Which exam should I take?

OET or
IELTS?
December 2, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

A lot of students ask me whether IELTS or OET is the best

option for them. Putting aside the specifics of your requirements
for migration/work/study (some people need to take both IELTS
and OET) and focusing purely on the tests themselves, here is
a short list of differences for you to be aware of in making your
decision.
Consistency of Content and Difficulty Level
IELTS: Questions are tested in practice tests and special
IELTS-partner schools all over the world and measured for
difficulty. Selected questions are then incorporated into the real
exam. This difficulty profile is then used to scale the exam
results, to keep the difficulty of the exams consistent over time.
In spite of this, there are some anecdotal reports that the
standard required to achieve a band 7 may have increased
gradually over the years, although not stated officially by IELTS.
In general, IELTS is a very rigorous system and its much more
likely to have variations in your English over time or over
different topics than it is to sit two IELTS exams with widely
differing difficulty levels.

OET: Because of the much smaller size of the organization,

OET is not able to use the same methods to ensure the
consistency of the exams. OET instead shapes the total set of
grades from a particular exam according to a scale (similar to
university grades). OET has also made more adjustments to its
format than IELTS over a shorter period of time. There are also
anecdotal reports that OET may have even made more
adjustments than those it has announced, for example,
increasing the speed of the listening test conversation.
The Speaking Test
Both are examining your ability to hold a natural conversation.
The difference is that one focuses on a particular type of
professional conversation, whereas the other is open to any
topic that is considered to be general knowledge. Because the
OET doesnt assess your professional knowledge, you can
prepare to pass by focusing on communication skills
practicing using natural phrases, intonation, to politely and
authoritatively lead the conversation. If you have experience in
professional practice in Australia or another English speaking
country, that will make the OET Speaking Test a lot easier for
you. If you have years of experience of natural conversation
practice with native speakers, that will make the IELTS
Speaking test much easier for you. The difficulty with IELTS is
the broad possible pool of topics you might need to talk about.

Some students try to prepare for this by learning a large amount

of vocabulary from dictionaries and writing short speeches to
memorize and use in the exam. This approach generally
doesnt work, and it definitely wont be enough to get you a
Band 7 on its own.
OET: Professional consultation only. Can mostly prepare by
learning non-specific communication skills, grammar and
pronunciation.
IELTS: All general knowledge topics. Must be careful to use
natural speaking language, not written English vocabulary.
Both: Require strong improvisation ability and natural
conversation skills. A formula approach will be obvious to the
examiner and will not score B in OET or 7 in OET.
The Writing Test
OET: Fairly easy for nurses. The standard seems to be higher
for some other professions such as medicine. The word count is
very strict. Aim for 200, plus or minus 10 words. Most students
can pass after 4 or 5 private lessons.
IELTS: General Training does not require a formal writing style,
so people with little academic background but good grammar

and a naturally flowing writing style can achieve a high mark

(Often candidates from Europe and South America). Again,
formulaic writing will not trick the examiners. Both Academic
and General Training exams will uncover all the flaws in your
English! Most students can achieve a 1 band score
improvement after 4-5 private lessons.
The Listening Test
OET: The OET Listening test asks you to write short notes to fill
in a report about a patient and a summary about a speech.
There are often multiple options allowed for each answer. The
examiner is often asked to accept anything that includes
particular keywords. The difficulties with OET Listening are that
the audio conversation is much more natural, and sometimes
includes mumbling and Australian slang expressions. Another
problem several students have told me about is that OET
Listening test rooms sometimes have background noise and
poor quality sound systems, making listening very difficult. As
mentioned in above, there are anecdotal reports that the speed
of the conversation may have increased and may no longer
match the official practice materials supplied by the OET centre
for a fee.
IELTS: A much less natural audio script, requiring you to fill
specific keywords into gaps. The marking is extremely strict and

you will lose marks for uncapitalized proper nouns, incorrect

grammar, and incorrect spelling when the word is considered to
be commonly known. Easier than OET for people with a more
technical approach to the language, rather than extensive
experience in Australia / New Zealand. Harder than OET for
people who have trouble focusing on each individual word.
The Reading Test
OET: Really only difficult for people who never read or dont
have the right strategy. The target to score B is only around
60%, but this varies depending on the scores of your
competitors. For example, 15 minutes is given for Part A. As a
native speaker, I can complete it in 4 minutes and achieve
100%. If youre having trouble, take an interest in learning about
new developments in medicine by reading academic articles.
IELTS: General Training is relatively easy if you know the
conventions of everyday written English texts like
advertisements and magazine articles. Academic IELTS
Reading is difficult for anyone. It will give you a good idea of
how hard it is to complete a degree at a top-tier university in a
second language.
Conclusion

I wont recommend one over the other because it totally

depends on your background. Is it possible to prepare for both
at once? For your health, I would strongly recommend you
dont! Focus on one, give it your all, and improve your English
naturally through practice. And dont forget, if you need help,
just let me know!

What Makes Online English Tutors

Different?
December 2, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

Over the decades, language educators

all over the world have refined their
understanding of the ideal methods for
language learning, arriving at a
consensus of certain key principles,
like a comprehensive level of language
input, a progression from controlled to
free practice and immediate feedback.
Not surprisingly, these factors that
make language learning successful

are also often the same things that

make it more enjoyable.
The problem is that traditional educational structures (like
classroom learning and textbooks) are not graded to the
individual students level and dont provide enough high quality
instant feedback.
The Online English Tutors method was developed to use more
up-to-date methods to give the student more targeted language
input and more high quality instant error correction in one-onone practice with a real native speaking teacher. Using a
combination of online quizzes, exam preparation self-study and
individual practice with an experienced native tutor allows our
students to achieve results in a few hours of teaching time that
would take months in traditional classroom study.

OET Speaking English

communication skills for health
professionals: Greeting the patient
December 2, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

Whether youre consulting a real patient or an examiner in the

Occupational English Test (OET), greeting the patient

appropriately makes a huge difference to their impression of

you and sets the tone for the whole interaction. Using the wrong
greetings and lead-ins to the conversation can demonstrate a
low level of English or even seem rude. To greet the patient in
an appropriate way for the situation, you need to consider two
things:
1) The patient
2) The environment

The Patient
In general, everyone is addressed the same way in casual
everyday English. Special titles or other polite language for rank
or seniority are rarely ever used. So you can speak to most
patients in exactly the same way. However, if there are any
important practical differences in the patients case, its good to
show that you are aware of these and can handle them in
English. For example:
A parent taking a small child to see you:
Doctor: Hi guys. Please, make yourselves comfortable. So
whos sick today?

Parent: My daughter.
Doctor: I see.
A patient with limited English knowledge:
Hi. Im Doctor Smith. Please. Sit down. Tell me if I speak too
fast. How can I help?
Should you refer to the patient by their first name, their last
name or no name at all?
In actual professional practice in Australia and New Zealand,
the common custom is to refer to all patients by their first name,
no matter how old they are. This creates a close connection as
a trusted equal.
But the patients name is not usually given on OET Speaking
test roleplay cards. You can ask the examiner for a name, but
you wont score any more marks for using a name in the
consultation. The only situation where using the name may help
is when you especially need to create a connection and get the
attention of a stubborn patient. For example:
Im worried about you John. If you dont improve your lifestyle
like weve discussed, youre at risk of a more serious heart
attack.
Known vs Unknown Patients

If the roleplay card somehow indicates that the patient is

already known to you (e.g. regular checkup, returning, etc),
youll lose marks if you introduce yourself. You instead need to
greet the patient accordingly, for example:
Hi, howve you been? What can I help you with today?

The environment
The patients hospital bed:
Hi, hows it going? My names Sarah, Im the nurse on duty
today. Youre almost ready to be leave the hospital so Ive just
come to talk to you about a few last things to take care of
before you leave.
Your consultation rooms:
Come in! Make yourself comfortable. Now, what brings you
here today?
That should give you a few greetings and introductions to start
with. The most important thing to take away is that the roleplay
cards will give you clues about how to approach the situation
with appropriate language. Read the roleplay card very

carefully, imagine the scenario vividly and mentally rehearse

your opening before you begin the exam.

Medical English Countable and

Uncountable Nouns (with free
online practice quiz)
December 2, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

Knowing when and how to count nouns is one of the most

difficult areas of English. Even 2nd language English speakers
from languages related to English still find it hard to use the
right articles and quantifiers 100% of the time. The first step is
to know if the noun is countable or not. I recommend compiling
a list in your notebook of the nouns you commonly need to use,
along with their countable/uncountable forms and context in
example sentences. There are no easy rules that will allow you
to get it right every time. Unfortunately youll have to learn the
countable/uncountable status of each noun separately. You
havent really learned a word until you know how to use it.
There are some guidelines that apply to medical English as
used in the OET (Occupational English Test) though:

If a noun is countable, it a/an should be used to introduce

it to the listener for the first time. The should be used when
the noun is already considered to be definite (specific or
known to the listener).

Generic drug types are are always used in plural form: e.g.
antibiotics, beta blockers, proton pump inhibitors.

Body parts are countable. You should usually use his /

her.

Disease names are uncountable. E.g. diabetes, heart

disease, cancer.

Wounds, tumours etc. occur in specific parts of the body,

so theyre countable. (He has cancer and he has a
melanoma on his left calf are both correct.)

Aches and pains are countable as they occur in a specific

part of the body. Some other symptoms and sensations are
uncountable, like nausea.

Some words can be both countable and uncountable, with

different meanings. A society, society, and societies all
have different usages and meanings. Make sure you learn
the correct form in context.

Click here for the practice quiz to test you on the guidelines
above. If youre not yet a member of the site, you will be asked
to join for free to access the quiz.