Occupational English Testing (OET) and how you can ace the exam

Sep 06, 2018
Paul Johnson

OET is an acronym for the Occupational English Test. It is different from the IELTS because it is specifically designed to meet the English language needs of the healthcare sector. It assesses the language proficiency of healthcare professionals who wish to practice in an English-speaking environment.

Students and professionals from all fields usually take this test from all areas, which means the topics are of generic healthcare interest and available to candidates across all professions.

OET is recognized as proof of English proficiency in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, Namibia, and Singapore.

The OET consists of four separate exam categories:

  • Listening
  • Speaking
  • Reading and
  • Writing

The listening sub-test is designed to assess a range of listening skills, such as recognizing specific information, detail, gist, opinion, or the speaker’s purpose.

The Speaking part requires you to interact with the examiner based on some selected specific topics.

The Reading portion of the test, while the Written will involve writing an essay, writing a formal letter, and analyzing written data.

How can you ace your OET?

This test is said to be a difficult one, but nothing beats excellence in an exam like adequate preparation. There’s no hard and fast rule to become successful in any examination.

I believe you’ll find the following tips very useful:

Mapping out a workable time: You need to be realistic with yourself in planning your time. More emphasis should be on organizing essential things. You need to organize your time as well as study space. If you are not going to be having all day, you should map out the time that best suits preparation for the OET exam.

Practicing past OET papers: You will also improve your skills by working on the OET sample test papers. You can place orders for the latest OET material online. Just make sure you are in contact with the right content provider to be updated on the current OET exam principles.

Also, while practicing sample tests, take caution not to over-burden yourself with heavy memorizing, because the test bothers more on your mastery of English than professional knowledge.

Understand how to answer questions well:It is tricky to depend on medical knowledge to answer any question. You should not guess answers based on what you already know. It is much safer to focus on test content and context to get correct answers.

To get accurate answers to any question, you must find the bigger picture and not the isolated facts. You’ll find this more, especially in the Reading sub-test. It so happens that you get the question which quickly appears to be very easy to answer, but in reality, it is not.

Learn to time your answers: You won’t have all day to answer the questions; you will have to learn how to manage the time well. If you are stuck anywhere finding an answer to a particular question, then it is prudent to skip it and move on to the next. Intelligent test-takers do this a lot, and that is why they can get high scores in the OET exam.