How your nursing background helps with OET Reading
Mar 2023
Using your time management skills
As a healthcare professional, you will no doubt be very skilled in time management. The OET Reading Sub-test confirms your capacity to access and identify information quickly and accurately, when you are under pressure.
In the OET Reading section, time is of the essence, so your real-life time management skills are very handy!
In Reading Part A, for example:
- You have only 15 minutes to answer 20 questions, meaning less than one minute per question
- Accuracy is essential. You know from experience that careful copying and spelling are essential to avoid mistakes with patient care.
To fully prepare you for the pressure of the test, Destination OET provides you with timed practice for reading.
Understanding workplace communication
Reading Part B tests your understanding of workplace communications: messages, emails, memos, and other correspondence.
The questions will focus on
- the main purpose of the extract, and
- what should be done
to ensure that you will be fully prepared for your professional life beyond the OET.
Your skills in dealing with informational text, understanding headings and subheadings, and skimming and scanning to find information, are essential here.
Destination OET will provide you with many real-life examples of these texts for guided practice, to gain confidence and grow your vocabulary to prepare you for the OET test and for your future career.
Opinion or Fact?
Reading Part C does not require you to have any specialist knowledge, but it does require you to know the difference between opinion and fact when reading medical texts.
The research skills you have gained through your professional education can help you understand when the writer of a text is expressing their opinion, and what their opinion is.
Destination OET will train you in these skills, especially in Module 3, when you will receive targeted preparation for the Reading sub-tests. We will give you plenty of reading practice, and you will soon be confident in identifying the writer’s opinion and point of view. This will help you get the grade you need.
