The broadcast is now starting. All attendees are in listen-only mode. Welcome to the Listening Masterclass prepared by the OET education team.
Whether you're here to find out more about the tests or to get tips about improving your listening skills, there will be something for everyone. Each Masterclass covers three main sections: the format of the test, tips to help you prepare before the test, and how to succeed on test day. At the end are a few slides about where to go for more support after you've watched the Masterclass.
The Listening test is the same for all health professions. It is the first test on test day and lasts for approximately 40 minutes. It has three parts: Part A, B, and C.
Part A is a gap-fill task. It includes two extracts with two speakers in each. The format is a healthcare consultation between a patient and one of the healthcare professionals who can take OET.
Part B is a multiple-choice task. It includes six short extracts with one question per extract. There can be either one or two speakers in each.
The format is workplace communication between colleagues or a healthcare professional and a patient. Part C is also a multiple-choice task. It includes two longer extracts with either one or two speakers in each.
The format is either a presentation or interview, with one speaker being a healthcare professional talking about a general healthcare topic. Each part of the test has a different testing focus. Part A is testing that you can listen for details.
Part B tests a range of listening skills, including listening for gist, purpose, detail, and function. Part C also tests a range of listening skills, including listening for gist, attitude, and opinion. Each Listening test will have the same number of questions.
Part A has 24 gaps to complete, 12 per extract. Part B has six multiple-choice questions to answer, one per extract. Part C has 12 multiple-choice questions to answer, six per extract.
Each question is weighted equally, meaning your overall score is calculated out of 42 marks. The extracts you hear in Listening Part A are workplace consultations. You might hear a consultation with a specialist as a result of a referral of the patient to the specialist from the patient's GP, or it might be an initial consultation for the patient with a healthcare professional.
You won't necessarily hear the beginning of the consultation, nor will the consultation extracts always follow the same format. The information provided by the patient will make up most of each extract and is what you need to focus on to hear the answers you need to complete each gap. To prepare for Listening Part A, you need to practise listening for details in healthcare consultations in English.
You may be able to do this at work by listening in to consultations happening around you. Alternatively, there are a number of TV documentaries that focus on patient experiences in hospitals. 24 Hours in A&E (which stands for Accident and Emergency) is a TV show from the UK that documents some of the patients who present at a major London hospital in one 24-hour period.
When watching one of these programmes, you should focus on listening for the language patients use to describe and discuss their health and how the healthcare professional manages the conversation, asking for more detail, moving the conversation forward, etc. Let's look at a sample question from Listening Part A. The paper will be arranged with a series of headings, examples, and gaps, and these provide useful clues to the information you need to listen out for to record the answer.
In Listening Part A, some of the words you hear will be exactly the same as those on the page, as in these examples. These are useful to help you keep your place in the recording. Other words will be different from the notes you have, which reflects the different ways patients and professionals use language to describe a condition.
You will need to be prepared for this and not treat the question paper as a script that you will hear word for word. In these examples, you can see that on the page, the word "further" is given, but in the audio, you will hear "other. " On the page, the phrase "epidural injections" is written, but the audio describes it as "this course of injections.
" In the final example, you have the words "decided not to try" on the paper, but the patient says, "I gave it a miss," which has a similar meaning. By putting all this together—the clues from the headings and examples, the words that are the same, and those that are different—you will be able to focus on hearing the word or phrase to complete the gap while the audio is playing. In this example, you can see that the answer to number 9 is "ultrasound," and it appears in the audio between "this course of injections" and "electrical impulses.
" Likewise, the answer to number 10, which is "acupuncture," comes after "electrical impulses" and before the phrase "I gave it a miss. " The extracts you hear in Listening Part B are examples of workplace communication. You might hear part of a handover, a training session or briefing, or part of a discussion between colleagues or a patient and healthcare professional.
Each extract is only around one minute long, so it may be a snippet from a longer communication, but it will contain all the information needed to answer the multiple-choice question. To prepare for Listening Part B, you need to practise listening for the gist in short healthcare communications in English. You may be able to do this by listening in to communication happening around you at work.
Alternatively, you can find many examples of healthcare training videos in English on the internet. The majority of answer options in Listening Part B will include a verb or verb phrase. You may be more familiar with some of these verbs than others, as they are fairly formal.
They are all typical of the healthcare workplace, so it is good to spend some time familiarising yourself with them and their meanings. For example, you may know more informal expressions or verbs with the same meaning: "find" for "locate," "add" for "install," etc. Let's look at a sample Part B question.
Each question starts with a context statement to help you understand who is speaking and why. This context is clearly provided at the start of the audio. It's important to read the answer options carefully and to understand the information each one gives you.
For example, see the detail provided by the noun phrase and the action described by the verb phrases. This will help you focus on the differences between each option, which you can then listen for in the audio. Like with Listening Part A, you need to be prepared for some of the words that you hear in the audio to be different from those written on your question paper.
In these examples, we can see that "interruptions" is in option A, but in the audio, you hear "disturbed. " In answer option B, "patient allergies" are mentioned, but in the audio, you hear "patient sensitivities. " While listening, check to hear if all parts of the answer option are included before choosing it as your answer.
Here, "being disturbed" is said in place of "interruption," and "preparing doses" in place of "calculating dosages," but the result is the same meaning. As well as listening for the correct option, it's good to check that the other options are wrong. In answer B, the audio sounds like it is suggesting this is correct, but then the audio continues to clarify that it isn't common, which is different from the question, which says "usually.
" This answer option is more clearly wrong because part of the audio includes a phrase with the opposite meaning. The question is asking for mistakes "usually resulting late in the day" (answer option C), but the audio is talking about being more common "in the morning," which means the opposite of "late in the day. " The two longer extracts you hear in Listening Part C are on general healthcare topics.
The extract will either be an interview of a healthcare professional or a presentation given by a healthcare professional. This may not be the whole of the interview or presentation, but it will contain all of the information needed to answer the questions. To prepare for Listening Part C, you need to practise listening to the speaker's perspective, which means their opinion and attitude to the topic, as well as the gist of what they are saying.
Some good listening sources in English are podcasts, TED Talks, as well as attending in-service training events at your workplace. When listening to or watching a presentation, such as this one produced by the World Health Organization, you are training your brain to listen and concentrate for longer. By listening to unfamiliar content, you are training your brain to hear and deal with new vocabulary.
This is important, as it's easy to be distracted by a word you don't know. Don't be tempted to pause the audio to check the meaning of some vocabulary. Write it down to check later, but while you're listening, let it go so it doesn't break your concentration.
You are also training your brain to remain focused. It's easy for your brain to switch off if it is finding the task of listening to something complex difficult. The questions will help you to keep your place in the audio, so make sure you use the reading time wisely at the start so you can focus on each one as it comes up in the audio and stay focused on hearing the information you need to choose the correct answer option.
Let's look at a sample question for Listening Part C. Like Listening Part B, each question will be clearly introduced, so it won't be difficult to know when the recording has moved on to the next question. Also, like Part B, it's important to read each answer option carefully and to understand the information it provides you.
In this example, each option starts with a phrase of similar meaning, so these can be ignored—they will not help you to identify the answer. Similarly, the different phrases in the question identify the differences between each option and will give you valuable clues about what you will hear and need to focus on. It is quite likely that the meaning of the answer option that is correct may be inferred or implied rather than directly provided.
This means you need to not only listen to the individual words but understand the meaning provided by them in combination. As in this example, the implication here is that working with Anna meant Ted didn’t have to stay the way he was, and this is backed up by the final sentence. Like Part B, it is also good to listen to check the other options are incorrect.
In this example, the use of the past perfect tense that Anna uses to describe Ted's situation before she met him makes these options incorrect. They are mentioned, but they do not answer the question, which is how Anna's therapy helped Ted. To summarise, the best ways to prepare for Listening are: listen to a variety of recordings on a variety of healthcare topics by a variety of speakers with a variety of accents.
Practise listening for the length of the individual parts of the Listening test but also for 40 minutes in one go, which is the length you will need to concentrate on test day. Do complete official practice tests so that you are familiar with the format of the Listening test, but also spend time improving your listening skills using the ideas presented in this Masterclass. This will make the most noticeable difference to your score on test day.
Don't be tempted to use a dictionary. You need to train yourself to deal with unfamiliar vocabulary in recordings, so pausing the recording to check the meaning of words won't help you to do this. Save the dictionary for after you have finished the recording.
To make sure you get the best possible result on test day, here are some final tips: For Listening Part A, make sure you write as you listen. You only hear the recording once, so you need to have your answers written down by the end of the audio. The answers you need to write down are short, around one to three words, and the length of the gap is long enough to include this.
Don't try to write too much. Spelling and grammar mistakes are acceptable, provided the assessors can understand your meaning. These mistakes won't be penalised.
Use the words around the gaps to help you keep up with the recording and to give you clues about the information you are listening for. In Listening Part B, use the context and situation to help you start imagining the communication you will hear and the vocabulary that will be included. Read the answer options carefully and underline keywords that are going to help you identify the correct answer.
If the extract includes two speakers, make sure you listen to what they both say, as you may need to understand a combination of their responses to choose the correct option. Listen to the whole audio. Try to check all of the options by listening for information that proves each one is correct or incorrect.
In Listening Part C, keep focused. You need to keep listening and concentrating for the whole of each audio extract. In the reading time, read the questions carefully and understand the information provided in each answer option.
Listen for the audio to introduce each question to help you know where you are in the recording. You do not need to have got a previous question correct to get the next one correct. If you found one question difficult to answer, forget it and move on to the next.
Use the two minutes provided at the end to check your answers are clearly marked and to make a guess at any that you left blank. This Masterclass on Listening is available on demand, so you can listen to it as many times as you like. For further ways to prepare for the Listening test, visit the OET Preparation Portal for sample tests, tips, and strategies.
Join us for our twice-monthly Facebook Live question-and-answer sessions. Ask an OET expert for their advice with your preparation questions. Improve your general listening skills by enrolling in an OET Preparation Course.
We recommend our premium preparation course providers, who have been endorsed by OET for offering high-quality courses to candidates. Contact them directly to discuss your situation and goal. If there is not one local to you, some of them offer online options.
Thank you for listening, and good luck with your preparation. Prepare now for success later.
