Why choose OET?
Recommended by healthcare professionals
Research shows that OET is advocated by past test takers as the most suitable test for registration, employment and visa purposes.
As a healthcare professional you know how important communication is in your job. OET is designed for you, simulating real workplace tasks and testing relevant language skills.
“Since English is my second language, OET prepared me for the real world. As a nurse, communication is very important. It has made my life easier since I am now eligible for registration. It has given me the confidence to communicate with my patients and colleagues. It made me very proud of myself and raised my self-esteem. All the preparation and sacrifices I made to pass the OET paid off and I am very happy for choosing OET.” Sharmaine Chrisha Garde – Nurse
IELTS or OET – which is a better test for nursing professionals?
| IELTS | OET |
| It is a general English language assessment test and recognized in all the English-speaking countries across the globe: UK, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, USA and many other countries | A language assessment test specially designed for Health Care professionals migrating to New Zealand and Australia. The OET scores are accepted in Singapore as well. |
| So, if you are a nurse trying to apply for jobs/higher studies in any country abroad, IELTS would be a better option because the test scores will be accepted in any country. | |
| If you have decided that Australia or New Zealand is the country of your choice, then you should do a fair assessment of both the tests. |
Which test is easier to take?
In OET, as a healthcare professional, you can make use of your content knowledge, vocabulary, learning experiences… as it is specific to profession. This is the best advantage in OET. The speaking and writing test would be familiar to you as you would have faced a similar situation at work. You will need to write a referral letter for a patient for the written test. For the speaking test, you will need to interact with a patient (the examiner will play the role of a patient)
IELTS is not profession specific. It is a test of your English comprehension and English communication skills. Since the IELTS is taken by students, professionals other than in the healthcare field, the content is more general in nature and taken from news journals and professional magazines. The situations given will be formal and may be unfamiliar to you. You will need to write an essay, analyze written data and write a formal letter, in the IELTS. For the speaking test, you will need to speak on some given topics as well as carry on a smooth conversation with the examiner.
If your English is good, then neither tests will be a problem for you.
Our experience so far
In our years of training students for the IELTS and OET, we have found that our students take less preparation time for the OET as compared to IELTS and score better in the OET.
Though both IELTS and OET are language tests, OET would be the best option for healthcare professionals, especially for “Nurses” as it is profession related and they can use their professional knowledge and experience while attempting the OET.
Here is a quick comparison of both IELTS and OET tests:
| IELTS | OET |
| Total test time: 2 hrs. 45 mins. | Total test time: Approximately 3 hours |
Listening
| IELTS | OET |
| Time-30 minutes | Time: 40-45 minutes |
| There are 4 recordings you need to listen to and answer questions on the recordings. There will be 2 lectures or monologues and 2 conversations.40 questions which are in the form of fill in the blanks, match the following, labelling, summary completion, sentence completion and many other types. |
In OET Listening there are 3 parts.
Part-A: Note Completion Task. Two separate shorter consultations between a healthcare professional and a patient. (24 total questions, 12 for each part. Approx 5 minutes each).
Part B : Six short dialogues or monologues in workplace settings. (Accents introduced in this new test are much more varied. May also include a consultation between 2 health professionals) (10 minutes)
Part C: Two long presentations or interviews with health professionals. (15 minutes)
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Our experience so far
IELTS listening has general topics and can therefore be handled without much preparation.
Since the OET is profession related, you need to have prepared by listening to some health care related topics because otherwise, you would not be able to take down relevant matter to fill in the blanks or answer questions. However, since you are a health care professional the content may be familiar to you.
Reading
| IELTS | OET |
| Time: 1 hour | Time: 1 hour |
| Here, the candidate needs to go through 3 different lengthy passages which are all extracted from journals, articles, newspapers and answer different types of questions like MCQs, identifying writer’s views and claims, comparing information. Some sentence completion and note completion questions along with true and false questions may also be there. |
In OET Reading there are 3 parts.
Part-A: 15 minutes – Summary Task, Quick reading task. Strictly timed. 4 short texts of approximately 650 words related to a single topic are given.
Part B:*45 minutes (Combining Part B & C). *6 MCQ?s with 6 short and dense text relating to procedural and policy documents of (100-150 words each)
Part C: MCQ?s. Careful reading tasks. Ability to identify details. Two long presentation passages of 800 words each will be given.
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Our experience so far
For a healthcare professional OET reading is comparatively easier, especially Part A which comprises short texts. Candidates fare well in part A and Part B asks direct questions from texts and these also can be handled well by the test taker.
IELTS General reading is a lot simpler than Academic reading. However, candidates need to have a complete grasp of English to answer a few in-depth questions. Candidates need to practice answering questions from various comprehension passages in order to score well in the test.
Writing
| IELTS | OET |
| Time: 1 hour | Time: 45 minutes |
| There are two tasks. The test taker needs to analyze and write about a pictorial representation/graph of some data given. A picture of a machine may also be given and the candidate needs to write how it works. You are given 20 minutes for this task. | In the OET, you will be asked to write a discharge/ follow up/ referral letter based up on the given case notes. |
| In general writing test, you need to write a letter in response to a topic given. The topic will be formal, semi-formal or informal. | |
| The second task will be to write an essay. You will be given 40 minutes to write an essay on a given topic. |
Our experience so far
As preparing such letters is one of the roles and responsibilities for nurses, it would be easier to take the OET writing test when compared to IELTS writing.
In IELTS, the essay has to be grammatically correct, well-structured and you need to stick to the topic. This may be challenging for some test-takers.
Speaking
| IELTS | OET |
| Time: 15 minutes | Time: 20 minutes approximately |
| This is a general speaking test which has 3 parts. The candidate will be asked to speak on general topics like family, home, interests, hobbies and in the later parts, speak on a particular topic given on a task card. | After a 2-3 warm-up session between examiner and candidate, there will be two role-plays where the candidate has to play the role of a nurse and the examiner would be the patient. They need to interact according to the given situation on the role-play card. |
Our experience so far
You may find the IELTS speaking a bit difficult as you have to speak continuously for about 10 minutes on a given topic without any prompts from the examiner. There could be a chance that you do not understand the topic given on the task card.
In the OET, you may actually enjoy the speaking task as you will be actually interacting with your make-believe patient and you will also be given a situation to enact.
Scoring:
Both the language tests: IELTS and OET have different rating scales in order to grade the student’s language proficiency. IELTS 0-9 band score, OET –A-E grade.
Accepted scores are 7 and above for IELTS and B or A for the OET
