OET Exam is an English language test. It carefully assesses your speaking, listening, writing, and reading skills to confirm you are ready for professional medical work abroad. To grab global opportunities in medical field this exam is important. Healthcare professionals wanting to work in major countries like the UK, USA, Australia, Canada, and Ireland must often pass this OET exam first. Your career starts here.
Understand the structure. To get the high OET score you need, you must have a solid and clear understanding of the OET exam pattern to plan your daily study time effectively. Strategy builds success. The OET test format is designed specifically for 12 healthcare professions, ensuring that the questions are based on real workplace scenarios you will face. Real tasks matter.
OET preparation is the key. This article will provide you with a complete, section-wise breakdown of the OET test pattern to help you master the exam and achieve your goals. Read it carefully.
- OET Exam Pattern 2026
- OET Exam 2026 Preparation Tips
- OET Exam 2026 Results
OET Exam Pattern 2026
There are 4 sections of OET pattern:
OET Exam Pattern: Listening Section needs to be completed in 45 minutes
The Listening Section or Listening Subtest is divided into three parts. It consist of total of 42 question types that need to be solved within 45 min. OET listening section topics revolve around generic healthcare interests and are accessible to candidates across all professions.
OET Syllabus: Listening Section Pattern
The OET syllabus for OET Listening Subsection is divided into three parts:
- Part A Consultation Extracts: For first task, healthcare professionals would be required to identify specific information during a consultation. Candidates would be required to complete health professional notes from listening to two recorded health professional-patient consultations. [Duration: 5 minutes each]
- Part B Short Workplace Extracts: For the second task candidates would be required to listen to multiple recorded extracts that could range from team briefings, and handovers, to health professional-patient dialogues and answer one multiple-choice question for each extract. In the second part, the candidate is tested on identifying details of short extracts from the healthcare workplace. [Duration: 1 minute each]
- Part C: Presentation Extracts: The third and final task of the Listening section would require candidates to listen to multiple recorded presentations or interviews on a range of accessible healthcare topics and answer multiple-choice questions for each extract. [Duration: 5 minutes each]
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OET Exam Pattern: Reading Section [60 minutes]
The Reading Sub-section is divided into three parts that consist of a total of 42 question types that need to be solved in 60 minutes. OET Reading section topics revolve around generic healthcare interests and are accessible to candidates across all professions. topics revolving around section are as follows.
OET Syllabus: Reading Section Pattern
- Part A - Expeditious Reading Task: For the first task, candidates would be required to read four short essays and locate specific information from the texts. The essays provided to the candidates would be related to general healthcare topics. The questions could vary from matching the following, sentence completion to short answer questions. [Duration: 15 minutes]
- Part B - Careful Reading: For the second task, candidates would be given multiple short texts related to generic healthcare topics and candidates would be required to identify the main points and answer multiple-choice questions. The essays can include topics ranging from policy guidelines, hospital guides, manuals, emails, memos to internal communication.
- Part C - Careful Reading: For the third and last task, pertaining to the Reading section, candidates would be required to identify the detailed meaning of the topic provided to them and answer multiple questions for the same. [Part B and Part C Duration: 45 minutes]
OET Exam Pattern: Writing Section [40 minutes]
OET Syllabus: Writing Section Pattern: With a total duration of 40 minutes, Writing section requires candidate to write a letter, usually a letter of reference in his/her field of speciality. candidate would be provided with background information to his task which he may or may not incorporate into his reference letter. This particular task is profession-specific, hence while a nurse would have to write a letter specific to nursing a dentist would be required to write a reference letter specific to dentistry.
OET Exam Pattern: Speaking Section [20 minutes]
OET Syllabus: Speaking Section Pattern: With a total duration of 20 minutes, candidates are required to individually enact their professional role in real-life scenarios in a professional healthcare environment. In a profession-specific exercise, candidates are required to roleplay their profession while panellist plays a patient for first part, and roles are reversed in latter. Candidates are given 3 minutes to prepare for each side before start of each act. roleplays are basically based on mock workplace situations that reflect mood of healthcare environment. candidates would be given enough background information to prepare for their roleplay sessions.
OET Exam Pattern Layout
| OET Exam Pattern |
Test Duration |
OET Description |
|---|---|---|
| Listening |
45 minutes |
The Listening subsection is divided into 3 parts that test the candidates listening capabilities in various formats. |
| Reading |
60 minutes |
The Reading subsection is divided into 3 parts that test the candidates reading capabilities in various formats. |
| Writing |
40 minutes |
The Writing subsection is profession-specific and requires candidates to write a letter of reference. |
| Speaking |
20 minutes |
The Writing subsection is profession-specific and requires candidates to enact a roleplay from the healthcare environment. |
Commonly asked questions
Whether OET test is hard or easy is very subjective. However, the OET test has been created to test applicants' understanding of the English language as medical professionals. So, if your medical concept is clear then this test is easy for you. All you need to do some practice be forw appearing in the test.
No, there is no negative marking in OET exam. This means that marks are not deducted for incorrect answers. You can try to answer all questions of Occupational English Test.
The OET exam syllabus is divided separately to assess listening, writing, speaking and reading sections. Here we have mentioned sub test wise important topics to give you an idea about exam:
| OET Syllabus 2026 | |
|---|---|
| Listening |
|
| Reading |
|
| Speaking |
|
| Writing |
|
OET Exam 2026 Preparation Tips
Start early. You should begin your preparation at least three to four months before OET exam date. A structured study plan helps you balance all sub-sections. Without feeling overwhelmed by the syllabus. Stick to it.
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Familiarize yourself with latest OET test pattern 2026 and question types.
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Solve official sample papers. Give yourself some time to finish this up.
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Identify your weak areas and spend extra time improving them.
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Always take expert guidance. It can be your senior student or any teacher.
Commonly asked questions
The OET preparation books are extremely important. Thy help you understand your abilities to take the exam, better your skills and be able to crack the exam in one go.
Use the official OET study materials. They are the most accurate. You should also look at guides from publishers like Cambridge Boxhill or Kaplan for extra practice tests. Use different resources. This helps you get ready for all question types before the real exam.
Today, technology can be your perfect partner during exam preparation. In this case, you can use several online platforms where you can appear in the OET practice test which will give you detailed feedback to identify areas for improvement.
Other than this, multiple language learning apps and online courses are available. Some are free and many of them offer their premium services at minimal fees. Also, you can get personalized support in the form of virtual tutors. In short, technology is helpful for OET preparation.
OET Exam 2026 Results
Candidates who have successfully appeared for their Occupational English Test (OET) can view their OET test scores after 16 business days from each test date. Candidates are required to enter their OET Login credentials to get access to their online profiles where their OET scores would be published. Furthermore, candidates can also download the hard copy of their OET statement of results from their online profile.
Also, Read
Still, have doubts? Check out our OET frequently asked questions to understand the nuances of the OET exam pattern better.
Commonly asked questions
There is no good or bad OET score or any benchmark set for applicants. Based on your institutional requirement you may have to have a certain score to get admission.
Candidates wanting to access their OET results must visit official website. Log in to 'myOET' account to view their OET results on the dashboard. Candidates can view, download, and print their electronic statement of results from their profile dashboard. OET will not provide test results by email, fax, or phone.
OET results are available to candidates after 16 business days from the date of taking the test. Candidates can download the official copies of their statements of results from their 'myOET' profile. The OET test results would typically have scores of four sub-tests that make up the OET reported on a scale from 0 to 500 in ten-point increments.
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