OET for Doctors: A Complete Guide to the Test, Scores and Preparation

The Occupational English Test, or OET, is an English language test designed for healthcare professionals. If you are a doctor planning to register or work in an English-speaking country, there is a good chance that you will be asked to show your English level, and the OET is one of the tests that many regulators and employers accept for this purpose. This guide explains what the test involves and how to prepare.

What is the OET?

The OET is available for twelve healthcare professions, including medicine, nursing, dentistry and pharmacy. What makes it different from a general English test is that the content comes from healthcare. You listen to consultations between doctors and patients, read texts about clinical practice, write a letter about a patient and take part in a role-play as a doctor. The idea is to test the English you will actually use at work.

The four sub-tests

The whole test takes a little under three hours. It has four parts, called sub-tests:

• Listening (about 45 minutes, 42 questions): two consultations where you complete notes, six short workplace extracts, and two longer recordings such as interviews. Each recording is played once.
• Reading (60 minutes, 42 questions): Part A is a 15-minute skim-and-scan task on four short texts. Parts B and C share the remaining 45 minutes and cover six short workplace texts and two longer articles.
• Writing (45 minutes): you read case notes and write a letter, usually a referral, discharge, transfer or advice letter. The body is usually about 180 to 200 words.
• Speaking (about 20 minutes): two role-plays in which you play the doctor and an interlocutor plays the patient or a relative.

Listening and Reading are the same for every profession. Writing and Speaking are written specially for your own profession.

How the OET is scored

Each sub-test is reported separately on a scale from 0 to 500. You do not get a single overall mark. The scores are also converted to grades from A to E. Grade B covers scores of 350 to 440, and grade A is 450 to 500. Many regulators ask for grade B in each of the four sub-tests, and some accept a lower grade in one or more of them. Because rules differ between regulators and change from time to time, always check the current requirement on the website of the organisation you are applying to.

How to prepare

Start with the format. Many candidates lose marks not because their English is weak but because they are not used to the tasks, the time pressure or the way answers must be written. A sensible plan looks like this:

1. Take one full test in each skill under exam conditions to find your weakest sub-test.
2. Work on that sub-test first. Do not spend all your time on the skill you enjoy.
3. Review every mistake. In Listening and Reading, ask what clue you missed or what you misread. In Writing, compare your letter with a model.
4. Practise out loud for Speaking. Reading model answers silently does not build fluency.
5. Do full tests close to your exam date to build stamina and to check your timing.

Common mistakes

• Writing everything from the case notes in the Writing task instead of choosing what the reader needs.
• Relying on memory for spelling of medical terms in Listening note completion.
• Spending too long on Reading Part A and having no time for Parts B and C.
• Sounding like a textbook in Speaking instead of explaining things to the patient in plain language.

Where to practise

You will find general advice in the other guides in this series, including tips for Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking, and a sample eight-week study plan.

Ready to practise? OET Practice for Doctors has full listening and reading tests in the real format, writing letters with model answers and speaking role-plays. Try the free listening test to see how it works.

HighYield is not affiliated with or endorsed by Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment, the owner of the OET. This guide is a general summary. Check the official OET website for current details.

Practise for the OET on HighYield

Put this into practice with HighYield OET Practice for doctors, a full practice area built around the real exam. Start with the free listening test, then work through every sub-test:

• OET Listening practice tests: Parts A, B and C with audio
• OET Reading practice tests: Parts A, B and C with answers and evidence
• OET Writing tasks: referral letters with model answers and scoring
• OET Speaking role-plays: doctor role-plays to rehearse out loud