i think there is a failure of understanding what the ielts (or any of the equivalent tests) actually is...........

it is an assessment system on LANGUAGE COMPETENCY, and not a "test" per se.........therefore, there is NO "pass" marks..........you are tested on the 4 aspects of any language, ie speaking, listening, writing, and reading..........and graded based on COMPETENCY of these aspects...........

the overall band (from 1 to 9) then is an indication of you competency in the language...........1 is like non existant ability, and 9.0 a well educated native speaker...........note that many native speakers will not score 9 if they sit for the test, 8.5 is considered a very good grade........

it is up to the respective organisations to then set what they think is a minimum standard required.........eg, some oz unis will accept 5.0 for simple courses like business, laws and medicine needs 7.0, to qualify for migration now requires 6.5..........etc........

so there is really NO such thing as "hard" or "easy"........and the grades you achieve is your competency in english at that time, which you can improve upon, by using the language more (eg, read, speak with friends etc).........

there are 2 categories, general (for migration, etc) and academic (for uni entry).......and of course the content is different, and in general, the academic one is more difficult, obviously..........

to graduate, all students in local unis, (both ipta and ipts) need to show they have SAT for the muet............

there is however, no minimum grade for entry,or graduating............you can get a band 1 and still enter a local uni and graduate............

which makes it a bit of a farce..........serves little purpose, excepts indicate to potential employers, the level of english competency, and hence whether to bother to call for interview or not...........