You may have heard that the OET writing exam is changing on August 31 2019.
What do these changes mean and do they affect your preparation for the OET writing exam?
First of all, it is important to note that these changes are minor. Meaning: not much is changing.
The test will not be any easier or any more difficult. You won’t need to change your study habits. None of the practice you have done so far will be wasted.
So, what are the changes?
The only change to the test is how it is graded. That means in truth the only people affected by this update is people like us (OET teachers) and the OET exam board.
As a student, these changes will not impact you but there are some important lessons to be learned.
How was the OET Writing test assessed before?
Previously, students were assessed against five criteria:
- Overall Task Fulfillment – This means how well have you understood the requirements of the letter.
- Appropriateness of Language – This means is the language you use appropriate for a formal medical letter.
- Comprehension of Stimulus – This means is it clear from your writing that you understand the case notes.
- Linguistic Features – This involves things like your spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and grammar.
- Presentation Features – This involves your format, structure and layout
How will the OET Writing test be assessed now?
There will now be six criteria:
- Purpose (Whether the purpose of the letter is immediately apparent to the reader and sufficiently expanded in the course of the letter)
- Content (Whether all the necessary information is included and accurate for the reader)
- Conciseness & Clarity (Whether unnecessary information is omitted so that the letter is an effective summary for the reader)
- Genre & Style (Whether the register, tone and use of abbreviations are appropriate for the reader)
- Organisation & Layout (Whether the letter is organised and well laid out for the reader)
- Language (Whether the accuracy of the grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation communicates the necessary information to the reader)
Should I change anything regarding my preparation?
As we mentioned early, you do not need to make any changes to the letter that you write however there are a few things we can consider based on the new criteria:
- Make sure that your purpose is clear right from the beginning. Be sure to mention in the first paragraph who you are writing about and whether it is a referral, transfer or discharge letter.
- Make sure you are including all relevant content. If it relates to the patient’s condition or treatment then it is probably relevant.
- If the information is not relevant then don’t include it. Be as concise as you can with your descriptions.
- Make sure your writing style is appropriate in style for your audience. Remember you are writing to another professional and not to your auntie!
- Check you are writing your letter with the correct structure and layout.
- Tidy up those small grammatical mistakes! Usually when somebody fails the writing exam it is usually due to those small grammatical errors.
You can find more OET Writing Tips in our other blog article!
The most important thing to remember is that the exam is barely changing and all of your previous studying is not wasted!
If you are finding the OET writing exam difficult, you might be interested in our OET writing correction service. This involves sending your work to our teachers for detailed feedback and corrections.
We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to ask us any questions in the comments below and our teachers will get back to you.