Australia

Ideally students should apply by August or max to max September if applying for the February intake. The admission process takes around six to seven months of application submission, entrance tests preparation and sitting for the exam, assessment of the applications, submitting missing documents if the case may be and finally applying for a student visa upon receiving an offer. 

The February intake of Australia is known as the primary intake and maximum number of students apply for this intake whereas, the July intake of Australia is the secondary intake. Since a limited number of courses are offered in the July intake, applications are 20% lesser than the February intake of Australia in July. Some courses may be offered in both the intakes of Australia, while some may be offered in just one particular intake of Australia. 

The February intake of Australia is the primary intake because in this intake all universities in Australia open admissions for almost all courses, except for a few exceptions. Plus, students qualify from their high school and this is the ideal intake when students are able to prepare and apply for higher education in Australia. Hence, this is why February intake of Australia is known as the primary intake. 

Admissions for the February intake of Australia begin in the month of August of the previous year and wrap up by October (previous year only). The admission decisions follow after October, the decisions are released by November or in the first week of December. Hence, students applying for the Feb intake of Australia can easily apply for their student visa in advance and wait for its approval plus fly to Australia well in time before the course begins.

Both test TOEFL and IELTS are okay, but IELTS is more common in Australia. Still, TOEFL iBT is accepted by most universities and also works for visa.

Yes, almost all Australian universities accept TOEFL, for bachelor's, master's, and PhD. Just check each school's official website to be sure.

Most top universities in Australia need a TOEFL iBT score between 79 to 100. Some tough courses like medicine, law or master's may want more.

Australian universities generally requires TOEFL score of 79–100.

Yes, in majority of the cases Indian students who score 70-80% in their Board exams can be exempted from submitting an IELTS score. However, applicant's medium of instruction should be in English throughout the study period. Plus the applicants will have to show that their exam scores in English at all levels of study to satisfy the admission requirements at the Australian university. The admission requirements and conditions may vary per university and course of admission. 

Yes, there are other equivalent ELP tests that can be accepted in place of IELTS exam and they are as follows:

• CPE, Certification of proficiency, or Certificate in Advanced English
• PTE score (Both individual & overall) 
• They must complete their secondary studies in Australia
• TAFE SA course
• CELUSA Language course level-4
• Tertiary studies in Australia at least for 1-year, etc.

These submissions will be based on the proposed IELTS exam scores given for a particular course admission.