Things You Must Know Before Taking Your OET Exam
Things that you should know before taking OET test
1. No matter what your English level is, the sooner you prepare, the better. OET is a high-stakes English test in which organisation will use it to evaluate its future employees. Such employees are responsible for the safety of patients.
2. You must be aware of OET test structure and how it will be marked. The OET comprises four sub tests, which are graded from A to E (where A is the highest and E is the lowest). Test structure:
- Listening (approximately 50 minutes)
- Reading (60 minutes)
- Writing (45 minutes)
- Speaking (approximately 20 minutes)
3. Check out the minimum marks for the acceptance of your school or your visa, then set the goals that you need and want to achieve. Although the goals are motivation for your study, you need also be realistic about your ability and the goals.
4.OET tests both your English and knowledge of healthcare terms, especially your occupation-related topics. Understanding the most commonly used and more complex terms is the key for your achievement in OET.
5.Practice tests help you familiar with test format, understand your weaknesses and strengths and get yourself ready for the real exam. You can check your Reading and Listening with answer keys but If you have friends whose English is proficient, ask for feedback on your Writing and Speaking.
6.You might feel alone and struggle with OET preparation time, let SLS stand by you. Our experienced trainers with updated materials will give you a higher chance of success on test day.
More Tips on How to Achieve a High OET Mark
- Learn about the test overview and structure: this involves fully understanding each section of the exam and what it is assessing. If you know what to expect on the test, you can go into test day able to focus on the questions and task themselves.
- Create a study plan: Look at how many days you have until you take OET, what your goals are and how much time you will realistically be able to dedicate to revising every day and then create a study plan.
- Sharpen your skills: If you like working in a group, enroll in a preparation course from a certified preparation provider. If you prefer to prepare on your own, find an online course or preparation book that will provide you with exercises and key strategies for correctly answering each part of OET.
- Take practice tests: take multiple sample tests throughout your preparation. Not only will it familiarize yourself with the OET, but it will also give you ideas of your strong areas and where you need to improve.
- Review everything: Go over the test overview again to review the key strategies. It’s also a good time to practice those sections of the test where your performance is weakest. Recheck your OET application to make sure everything is in order and contact the OET help desk if there are any problems.
- Let our experienced OET trainers help you! Sydney Language Solutions offers ONLINE CLASSES!
Tips on How to Achieve a High OET Mark
- Active listening skills during the speaking test: this involves carefully listening to the interlocutor and fully understanding the scenario presented to you.
- Empathy and reassurance during the speaking test: instead of just focusing on what to say next, it is important to first listen to the interlocutor and reassure them in order to avoid skipping directly to another topic.
- Stay within the word limit in the writing section: many students either write too much or too little information related to the case. Your writing can go a little below or above the word limit but try not to have a drastic difference in the size of your writing piece.
- Take mock exams: mock exams are a great way to familiarize yourself with the pattern of the exam and also to identify areas lacking practice and improve in them accordingly.
- Listen to podcasts and youtube videos to help with the listening section: playing podcasts and youtube videos while exercising on travelling on the train/bus can help you improve your listening skills.
- Time management: prioritizing your time in the right way across the different sections of the exam will ensure that nothing is left out and you are able to complete all parts of the exam on time.
5 Tips on How to Reduce Your Accent to Sound Like a Native Speaker
Having an accent is not a bad thing; one should not be ashamed of it. A person’s accent represents his or her background and culture. Lots of people take pride in their accent as it reveals their cultural heritage. Even English native speakers have their own accents such as American-English, British-English or Australian-English. However, this sometimes causes difficulty in understanding so some people are embarrassed by their own accent in English Speaking. It turns out that having a residual accent might affect self-confidence in communication and interaction.
There are some techniques that non-native English speakers can use to reduce their accent in speaking.
- Slow down and clearly pronounce words
People tend to speak fast when they are excited or nervous. If you have an accent, try to speak slowly and clearly pronounce words so that everyone can understand what you want to say.
- Feel the rhythm while speaking English
English is considered “stressed language” as every single word have its own stress, differently on verbs, words and adjectives. Same to sentence. People said that sentence stress gives English a rhythm or beat.
- Listen and Talk to native speakers
Listen and repeat to sentences spoken by native speakers until you can naturally speak those sentences. Try to speak to the native speakers as many as possible. You need to overcome your in-confidence and speak to the native speakers. It might make you feel embarrassed at first but failure creates success. People also tend to imitate others whom they frequently interact with. Therefore, the more you talk to the native speakers, the more you could improve.
- Record yourself
Don’t learn from others only, learn from yourself. Take your time to record your speaking and listen again to identify your weaknesses. Recording will also make you proud of yourself in how clarity in your pronunciation has progressed.
- Take a class or tutor
Consider working with an experienced tutor or teacher to help you with pronunciation, intonation and even vocabulary. An ESL teacher will have his/her strategy to quickly help you with your accent. Joining a class might also motivate you as you have partners in your accent reduction journey.
How to conquer the nerves in OET Speaking
In the speaking component of the OET exam, nerves can often impede your best performance on the day. Stress is a natural reaction to a high stakes exam like OET, especially in a situation where you are interacting with an unknown examiner and given only 3 minutes preparation time per scenario. Here a couple tips to increase your confidence and make your interaction much smoother:
- Prepare an opening line: Often students comment how hard it is to start the conversation with their patient. A strong opening can be the key to maintaining strong momentum. Hence, prepare an opening line that can be applied to any scenario: “Good morning, my name is Laura and I’m an ED nurse. I’ll be looking after you today, I hear you have concerns about…”
- Make a conscious effort to speak slower than your normal pace: At times, when we are nervous, we subconsciously speed up our speed of speech, which can impede the patient’s understanding of your questions.
- Practice with as many different simulated scenarios as possible: Before your exam, expose yourself to as many different situations as you can. This can give you the confidence to know, that whatever scenario you are given on the day, you will have the ability to adapt and meet the challenge
(Rashmi Shingde, April 2016)
How to Improve Speaking at Home
Most students ask me for tips on how they can improve their speaking when they’re at home, without a Sydney Language Solutions teacher/tutor to practise with. Below are some of my suggestions.
- The first and most obvious suggestion is to practise with someone who speaks English at home. Perhaps a family member. Perhaps a friend. Or, even better, a friend or family member who is ALSO doing the Occupational English Test. Get them to practise different tasks with you and give you feedback afterwards about your fluency, the clarity and speed of your speech and about the language you used.
- Another way is to practise by yourself. This can involve, for instance, recording yourself speaking! For this exercise, I particularly encourage you to check your speed (tell yourself to SLOW DOWN!) and to check whether or not you say words like “um”, “uh”, “like” or “er” which can affect your fluency. Count how many “um”s you say!
- One final suggestion is, indeed of speaking, you can PLAN out the conversation and write down what you would say in the scenario. This can improve both your grammar and your sentence structure. Think of different phrases you can use to reassure patients, to advise patients or to ask clear questions.
Hope these help! Good luck!
More Tips to Improve OET Speaking
1. Explain everything in as much detail as possible!
Remember your speaking task is marked using the recording of your voice. This means that the examiners cannot see your hand actions or facial expressions. Therefore, you need to explain everything in words – clearly. Step by step.
Example: Explaining how to inject insulin.
Firstly, you should choose your site for injection (such as, the abdomen). Then, you need to pinch the skin between your thumb and index finger. Then, hold the needle at 45 degrees to the surface and inject!
2. As the example above, use words like firstly and secondly, etc.
This is recommended as it gives your speaking task a sense of structure. It allows you to explain medical procedures in a simple, systematic sequence. Some other words you can use include in addition, furthermore, following on from that… and the list goes on. You can use these in writing, too!
3. Clarify with the patient and check that they are understanding you.
As medical procedures can be quite complicated and detailed, it may be difficult for the patient to follow what you are saying. To overcome any confusion and to clarify with the patient, use pauses throughout your speaking to give the patient a chance to ask their questions. In addition, you can ask them questions like “Are you following?” “Does this make sense?” “Do you have any questions about this procedure so far?”
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I hope these tips can help you improve in OET speaking and reduce those nerves! Good luck.
5 Simple Steps to Improve OET Speaking
1. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Before you begin each speaking task, you will have 2-3 minutes of preparation time. As you are reading the task, if there are any aspects which you don’t understand, it is worthwhile to ask the roleplayer as they may be able to help you out. You will NOT be marked down for asking questions.
2. Follow the dot points in order.
This is NOT something you MUST do, but it is highly recommended. By following the dot points in order, you will not get lost or confused during the task and this will ensure that you are able to engage with the roleplayer (i.e. the patient).
3. If you get stuck, use the phrases/terminology on the card.
You are allowed to do this. This is particularly useful if, perhaps, the topic is unfamiliar to you.
4. Listen to the samples on the OET website.
Most students neglect to check the official OET website for samples and materials. In fact, they have uploaded 2 nursing speaking tasks and 2 medicine speaking tasks. Have a listen to these as they will familiarise you with the structure of the speaking exam, even if you are not taking the Xanax best nursing/medicine exam.
5. And, as always… practise, practise, PRACTISE.
With a family member. With a friend. With your dog? Even by recording yourself! Just practise!!
All the best!
Carol Luo
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