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09th Aug 2017

Irish vet fails English oral test required to stay in Australia

What the hell?

Alan Loughnane

She claims there was an error with the machine…

An Irish vet has failed a computer test to prove that she’s able to speak English well enough to stay in Australia.

Louise Kennedy has been working in Australia for the last two years as a skilled worker, but recently she decided to seek full time residency in the country on the grounds that there’s a shortage of vets in Australia.

As part of the process you must complete the Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic to prove you speak English well enough to remain in the country.

While she passed all the other parts of the test, she failed the oral part of the exam where voice recognition software is used to test speaking ability. A scoring engine is then used to determine whether the answers to the questions on screen are acceptable.

The required score for passing is 79. Kennedy scored 74.

This is despite Kennedy being a native English speaker with two degrees, with one of them in History and politics, and having spoken English her entire life. She claims there was an error with the machine.

“There’s obviously a flaw in their computer software, when a person with perfect oral fluency cannot get enough points,” she told AAP.

Although Pearson have since denied that there’s anything wrong with the test.

Louise must now seek a bridging visa while she pursues the more expensive spouse visa so that she can remain in the country with her Australian husband. The pair are expecting a baby later this year.