OET

The exam explained

The Occupational English Test (OET) is an English language proficiency test specifically designed for healthcare professionals such as doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and physiotherapists who might have to take the OET as part of their language proficiency requirements for registration or employment.

The test assesses the English language skills of healthcare professionals in a realistic healthcare context, focusing on the language skills required for effective communication in medical and healthcare settings.

The OET measures four language skills: listening (approx. 45 minutes), reading (60 minutes), writing (45 minutes), and speaking (approx. 20 minutes). The content of the test is tailored to the healthcare field, with scenarios and tasks that healthcare professionals are likely to encounter in their work. For example:

  • the writing section you will receive a set of patient case notes, the case notes will focus on an individual patient and either be about a particular incident with some surrounding information or about a series of incidents over time.  It’s also worth pointing out that the case notes will be profession-specific. So, doctors will receive medicine case notes, nurses will receive nursing case notes and physios, for example, will receive physiotherapy case notes.

  • the speaking section uses materials specifically designed for your profession it involves role-playing situations. 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.

The reading and listening are the same regardless of a candidate’s occupation.

OET is recognized by various healthcare regulatory bodies, institutions, and employers in English-speaking countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Dubai, and Singapore.