Majority of OET candidates believe information gathering means asking questions. However, this notion is only partially correct. Always try to compare your interaction with patients as an interaction of 2 people who visually don’t know each other. Would any normal human being be comfortable to discuss their personal life, habit confidential issues or sensitive topic with someone whom they meet for the first time? Certainly not! Therefore, the information gathering should be done in a way which helps you as a healthcare professional to build that initial sense of trust. Firstly, be an alternati ..read more

This is yet another criterion of OET speaking which is exclusive to OET. Other English tests do not have such criterion mainly as those are the tests where a conversation is led by an examiner. OET prepares you for your workplace. At the workplace, medical professionals are the one to direct the whole conversation, not the patient. Similarly, in OET Speaking exam you are expected to demonstrate the ability to lead a well-structured consultation. So, what does the ‘well-structured’ conversation mean? A consultation which is moving forward in the right direction from taking history to giving the ..read more

This series of blogs attempts to explain the clinical communication skill criteria and the strategy students need to follow to score 2 out of 3 on each criterion. OET training is not just training English. Especially, regarding the OET speaking exam, students are expected to not only speak fluently but also to demonstrate their ability to handle the communication in an empathetic way. For this reason, the second clinical communication skill criteria are ‘Understanding and incorporating a patient’s perspective’. The main reason most candidates fail to show this ability is culture. In most Asian ..read more

New revised speaking evaluation criteria that came into effect from September 2018 include main features. Linguistic features Fluency Appropriateness of language Intelligibility Grammar and Expressions Clinical Communication skill features Relationship Building Understanding and incorporating a patient’s perspective Providing structure Information gathering Information giving Linguistic features are the same as other English exams such as IELTS/PTE. However, clinical communication skill criteria are for the first time introduced in any language test. This series of blogs attempt to exp ..read more

Templates can be only 50% helpful in improving your Writing score for the OET Exam. Many Students feel that templates are necessary for the letter-writing task but they fail to realise that the letter will tend to be incomplete unless the students are able to fill in the gaps with their own ideas. Many other students worry that the memorized transition phrases of the templates will bring down the overall score but it is a myth; in fact, using the template and not being able to tailor it to the task at hand is what can be disastrous….so, simply put, learning to structure the template they are p ..read more

Important facts (tips & strategies) that every health care professionals should know about English for the healthcare sector and the following ten facts are especially for the nurses and medical professionals appearing for the OET writing section of Occupation English Test for health care or OET 2.0 exams OET can be likened to the IELTS English language proficiency test, but more specifically for the healthcare sector Do you know these ten Facts about OET Writing? It is not about summarizing but all about prioritizing. The writing task does not involve summarizing the given information. R ..read more

YES!!! The updated Occupational English Test has already come into effect on the 9th of September 2018. As soon as we say OET, the healthcare sector is what comes to mind first. Any healthcare professional aspiring to work /study in the healthcare profession as delineated in a bullet form below in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Ukraine, Dubai, Singapore or Namibia, needs to take an English proficiency test…..and OET is an English language Proficiency Test designed specifically for healthcare professionals! OET has been developed specifically for 12 healthcare professions: Nursing Me ..read more

YES!!! The updated Occupational English Test will take effect on 9 September 2018. Not many changes are made in the Spoken or Written modules, but the Listening and Reading modules have changed and ‘understanding’ the extracts is now the ‘Key’ to the assessment rubrics. A few changes and a lot of guidance in your study will make the new format just as easy to answer and that is what we at Acumen provide. Section Duration/ Proforma Task Target for Scoring Rubrics Part A 15 minutes Summary Task Quick reading task. Strictly timed.   3-4 short texts of approximately 650 words rel ..read more

Rules of Usage Medications and Diseases Proper Nouns: Common Nouns: Common Nouns do not name any specific institution, place, person or profession Holidays, Months, Days of the week all need to be capitalized. Pronoun “I” must be Capital. Capitalized the first Word of a salutation and the first words of a complimentary. SIMPLE PAST TENCE Format Active: Subject + Verb (ed) + Object Passive: Object + was/were + Past Participle + by + Subject Time Phrase 2 Hours / Month / Days / Years ago Yesterday in 1970 Last Month / year/ week The post Study the Rules of Usage below to ensure you meet t ..read more

The Occupational English Test (OET) has been developed specifically for 12 healthcare professions: Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Speech Pathology, Dentistry, Dietetics, Medicine, Optometry, Podiatry, Radiography, and Veterinary Science. Now Online OET Classes are Also Available YES!!! The updated Occupational English Test OET 2 will take effect on 9 September 2018. Continuing on what the new OET 2 structure is going to be all about , let us consider the reading test for OET;- the reading sub test structure has also changed and before becoming apprehensive, REMEMBER ..read more