New IELTS Score Requirement For Doctors In The UK – Why So High?

New IELTS Score Requirement For Doctors In The UK – Why So High?

In this week’s post we’re looking at the decision by the General Medical Council to revise its criteria for assessing knowledge of English amongst its members, and the implications of these changes.

I saw a friend of mine last week who is a doctor. He’s also an Arsenal fan, though he doesn’t like to admit that at the moment! We spoke about a number of things before the conversation turned to football and eventually to work. Usually you wouldn’t expect an English Teacher and a Consultant Physician to have too much in common work-wise, but that day was different and it had nothing to do with Arsène Wenger’s team. The reason was IELTS.

The General Medical Council announced earlier this year that from 18 June 2014, the minimum IELTS scores they accept as evidence of knowledge of English when registering doctors to work in the UK will be:

A score of at least 7.0 in each of the four areas tested (speaking, listening, reading and writing)

· And an overall score of at least 7.5

The GMC will accept only the academic version of the IELTS test. For those who are unfamiliar with the IELTS scores (ranging from 1 – 9), a score of 7.5 sits between a good, and very good user of English. Bands 6 – 9 break down as follows: