OET

OET is Occupational English Test and is designed to meet the specific English language needs of the healthcare sector. OET is specifically designed for nurses to prove their English skills and work and live in an English-speaking environment. It assesses the language proficiency of healthcare professionals taken from healthcare workplaces, like hospitals and clinics, to test each of the four English skills. The OET exam scores are accepted by international healthcare councils in 15+ countries including Australia, the UK, the USA, New Zealand, and Ireland.

OET for the healthcare professions such as:
• Dentistry
• Dietetics
• Medicine
• Nursing
• Occupational Therapy
• Optometry
• Pharmacy
• Veterinary Science
• Physiotherapy
• Podiatry
• Radiography
• Speech Pathology

OET has two models for test takers
1. OET on Paper at a Test center.
2. OET on Computer at a Test center.

OET Syllabus
• OET Reading
• OET Writing
• OET Listening
• OET Speaking
OET exam scores are calculated out of 500.

OET Reading

Part A – Rapid reading task (15 minutes)
Part A measures your ability to locate specific information from four short texts in a short time period. The four short texts relate to a single healthcare topic, and you need to answer 20 questions in the allocated time period. The 20 questions consist of matching, sentence completion and short answer questions.

Part B and Part C – careful reading tasks (45 minutes)
Part B measures your ability to recognize the details, gist or main point of six short paragraphs originated from healthcare workplaces (between 100-150 words each). The texts usually consist of excerpts from hospital guidelines, policy documents, manuals or internal circulars and communications, such as emails or memos. There will be one multiple-choice question for each text.
Part C assesses your ability to derstand the detailed meaning and opinions. There will be two texts related to healthcare professionals (800 words each). You need to answer eight multiple choice questions.

OET Listening

The OET Listening section consists of three parts A, B & C with a total of 42 questions. The topics are generic healthcare related to different professions and accessible to candidates regularly. You have to hear and 40 minutes duration that includes recorded speeches with pauses to provide you time gap in the middle to write down your answers. The audio can be heard only once and you are expected to write your answers while listening.

OET Listening section structure
Part A – consultation audio clips (about 5 minutes each)
Part A measure your capability to recognize specific information during a consultation interaction. You will listen to two recorded health professional-patient consultations and you will have to fill the health professional’s notes using the information you hear.

Part B – short workplace audio (Nearly 1 minute each)
Part B measure your ability to grasp the details, gist, opinions or purpose from the Audio clips extracted from healthcare workplace interactions. You will hear six recorded audio clips (e.g. team briefings, handovers, or health professional-patient dialogues). You need to answer one multiple-choice question for each audio clips.

Part C – presentations audio (about 5 minutes each)
Part C section measures your ability to follow a recorded presentation or an interview on a range of healthcare topics. You will hear two different audio clips and need to answer six multiple-choice questions for each audio clips.

OET Reading

The Reading section consists of three parts with 42 questions and takes total 60 minutes duration to complete. The topics comes from generic healthcare that are generally accessible to the candidates across all professions.
OET Reading section structure
Part A – Rapid reading task (15 minutes)
Part A assesses your ability to locate specific information from four short texts in a quick and efficient manner. The four short texts relate to a single healthcare topic, and you must answer 20 questions in the allocated time period. The 20 questions consist of matching, sentence completion and short answer questions.
Part B and Part C – careful reading tasks (45 minutes)
Part B assesses your ability to identify the detail, gist or main point of six short texts sourced from the healthcare workplace (100-150 words each). The texts might consist of extracts from policy documents, hospital guidelines, manuals or internal communications, such as emails or memos. For each text, there is one three-option multiple-choice question.
Part C measures your ability to identify detailed meaning and opinion in two texts on topics of interest to healthcare professionals (800 words each). For each text, you must answer eight multiple choice questions (four-option choices) .

OET Speaking

The OET Speaking section is delivered individually and takes about 20 minutes. This part of OET uses materials specifically designed for your profession and conducted through role-plays. In each role-play, you take your professional role (for example, as a nurse or as a pharmacist) while the interlocutor plays a patient, a client, or a patient’s relative or carer. For veterinary science, the interlocutor is the owner or carer of the animal.

OET Speaking section structure
In each Speaking test, your identity and profession will be checked by the interlocutor and involve you in brief warm-up conversations about your professional background. Then the role-plays are introduced one by one and you have three minutes to prepare for each play It takes about 5 minutes to complete each role-play.

How Role-plays work?
You will receive information on the specific role on a card which you have keep as a reference while you carry out the role-play task. The card provide the the situation and describe the expected tasks you are required carry out. You may take notes on the card to execute the tasks. If you have any questions about the content of the role-play or how a role-play works, you can ask the interlocutor during the preparation time.
The role-plays are based on typical workplace situations and reflect the demands made on health professionals in such work conditions. The interlocutor follows a script so that the Speaking test structure is similar for each candidate. The interlocutor also has detailed information to use in each role-play. There will be different role-plays used for each candidate in the same test administration.