Many candidates have difficulty finding the time to sit down and spend several hours studying for the OET exam. Fortunately, employing a consistent approach that involves shorter periods of study on a regular basis can be just as useful.

 

For the listening part of the test, one such approach involves taking advantage of the ABC’s 1-minute podcasts. Follow the steps below, at least twice a week, and you should find that you can improve your listening and note-taking skills significantly.

 

1. Listen to the audio of a 1-minute podcast on a health topic from http://www.abc.net.au/health/minutes/ while reading the transcript.
2. Replay the video, this time writing down the main points in note form (as you would in the exam).
3. Use the transcript to check the accuracy of your notes.
4. If you wrote down anything incorrectly, revise the vocabulary used to communicate that point in the video (look up the definition of each word, and write down the words and their definitions in your personal vocabulary list).
5. Repeat!

 

This short exercise will allow you to improve your performance in the listening test by:

• Practicing accurate note-taking,
• Practicing listening for key words and main points,
• Learning new vocabulary as you study, and
• Building up your experience in listening to spoken English on a variety of cialico.com health topics.

 

Good luck!

 

Anna Brzeska, OET Teacher