Whether you are a nurse or a doctor, OET preparation is difficult. How long should you study? How many mock tests should you complete? When should you book your test? How many tests should you complete?
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So, where should you begin?
Here are the top tips from our OET teachers:
1. Finding your starting point
When you begin your studies, complete a practice test in each of the four sections of the test.
Then, grade your work yourself. Ask yourself:
- Did you notice a lot of grammatical mistakes in your writing?
- Did you score less than 30 in the reading and listening tests?
- Did you repeat yourself or miss information when trying to speak?
This gives you a good idea of where you are at the moment and what challenges lie ahead.
The areas that you found most difficult are the ones you should focus most of your energy on.
2. Begin your preparation early (if you can)
Every student is different however we find on average it takes most students around 8-16 weeks of practice to be confident of passing the exam first time.
DID YOU KNOW? Students who study as part of our Complete OET Course pass in just 6-8 weeks!
You may need more or you may need less however one thing is for sure …
Practice is necessary to pass the OET exam.
The earlier you begin your studies, the more chance of you have of passing your exam. Unless you have a deadline that is coming soon, take your time, don’t rush and make sure that you pass first time.
3. Know the exam
During your OET preparation, make sure that you know the exam inside-out! This means that you know all of the sections of the OET test and what the requirements are.
What is meant by ‘fill-in-the blank’ questions? What is ‘writing purpose’? What is the writing word count? Or the time-limit for the speaking test? What does Listening Part B of the OET exam involve?
You should know the exam inside-out!
4. Preparation, practice and practice
There is no secret number of OET tests that every student should complete before taking their test … every student is different.
However…
We would recommend completing at least 4-5 practice exams in each of the four sections (reading, writing, listening and speaking) before sitting your test.
Also…
Make sure you are consistently achieving a passing grade at home before taking the exam. If you are unable to achieve a B at home, then it is unlikely you will do so at in the test centre.
5. Get advice
Ask a friend or a teacher to review through your work, especially the writing exam.
It can be difficult to know where you are going wrong (or right) in the test and having another person look at your work can have a huge improvement on your final OET exam score.
If you would like advice from an OET teacher, why not try our OET Course?
You can also find more OET preparation advice on the Official OET Website.
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. We respond to all of our messages!