — although some universities waive the English test for applicants who completed their prior education in English, under conditions each university publishes itself. Never assume a waiver you have not read on the university's own page.

SECTION 11When to Take Your Tests: Building the Timeline Backwards

Work backwards from your earliest application deadline, and count the clocks that run after test day. ETS advises TOEFL takers to sit the test 2 to 3 months before their earliest application deadline and to register about 4 months before the desired test date — advice built on two facts: scores take time to exist (3 days for TOEFL, 8–10 days for the GRE, typically 3–5 days for the GMAT, about 2 days for PTE, 1–5 days for IELTS on computer, up to 1–4 weeks for most ACT scores), and you may need a retake. EducationUSA's general horizon is longer still: standardised tests should be taken a year to 18 months before you plan to start studying, inside the research phase of the application, not after it.

A workable order for most applicants: confirm each target programme's test requirements while shortlisting (Section 01); take the long-validity tests early if you are testing well in practice — GRE and GMAT scores live five years, so a good score banked a year ahead stays usable, while English scores, with their two-year lives, should be timed so they are still valid at enrolment, not just at application; sit English tests in the months before deadlines, leaving room for one retake inside the owners' spacing rules (3 days for TOEFL, 21 days for the GRE, 16 days for the GMAT, after your previous PTE scores arrive for PTE); and trigger the official score sends as soon as each university's instructions allow, remembering the free-send windows — TOEFL's four free reports are chosen by test day, the GMAT's five free reports expire 48 hours after your official score, and extra sends take processing time (about 5 business days for a GRE report). A deadline is missed as surely by a score stuck in processing as by a test never taken.

SECTION 12Fees: What You Will Actually Pay, and Where the Rest Is Published

Test fees are set by the owners, vary by country, and change — so this guide prints only figures read on the owner's own page on 1 November 2026, with their context, and tells you where the others live.

• TOEFL iBT: ETS sets the fee by country; its India fee page lists registration at ₹15,729. Budget beyond the test itself: additional score reports are US$25 per institution after the four free ones.
• GRE General Test: ETS lists the registration fee at US$249 globally, except China, where it is US$231.30. Additional Score Reports after test day are US$40 per recipient.
• GMAT: GMAC lists US$275 in person and US$300 online on mba.com. Score reports are free for five programmes only inside the 48-hour window; later sends are charged.
• SAT: the College Board lists a registration fee of $68, with additional charges for some services; additional score reports are $15 each.
• ACT: ACT lists the test at $70.00, with the Science add-on at $5.00 and Writing at $25.00; later score sends are $20 per test date, plus a $30 archive fee for scores over three years old.
• IELTS: no figure is printed here, deliberately — the partners state that test fees vary from country to country, so the only honest figure is the one your local British Council or IDP test centre publishes for your country.
• PTE Academic and Duolingo: likewise printed without a figure — Pearson publishes the PTE fee for your country inside its booking flow, and Duolingo shows its price on its official site when you buy the test. Any website quoting you a different "official" price for these is not the owner.

Two budgeting truths hold across all eight tests: every retake costs a full new registration fee, and rescheduling, late registration and extra score reports are where the quiet money goes. The owners publish complete fee tables — read the one for your country before you register, not after.

SECTION 13Preparation Without the Traps: Guarantees, Agents and Score Security

Nothing in any owner's material promises that preparation produces a score — and no owner authorises anyone else to promise it either. Be blunt with yourself about the offers in this market: a coaching company that "guarantees" a band, a score or an admission is selling something no test owner sells, because the score is produced by the test, on the day, under the owner's rules. What preparation can honestly do is teach the format, build the underlying skill and rehearse timing — the owners themselves publish free and paid practice materials, and those are the only materials written by the people who write the test.

The darker end of the market is not merely useless but destructive. Scores are cancelled for rule-breaking: ETS cancels GRE scores obtained in violation of its policies and notifies recipients; Duolingo invalidates results — even certified ones — for breaking its test rules and notifies everyone who received them; the same logic runs through every owner's security rules. Paying someone to sit a test for you, using prohibited help in an at-home test, or buying a "score" does not produce a slightly dodgy credential; it produces a cancellation record with the owner, and universities verify scores through the owners' channels precisely so that paper in your hand proves nothing. Register and pay only on the owner's official site, in your own name, with your own ID — the name on your registration must match the ID you test with, and a mismatch is a problem no agent can fix for you afterwards.

SECTION 14What a University Does With Your Scores: Minimums and Holistic Review

EducationUSA describes the basic mechanics: your test scores, academic record and other factors are used together, and the scores are one way to compare students from the United States and international students from different educational systems. Within that shared frame, universities use scores in two distinct ways. Some set a minimum — Pearson's own guidance to applicants notes that a university sets minimum scores for each test it accepts, often at programme level, so requirements can differ between undergraduate, postgraduate and professional courses in the same institution. A minimum is a gate: below it, the file is not read further, whatever the rest contains; sectional minimums (a writing or speaking floor beneath the overall score) exist for the same reason. Other programmes practise holistic review, where no single number admits or rejects and the score is weighed with grades, essays, recommendations and experience — the natural home of test-optional policies.

The practical reading: find out which game each of your programmes is playing before you decide how much a score matters. Where a minimum is published, it is a floor to clear, not a target that guarantees anything above it. Where review is holistic, a score well above a programme's typical range strengthens a file but does not substitute for the rest of it — and at a test-optional programme, the honest comparison is between your file with the score and your file without it. In both games, the score's last job is mechanical: it must be the right test, in date, and officially sent. Get those three right and the number can speak for itself.

FAQFrequently Asked Questions

Official references and verification status

These official references were accessed and checked on 1 November 2026, and this guide's test facts were verified claim-by-claim against them (verification record in the accompanying .sources.md file). Three honest limits. First, the TOEFL score scale changed on 21 January 2026: reports now use a 1–6 scale with a comparable 0–120 overall shown during a two-year transition, and universities are updating published requirements at different speeds — this guide states both formats as ETS publishes them and tells you to confirm the format on each university's page. Second, Duolingo: the owner's own terms and official blog verify the test's operator, its 10–160 scale and the two-year certificate validity, but no passage stating its price, results time or sending terms could be read on the owner's site in this pass, so this guide prints no Duolingo price and no sending figure — the price shown on the official site at purchase is the only one to trust. Third, fees: only figures read on an owner's own page on 1 November 2026 are printed, each with its country context; IELTS and PTE Academic fees are deliberately not printed because they are set per country and published by the local test centre or inside the booking flow.

• EducationUSA (U.S. Department of State) — Your 5 Steps to U.S. Study
• EducationUSA Belgium & Luxembourg — Admission Tests (no national entrance exam; each institution sets its requirements)
• ETS — TOEFL iBT Scores: what your scores mean (1–6 scale, validity, sending)
• ETS India — TOEFL iBT test fees (India registration fee)
• ETS — Register for the GRE (fee, retake policy, score timing)
• ETS — Sending your GRE scores (ScoreSelect; additional reports)
• IELTS — Understanding and setting IELTS scores (9-band scale)
• IELTS — Verifying IELTS results (two-year recommendation; One Skill Retake)
• Duolingo English Test — Terms of Service (operator; certificate validity)
• Duolingo English Test (official blog) — How is the DET scored? (10–160 scale; subscores)
• Pearson — PTE Academic (10–90 scale; two-year validity; results)
• Pearson PTE — Retake policy
• GMAC (mba.com) — GMAT scores (205–805 scale; five-year validity; Superscore)
• GMAC (mba.com) — GMAT vs GRE (official score timing; five free score reports; retake spacing)
• College Board — SAT test fees (registration fee; additional score reports)
• College Board — Digital SAT format, content and scoring (400–1600)
• ACT — Fees (test fee and add-ons; included score reports)
• ACT — Test scores (timing; retakes; score choice)

General educational information, not individualized legal or financial advice. Follow official instructions and consult your designated school official (DSO) or a qualified U.S. immigration attorney for case-specific questions.

General information only. This guide is based on official sources publicly available and checked on the date shown on this page. Visa rules change, and consular and USCIS officers decide every case on its own facts — nothing here is a confirmation or a guarantee for your individual case, and this is not legal advice. Always confirm the current requirement on the official page linked in this guide before you act, and consider a qualified immigration attorney for your specific situation.