OET

What is OET?

The Occupational English Test or OET as it is popularly called is an English language assessment test created for the healthcare professionals. OET can be taken up by 12 different healthcare categories: nursing, dentistry, dietetics, medicine, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, podiatry, radiography, speech pathology optometry, pharmacy, and veterinary science. OET is owned by Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment Trust (CBLA) which is co-owned by Boxhill Institute and Cambridge English Language Assessment.

OET Format

OET like any other language test, evaluates the performance of the candidate under four sub-skills which are listening, reading, writing and speaking. The listening is a 45-minute test, followed by a 60-minute reading test. The writing tests last for 45 minutes and is the last test taken in this order. The speaking test, which lasts for 20 minutes, is to be taken in the second half of the day, post 1 pm

Format of the test

  • The listening test includes 3-parts which tests different skills. Part A of listening requires you to answer 24 questions, which has note completion as the task. Part B and Part C of listening include multiple-choice questions.
  • The reading is a 60 minutes test which has matching and sentence completion as the tasks in Part A, followed by multiple-choice questions in Part B and Part C of reading.
  • The writing test involves the candidate in a letter-writing based on the case notes given of a patient. This is the only task and the candidate can take only 40 minutes to complete the letter with the first 5 minutes to read and go through the case notes.
  • The speaking test is to enact two role cards, each lasting 5 minutes. The candidate will take up the role of the health professional whereas the interlocutor (the person who will help you enact the role play) will take up the role of the patient or the bystander. In this test, you need to re-create the scenario of your everyday workplace.
  • If at all this information feels new to you, do not worry. All you need to do is register with us and get to know OET in more detail.