OET Speaking: Role Play(Nursing) OET Speaking Marking Criteria

OET Speaking: Role Play(Nursing) OET Speaking Marking Criteria

If you are preparing for OET Speaking test, these questions must have crossed your mind.

How can I improve my OETspeaking skills?

How to prepare for role play?

How many questions are there in OET Speaking?

Is OET Speaking easy or difficult?

Keep reading, and this detailed blog will guide you everything about scoring better in OET Speaking Test.

OET(Occupational English test) Writing Sub-test is a 45 minutes test mainly for health professionals aspiring to go abroad for Nursing and Medical Jobs.

OET is available for the following 12 professions: dentistry, dietetics, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, optometry, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry, radiography, speech pathology, and veterinary science.

According to Wikipedia, OET was designed in the late 1980s by Professor Tim McNamara, under the guidance of the Australian National Office for Overseas Skills Recognition (NOOSR), which administered the test at that time. List of regulatory organizations that accept OET can be seen on the official website.

IELTS test contains three sections: Academic, General Training and Life Skills & consists of different question types including MCQ, fill in the blanks,  short sentences and True/False/Not given questions.

OET is similar to IELTS but a bit simpler. It consists of 2 sections: First one is fill in the missing words passage and second one is MCQ. 

OET Test is divided into Four sub-tests:

• Listening (approximately 45 minutes)
• Reading (60 minutes)
• Writing (45 minutes)
• Speaking (approximately 20 minutes)

In this article, we’ll discuss OET Speaking: Role Play.

OET Speaking Sub-Test:

OET Speaking sub-test consists of 20 minutes and are curated for health professionals. In this test, there are role plays that candidate takes for example as a nurse, as a pharmacist) while examiner plays a patient, patient’s relative or carer. For veterinary science, examiner plays role of owner or carer of the animal.

OET Speaking Sub-test structure:

Main focus of this exam is to test the candidate’s identity and profession. After a short conversation about candidate’s professional background, Role-plays are introduced and candidate is given 3 minutes to prepare for each. 

Role-plays take about 5 Minutes each.

OET Speaking Role Play:

Candidate received information for each role-play on a card(cue card). Card explains the whole situation and what candidate is required to do. You are allowed to write notes on the card if required. 

Examiner follows a given script to keep the speaking test structure same for each candidate. 

As a health professional, candidate needs to control the conversation they have with the patient. As OET Speaking test replicates health professional-to-patient interactions, take control of role-play just like in a real life.

OET Speaking Role Play (Nursing): ID Check

OET Speaking Role Play (Nursing): First Role Play

How is OET Speaking marked?

Whole Role play is recorded and based on those audio recording, candidate is assessed.

• Candidate is marked by atleast 2 trained OET assessors.
• Both assessors do not what scores the other one has given to the candidate.
• Examiner from test day has no role in the marking of OET Speaking.
• OET Assessors are trained to focus on how test takers respond to the role plays. OET is a test of English language skills, not a test of professional knowledge.

Test-Takers familiared with the assessment criteria, who paid attention to specific role-plays have a better chances of getting score. Those who rely on memorise techniques never perform with their full potential. So, do not memorise anything. 

Candidate’s performance is marked against nine criteria. These nine criteria are divided into 2 segments: Linguistic and Clinical Communicate.

Linguistic Criteria:

• Candidates pronunciation, intonation, accent, how well examiner can listen or understand what you are saying.
• Candidates smoothness in speaking
• Appropriateness of language
• Resources of grammar and expression

Clinical Communication Criteria:

• Relationship-building quality
• Ability of involving the patient in the conversation
• How candidate organise the information
• Types of questions candidates ask
• Types of information candidates provide

OET Speaking Tips:

• Start the conversation
•  Keep the conversation moving
• Ask questions to get the patient to talk
•  Listen to the patient
•  Adjust your language
• Organise the role play

You can read about OET Speaking, how to get an A in OET Speaking, When it comes to scoring high, you need to practice as much as you can.

Consider an Online OET preparation course. 

O2 masters usually provide individual classes for both Academic and General Training. The main goal of O2 masters is to make a candidate enjoy learning and improve day by day.

I hope we’ve answered all your queries, if any doubt, share it in the comment section below.

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