LISTENING
How you're assessed
OET Listening is designed to assess your listening skills in a range of
contexts relevant to your workplace.
Good listening skills are essential as a health professional.
The OET Listening sub-test uses contexts and language common to the
healthcare workplace, giving you the best chance to demonstrate your skills.
Each part of the test focuses on important areas of understanding for
healthcare staff, including communicating with patients and colleagues in
the workplace. Let's explore this sub-test in more detail.
The Listening sub-test has three parts, and a total of 42 question items. The
topics are of generic healthcare interest and so all OET professionals do the
same test. This section takes around 40 minutes. You hear each recording
once and write or choose your answers while listening.
Part A - consultation extracts
2 audios (patient-professional consultations, approx. 5 minutes each)
24 questions (12 per audio)
Question type: note completion
Skills tested: comprehend, interpret, and accurately record detailed
spoken information.
Part A assesses your ability to identify specific information during a
consultation. You will listen to two recorded health professional-patient
consultations, and you will complete the health professional’s notes using
the information you hear.
You'll hear two different audios in Part A of the OET Listening sub-test. In both
audios, a health professional is talking to a patient. Since each audio is
approximately 4-5 minutes in length, you hear part of the consultation only,
not always the beginning and the end.
All questions in Part A require you to complete a set of healthcare
professionals' notes with a word or short phrase you hear in the audio. Before
the audio starts, you have 30 seconds to look at the notes.
Listening Part A is about gathering specific information, usually from the
patient.
You should write the information exactly as you hear it on the recording.
Often, grammar words such as articles or prepositions are provided in the
answer key as a non-essential part of the answer. OET Assessors are trained
to accept small grammatical and spelling errors, but it's a good idea to aim
for accuracy.
Part B - short workplace extracts
In Part B, you're listening to audios from the healthcare workplace.
Part B is all about workplace communication. You'll hear six different
extracts from different healthcare settings. Each extract will have one or two
speakers and will always have at least one health professional.
Examples of extracts include:
Part of a handover
training session
a briefing
A discussion between colleagues
a discussion between a patient and a health professional.
Each extract is around one minute, so it might be just a small section from a
longer communication.
Listening Part B tests your ability to understand common workplace
interactions and identify:
specific details within interactions
the gist (main idea) of an interaction
a speaker's purpose
A speaker’s opinion
actions that will be taken because of the interaction
For each recording, there is a context statement and one 3-option multiple-
choice question.
Question format
The question stem might be presented as a question:
E.g.
Why does the nurse need help? or as an incomplete sentence:
The surgeon suggests that the patient could
Timing Each recording lasts around 45 seconds. You have 15 seconds to
look at the question before the audio plays and 5 seconds to choose your
answer afterward.
These questions ask about a small but important part of the recording.
Examples:
What is the patient concerned about?
The patient wants more information about...
These types of questions ask you to identify what a speaker is doing or why.
Examples:
What is the speaker doing?
Why did the speaker say X?
This is the most common type of question in Part B. This type of question
isn't focused on a specific detail. Instead, it asks you to identify the overall
idea of the interaction.
Examples:
The doctor wants to establish whether...
What is the overall aim of the treatment plan?
These are examples of opinion questions. They ask you to identify the
speaker/s' attitude.
Examples:
How does the speaker feel about X?
What does the nurse think about Y?
This kind of question requires you to follow a conversation and identify what
the speakers agree on.
Examples:
They agree to choose the method which will...
What do the nurses decide to do?
These questions ask you to identify what will happen as a result of the
interaction.
Examples:
What will the doctor do next?
What is the plan for the patient later today?
Part C - presentation extracts
In Part C, you will hear two audios from either a presentation or an interview.
Each one will be about a health-related topic. These audios are similar to
what you might hear on a podcast or as part of your professional
development.
Part C uses presentation or interview extracts on a range of health-related
topics. Some examples include:
workplace presentations
personal accounts of case studies or projects
presentations about research or trials
case studies / case reviews.
Listening Part C tests your ability to follow an extended audio and and
understand:
the gist (main idea)
a detailed argument
attitude
opinion.
Each extract has six 3-option multiple-choice questions.
Question format
The question stem might be presented as a question:
E.g. Why does Dr Robson regard Chagas as a neglected disease? or as an
incomplete sentence: Dr Robson says the concerns over Chagas in the USA
are the result of
Timing
Each recording lasts around five minutes. You have 90 seconds to read
through the questions and answer options before the audio begins
READING
How you're assessed
The Reading sub-test consists of three parts and a total of 42 question items.
All three parts take a total of 60 minutes to complete. As the topics are of
general healthcare interest, all OET professions do the same Reading sub-
test. The Reading sub-test is designed to assess the reading skills you need
in the healthcare workplace. Each part of the test requires you to use
particular skills to fulfill the task. You'll learn more about the tasks, skills, and
strategies in the individual reading sections coming up. For now, read on to
learn about the format, scoring and some frequently asked questions for OET
Reading.
Part A texts
In Part A, you work with four texts: A, B, C and D. The texts are typical of
those you would encounter when caring for patients. Text types include
dosage charts, guidelines, instructions, and at least one will be presented in
a visual format - as a table, flowchart or diagram, for instance.
When would you read like this in the workplace?
In a healthcare setting, you may need to quickly find relevant information
when dealing with a patient. Part A simulates this by putting you under timed
pressure as you first locate the information and then read it more carefully.
Reading Part A tests your ability to locate specific information across four
different texts on a single healthcare topic. As this part is testing expeditious
reading, Part A is strictly timed and you must complete all 20 question items
within the allocated 15 minutes.
About Reading Part B
Part B context
When Part A is finished, you'll move on to Part B and C. You'll receive all texts
and questions at the same time and you have 45 minutes to complete both
parts. In Part B, you will have six texts, each with one 3-option multiple-
choice question. As a health professional, you need to read a range of
different texts in the workplace. In a single shift, you may need to refer to a
hospital policy, a memo, an email, a notice, a guideline, and more. Reading
Part B uses these texts to assess your ability to identify main ideas, purpose,
and detail
As part of your professional development, you regularly read about research
and developments in healthcare. Part C of OET Reading tests your ability to
identify meaning, attitude, and opinion in two texts on topics relevant to
healthcare professionals.
In Part C, the two texts are similar to journal articles and texts you might
use for professional development or research. You may get a complete article
or an extract.
The text usually contains a range of opinions on a certain topic.
Reading Part C tests your ability to identify:
implicit meaning (inference)
explicit meaning
writer's purpose
attitude
opinion
vocabulary in context.
There are eight 4-option multiple-choice questions per text. The questions
come in order and there is usually one question per paragraph.
Question format
The question stem might be presented as an incomplete sentence:
E.g.
In the first paragraph, the writer uses Eve Van Cauter’s words to or as a
question:
What do we learn about sleep in the second paragraph?
About OET Writing
How you're assessed
In your work as a health professional, you will often need to write letters to
other medical professionals and lay people. The OET Writing sub-test is
designed to mimic this kind of task.
OET Writing - the basics
5 minutes reading time (to read case notes)
40 minutes to write
Scored on 6 criteria
Marked by at least 2 trained OET Assessor
The Writing sub-test takes 45 minutes and is profession-specific. There is
one task set for each profession based on a typical workplace situation and
the demands of the profession – a nurse does the nursing task, a dentist
does the task of dentistry, and so on.
Test materials In OET Writing, you receive task instructions case notes (or
other related documentation) AND space to write your letter
Reading the case notes
5 minutes When the test begins, you have 5 minutes to read through the
task description and the case notes. During this time, you cannot write
anything.
Writing the letter 40 minutes
After 5 minutes, you can begin your letter. You have 40 minutes to write (or
type) it, and you can refer to the case notes throughout.
Assessment
Marked by assessors against six criteria
Your completed letter is assessed by at least two highly trained OET
assessors. They score your work using six criteria:
Purpose
Content
Conciseness and clarity
Genre and style
Organisation and layout
Language
About OET Speaking
An important part of a health professional’s role is the ability to communicate
effectively in speech with patients or clients. The OET Speaking sub-test
consists of two role plays that allow you to take your professional role and
demonstrate your ability to deal with common situations.
Let's get to know OET Speaking. OET Speaking reflects the real healthcare
workplace, so the skills you develop for your test will be useful in your job
too. The Speaking sub-test takes around 20 minutes in total and is
professional specific. A nurse does the nursing task, a dentist does the task
of dentistry, and so on.
It consists of two 5-minute role plays with the interlocutor. The interlocutor
conducts the test and records it but does not assess your performance. You
are assessed by two or more OET assessors who listen to the recording.
The Speaking test begins with an ID check and personal and environmental
checks if you're online. Then there is a short warm-up, which takes around
two to three minutes. Here the interlocutor asks you questions about your
professional background. This is a chance for you to get used to each other's
voices. The checks and warm-ups are recorded but not assessed. In the
Speaking test itself, the two roles play, you take your professional role and
the interlocutor takes the role of the patient, or perhaps a carer or relative.
For each role-play, you see a card with information about the setting, the
situation, and the list of tasks. You can see the card throughout your role-
play. The interlocutor has a corresponding card with their information. You
have three minutes to prepare, and then the role-play takes around five
minutes. The interlocutor will tell you when the time is up. You then get the
next role-play card, another three minutes to prepare, and five minutes for
the second role-play.
Your test is scored by OET assessors who use two types of criteria: linguistic
criteria, and clinical communication criteria. To perform well in the OET
Speaking sub-test, make sure you know all the criteria well.
Remember, we're here to support you in your OET test preparation. Let's get
OET ready.
