PTE

Here are the advantages of the PTE exam over other English exams:

1. Faster results - typically within 48 hours of taking the exam
2. Simpler exam format
3. Completely computer-based testing, no pen and paper required. 
4. Test dates are available almost everyday
5. Ease of rescheduling and cancelling the test slot
6. AI scoring - which reduces the risk of human errors and bias
7. Accepted by universities worldwide and is increasingly getting accepted for visa and immigration purposes. 
8. PTE Score Report is easy to share. You just have to share your score report code with your chosen university.
9. You can share your scores with as many universities as you want, without having to pay any extra fee.   

Pearson provides courses for its PTE Academic exam via two expert English language education providers, namely - Macquarie University and E2Language. 

The cost of courses offered by E2Language is distributed across 5 different packages. Here are the details of each of these packages:

1. Express: Priced at $44.25 USD, provides full course with lessons, live classes and practice activities. 
2. Express+: Priced at $59.25 USD, provides a teacher-graded mock test along with what is provided in the Express package. 
3. Bronze: Priced at $119.25 USD, helps to improve your Speaking and Writing skills to boost your scores with the help of assessments and a tutorial. 
4. Silver: Priced at $179.25 USD, the packages comes with even more tutorials and assessments. 
5. Gold:  This premium package priced at $254.25 USD guarantees to help you achieve your target score.

The cost of Pearson PTE Academic course offered by the Macquarie University is ?6,500 for one year, unlimited subscription. 

PTE exam is based on integrated skills testing (especially in the Speaking and Writing skills) which makes it different from the other English tests.

This means that while other tests like IELTS assess both these skills in different sections using methods (human examiners tests the speaking skills on a different day than the main exam day), the PTE exam assesses both these skills altogether in a single sitting, in 1 single section. Both these skills are assessed in integrated tasks. 

This difference in the exam pattern may lead the test takers to believe that the PTE exam is tougher than the other exams. However, the level of difficulty is subjective and depends on the preparation and current proficiency of the test taker in the English language.