Common stages in the writing task
Key stages in the writing task
Analysing the task to be clear that you are
providing the appropriate information - e.g.
your choice of information could be different
for different readers
Reading the case notes to identify:
- the main purpose of the referral - what do
you want the reader to check or know?
- information which could be relevant to the
reader when making their decision
Organising the information into a cohesive
(unified and interconnected) whole
Writing the letter out in full with attention to
the details of English
Main language focus of each stage
.
Identifying the audience and how that affects
content
This includes length - the 200 word limit means
you will need to make careful decisions about
leaving out information while still maintaining
enough information for the reader to base an
assessment or action on.
Focus on meaning—this will generally be straight
forward, but it's a good idea to check. (See also
section B in the 'Common OET writing mistakes'
document).
Reading and highlighting the key information
Focus on meaning (see also section B in the
'Common OET writing mistakes' document).
Writing a plan
Focus on meaning and overall text organisation
(see also section B C and E in the 'Common OET
writing mistakes' document).
Focus on language forms - using grammar and
vocabulary appropriate to formal letter writing
(see also sections A, C and D in the 'Common
OET writing mistakes' document).
In any test it is helpful to have some strategies to use. The following will
help you in the Writing Sub-test.

 Remember that in the real OET test, you get 5 minutes

reading time (no writing allowed)

 During this time read everything. You must decide:

o what is relevant and what is irrelevant eg allergies,

family history etc.,
o how you will begin the letter, e.g. with the last
consultation or the first consultation,
o if it's an urgent referral begin the letter with the last
consultation.

 Keep in mind the OET Assessment Criteria when you are

writing.

 Leave a blank line in between each paragraph.

 On the real OET test, you can use either a pen or a HB

pencil. In this online program, use your computer to create
a Word document, save it to your hard disk and submit it
online.

 The date of the letter is the date of the last consultation

(nurses: the date of discharge).

 Use passive voice e.g. NOT "I arranged a blood test."

BETTER: "A blood test was arranged."

 Don't copy exactly from the case notes as the information

is written in note form. You will need to EXPAND the notes,
e.g.

o Case notes: sore throat, T 39, infected tonsils - exudate

o Letter: Mr Smith complained of a sore throat. On
examination, he was febrile and the tonsils were
infected with signs of exudate.
Assessment criterion A: Appropriateness of language
This criterion assesses whether or not your use of vocabulary is suitable for a
formal, professional letter.

Mistake Correction

I really appreciate your ongoing management I greatly appreciate ... (greatly is more formal)
...

I ordered some tests. Some tests were ordered. (passive voice is

more formal than active voice)

Mr. Smith is an alcoholic. These examples are too emotive (and not
formally accurate). Better choices include:
Mrs. Smith is fat.
Mr. Smith's alcohol intake is above the
recommended levels, OR
Mr. Smith's alcohol intake is excessive. (The
2nd one is better if you need to save words.)

Mrs. Smith's weight is significantly above her

ideal weight range, OR Mrs. Smith is
overweight or obese.

Using she/he in the 1st sentence of a Write the patient's name or 'the patient' because
paragraph. the first sentence in a paragraph is the most
important sentence.

Assessment criterion B: Comprehension of the stimulus

This criterion assesses your ability to select information from the case notes or
other stimulus which is relevant to the reader's needs. The main thing to
remember in this criterion is to INCLUDE important information and EXCLUDE
unimportant information.

So, the question nurses, doctors and dentists need to ask is: "What does the
reader need to know in order to treat or care for this patient?"

For pharmacists, the question is more like to be: "What does the customer need
to know about this product in order to use it safely?"
Mistake
Including all the normal vital signs.
Assessment criterion C: Grammar and cohesion
This criterion assesses sentence level grammar, how sentences are linked
together into paragraphs and then how those paragraphs are linked together to
form a cohesive, logically developed letter.
Mistake
Missing articles a or an or the
Missing the or pronoun before the object of the
sentence
Missing a joining word (this is not a
comprehensive list - see Weblinks to grammar
websites for further grammar information).
Correction
Only include POSITIVE examination
findings BUT sometimes the reader will need
to know NEGATIVE findings e.g. with an
anorexic patient, the thyroid function tests are
normal / negative so the reader will need to
know this.
Correction
Write a/an in front of all COUNTABLE nouns the
FIRST TIME you write them. The second time
you mention them, use the e.g. Mrs. Smith
underwent an operation yesterday. The
operation was a success.
Write the OR his OR her in front of all body parts
e.g. Mr. Smith sustained fractures to the ribs, OR
I sold Mr. Smith a medication for pain in the
knee. An exception is: a fractured femur,
however, you say: a fracture of the femur.
Write furthermore or in addition or
moreover, and, etc. when adding more, related
information to the previous clause/sentence.
Write consequently or therefore or as a
result to indicate that something happens
because of what you have mentioned in the
previous clause/sentence.
Write however, but, etc. to indicate that you
are presenting information that contrasts the
information in the previous clause/sentence.
Write In view of the above, ... to indicate that
you are about to make a suggestion or give an
opinion based on the information you have
presented earlier.
Using the wrong tense (this is not a
comprehensive list - see Weblinks to grammar
websites for further grammar information).
Assessment criterion D: Spelling and Punctuation
This criterion assesses the accuracy of your spelling and punctuation.
Mistake
... a sever cold
There are lists of commonly misspelled words
in the grammar websites that you can find in
the Weblinks.
Missing commas after adverbial phrases or
clauses before the main clause e.g. Over the
past five years Mrs Jones has been responding
well to treatment.
Common tenses useful for the writing task
include:
Simple present to describe facts that stay the
same for a long time e.g. The tests show that
Mrs Jones has a respiratory disease.
Simple past to describe aspects of a patient's
history that were completed in the past e.g. Mrs
Jones had a major operation in 2002.
Present perfect to describe aspects of a
patient's history that continue to have an effect
in the present e.g. Mrs Jones has completely
recovered from her operation. (Note the
placement of the adverb between the two parts
of the verb.)
Present continuous to describe a patient's
currently uncompleted treatment e.g. Mrs Jones
is undergoing radiation therapy.
Correction
a severe cold
Over the past five years, Mrs Jones has been
responding well to treatment.
Assessment criterion E: General
This criterion assesses things like your use of letter-writing norms.

Mistake Correction

You include a patient's minor social history in Write it in the Re section e.g. Re: Mrs. Joan
the body of the letter. Smith, 45 years old, married, two children.

The Re section is not counted so you save

words. HOWEVER, if some social history is
important e.g. if an emphysema patient is a
smoker, the fact that he smokes should be
written in the body of the letter.

Speaking

WARM UP: In the warm up, which is not assessed, listen to the examiner's voice
(speed, accent/pronunciation) and get used to it. Also, control your breathing in
order to relax.

DURING READING TIME:

• Make notes on the role-play cards (key words, make notes in short sentences
etc.)
• Underline only the main points.
• Ask the examiner to explain anything you don't understand.
• Read the situation on the role-play cards including the setting and the time.
• When the role-play begins you cannot stop until the end of the role-play.

DURING THE TASK:

• Don't be worried about doing everything in the task. The examiner will stop you
when he/she has enough language samples to make a judgement.

• The Speaking sub-test is like a normal conversation in English so you need to

respond to the examiner/patient.

A typical mistake is to ignore the examiner/patient because you are thinking

what to say next.
• If the "patient" is worried you must reassure the examiner/patient, for example,
"I understand why you're worried, but from what you've told me and from
my examination I can tell you that you have tension headaches."

• Listen for signals which tell you that you need to respond.

For example:
Patient: I'm concerned about immunisation.
Candidate: What exactly are you concerned about?

• Don't worry about the time - that is up to the examiner.

Assessment criterion A: overall communicative

effectiveness
Here the examiner is looking to see that the overall purpose of the situation is
achieved e.g. whether or not the patient or customer has received an adequate
response to their particular health concern as outlined in the roleplay card and in
the patient's/customer's questions and emotional state.

Mistake Correction

1. Misinterpreting the roleplay card. This is
not that common, but when such
misinterpretation occurs, it can lead to
embarrassing miscommunication with the
patient/customer.
Make sure you clarify any terms you are at all
unsure about with the examiner.
One way to do this would be to state to the
examiner what you think are the key facts you
need to consider in the roleplay to check if your
understanding is right.

2. Forgetting polite introductions and initial Don't forget polite introductions and
small talk. questions e.g. Hello Mr/Ms Black and how can I
help you today? (There are a number of other
possible introductions.)

3. Ignoring the patient/customer's questions
and/or information. It is common for
candidates to read the roleplay card and then
assume they have enough information to start
giving the patient advice. This can lead to:
• missing vital information from the patient
that could affect the information given
• a one-way flow of information that could lead
to friction with the patient.
Remember that the examiner/patient has extra
information on their roleplay card that could be
useful to your assessment. Remember to:
• get a brief history from the patient–this
could turn up some useful information
• periodically check you understand the
patient's/customer's concerns by paraphrasing /
summarising what you understand their concerns
are
• when you are giving advice, periodically check
that the patient has understood your advice
so far.
4. Ignoring or failing to respond appropriately Ways to reassure include using phrases such as:
to a patient's/customer's emotional state–often
a patient/customer will be anxious or angry I understand .. but the chance of
and you need to be able to reassure them that you might anything going wrong
and/or calm them down. .. is very small.
.. feel
anxious or
or or
worried
about ..
.. but I can assure you
It is quite that this operation /
normal to .. problem is a common
one and …

Assessment criterion B: intelligibility

The focus here is on whether or not what you say is understandable.
Pronunciation is important, but word order and vocabulary choice can also affect
intelligibility.

Mistake Correction

1. Pronunciation and/or sentence stress issues
differ between individuals. They are often
affected by pronunciation and/or rhythmical
differences between a person's first language
and English.
The course includes links to pronunciation
websites which will allow you to practice any
particular English sounds you might have
difficulty with. Try this site

2. Some candidates speak too quickly. This
could be because of first language differences
or because of nervousness; whatever the
cause, it can make speech more difficult to
understand.
Stress management techniques such as
becoming aware of your emotional state,
controlling your breathing and consciously
slowing down your speech can help. (Don't slow
down too much!)

Assessment criterion C: fluency

Here the examiner is assessing your ability to maintain and ongoing conversation
that links together cohesively e.g. you don't have to hesitate too much trying to
think of what to say next.
Mistake Correction

There seems to be a couple of main causes for
this problem:
1. uncertainty about what vocabulary to use
The course includes links to health-related
websites which can be used to build your health-
related vocabulary. The development of more
general vocabulary is also important–reading and
listening to English everyday is an important way
to build up general vocabulary.

2. being overly concerned with grammatical
accuracy at the expense of communicating
meaning.
It is too late to worry about your grammar once
the roleplays start–working on grammatical
accuracy needs to take place before the
roleplays. It can be useful to focus on the fact
that you are a health professional trying to
provide someone with useful information rather
than a test candidate having their English
analysed.

Assessment criterion D: appropriateness of language

The examiner will be looking to see that you use language (verbal and non-
verbal) suitable for a health professional e.g. you need to be speak reasonably
formally and to be confident of your knowledge, but at the same time to be aware
that you need explain technical terms for the non-expert patient and to be aware
of, and respond to, your patient's ideas and feelings.

Mistake Correction

1. Using technical terms that a non-expert Use synonyms and/or more everyday terms
would be unlikely to understand e.g. e.g.

- for dentists: occlusal = biting surface

- for doctors: myocardial infarction = heart attack
- for nurses: diabetic nephropathy = kidney disease caused by diabetes
- for pharmacists: allergic rhinitis = hay fever

2. Being either too aggressive or not assertive
enough when talking with patients/customers.
Being too aggressive can make
patients/customers feel negative and less likely
to provide useful information.
You need to strike a balance here–you need to
present your professional opinion with a
confidence that gives the patient/customer the
assurance that your information is reliable, while
at the same time being careful not to 'lecture'
the patient/customer as though their opinion is
not important.

3. However, a patient/customer might be quite If a patient/customer is being difficult and they

aggressive uncooperative towards you and if are questioning your knowledge, it is not good
you 'give in' and agree with them too easily, enough to simply dismiss their ideas and assert
your professional knowledge might be ignored that you are right because you 'are an expert'.
and/or undervalued.
A better response would be to acknowledge
that a range of opinions exist about the topic but
that 'recent research' suggests that there is
scientific/statistical support for your advice.

Assessment criterion E: resources of grammar and

expression
This criterion assesses your ability to express yourself using accurate English
grammar and expression.

Mistake Correction

1. There are so many grammatical errors that
your meaning becomes unclear. There is more
room for grammatical error in the speaking
sub-test than in the writing sub-test because
the main focus here is on effective
communication. However, it is obviously better
to be grammatically accurate.
The course includes links to grammar websites
which will allow you to practice particular English
grammar you might have difficulty with and
course teachers will provide additional feedback
on this aspect of your performance.

Reading

In any test it is helpful to have some strategies to use. The following will
help you in the Reading Sub-test.

 When you receive the Reading paper and the supervisor tells you to begin,
immediately tear the papers from the staple. In this way you can put the text
next to the questions so that you don’t have to keep turning the pages.

 Read the title, this will give a general idea of the whole passage

 EITHER read the whole passage quickly to get a general idea then start the
questions

OR

 Read the first few paragraphs then read the first question THEN
underline key words in the question THEN go back to the paragraphs and
look for the answer to Q.1

 MANAGE THE TIME - do not spend too much time on a difficult question.
Have a GOOD GUESS then go to the next question. Later, go back to the
difficult question and try again.
General hints for reading passages

If you do well in the reading tasks already, you are probably already aware of the
following hints. If you are not doing as well as you would like, think about the hints
when you try your next reading task.

MCQs are made up of a QUESTION STEM and four POSSIBLE ANSWERS. There are
a number of common 'tricks' to reading the two parts of MCQs that we will discuss
here.

A. What is the question stem asking EXACTLY?

There are a number of things to be aware of in the question stem.

1. Be aware of KEY WORDS in the question. The core part of question-stem

one (Q1) is seeking to find out something about the number of people with
cholera, but there are a number of LIMITING WORDS AND PHRASES which narrow
down the topic e.g. Q1 is after information about the number of people who:

 have been affected (this could possibly include those killed,

those infected, those with a family member infected, etc - not
just those that have died)

 have been affected by the current epidemic (not an earlier

one or a predicted one)

 live in Latin America (not on another continent and not just

from one country within Latin America)

 have been affected so far (not those who might be affected

in the future).

2. Be aware of NEGATIVE QUESTION forms e.g. Q3 asks you to identify a

FALSE statement which means that any true statements are the wrong answer.

Other negative question forms include:

 Which of the following statements DOES NOT reflect the

researcher's findings?

 Which of the following statements COULD NOT be inferred

from the article?

There are others of course - be sure to check.

3. Be aware of QUESTIONS OF DEGREE i.e. some questions include limiting

words/phrases which ask for an answer that is the BEST or MOST USEFUL or LEAST
USEFUL (see Q9), etc.
This means that more than one answer could be correct, and that there will be
more information you need to find which indicates how one answer compares to
others.

B. How do the possible answers compare to the text?

The key 'trick' of MCQs is to distract you from the correct answer. There are a few
ways that this can be done.

1. Using terms in the correct answer that are different from those in the reading
text but which have a similar meaning (i.e. SYNONYMS).

It is very common in MCQs to use synonyms for words in the text e.g. Q3 uses the
term large scale to refer to the cholera outbreak whereas in the text the term
used is widespread.

A particular example of the use of synonyms in the sample task can be seen in the
way that statistics are referred to in different ways–see the detailed answers to Q2
and Q3 for examples of this.

(The opposite of a synonym is an ANTONYM. Being aware of words and phrases

with opposite meanings to those in the possible answers is also an important tool
when trying to choose the most appropriate answer.)

2. Using language in the incorrect answers which makes them sound as though
they could be correct, even though they are not.

Some ways this is achieved include:

 The use of different degrees of definiteness - e.g. if a possible

answer states that an article says that something IS true (i.e.
100% definite) but the article says that something COULD BE
true (i.e. it is possible but not 100% certain) then you need
to be wary.

 The use of different tenses - e.g. if a possible answer states

that a disease HAS BEEN a widespread problem for some time
(i.e. the disease became widespread some time ago and has
continued to be a problem up to the present time) but the
article says that the disease WAS a widespread problem
[before a vaccine had been found] (i.e. it is no longer a
problem now) then you need to be wary.

 The use of referencing (how the Subject of a sentence is

referred back to in other parts of the text). Sometimes this is
relatively easy to see such as when words are repeated e.g.
'people affected' in Q1 links to 'could affect as many as 120
million people ...') in the reading. Sometimes it is more
subtle (see the detailed answer to Q7).