OET Nursing syllabus

Only half of OET is nursing specific. Writing and Speaking are built for each of the twelve professions, so a nurse writes a nursing letter and role plays nursing consultations. Listening and Reading are the same papers for every candidate, which means a nurse and a dentist sit identical Listening and Reading tests on the same day.

Candidates who buy nursing branded preparation expecting nursing specific reading passages are paying for general healthcare material, because that is what those two sub-tests contain.

The format below covers all four sub-tests. Browse the available OET Nursing practice papers.

Syllabus by section

OET at a glance

Exam pattern

The four sub-tests

Reading is the only sub-test with an internal time lock. Part A is separately timed at 15 minutes, and Parts B and C share the remaining 45. Time left over in Part A does not carry forward.

On OET on Computer and OET@Home, Speaking is taken online within about five days of the other three sub-tests rather than on the same day.

Listening Part A and Reading Part A are double marked by assessors. Parts B and C of both are computer scanned. Writing and Speaking are double marked, and in Speaking the interlocutor does not score.

How the test is scored

Each sub-test gives a number from 0 to 500 in ten point increments, and that number maps to a letter grade. Regulators publish the numbers they require rather than the grades, which matters because the thresholds no longer line up neatly with the letters.

There is no single pass mark. What counts as a pass is whatever the regulator you are registering with says it is, and those requirements differ by country and have moved recently.

What each regulator requires for nurses

Writing is the sub-test with the lower bar almost everywhere, at C+ rather than B. Australia is the exception since 23 April 2026, where Writing now requires 350 and C+ is no longer enough. Reading and Speaking in Australia also moved to 360, above the old B threshold.

Nurses registering in Ireland go through the NMBI. CORU regulates ten other health and social care professions and does not regulate nursing, which is a common and expensive mix up.

Combining scores across two sittings

Whether you can bank a good sub-test score and resit the rest is decided by the regulator, and the rules differ sharply.

• NMC, United Kingdom: two sittings may be combined if they are within 12 months of each other by test date, both are under two years old at assessment, and all four sub-tests were taken in each sitting. Every score in both sittings must also clear a floor, and OET results cannot be combined with IELTS results

• NMBA and AHPRA, Australia: one sitting, or a maximum of two within a 12 month period running from the earlier sitting, with two sitting floors of 320 Listening, 340 Reading, 350 Writing and 350 Speaking. Results cannot be combined across different test providers

• Nursing Council of New Zealand: combining is permitted, with all required scores achieved within 12 months of the first sitting

• NMBI, Ireland: combining is not permitted. One test result only

OET has no single skill retake. If a sub-test falls short and your regulator does not allow combining, the whole test is sat again.

Where OET@Home is accepted

The at home format exists for nursing, and acceptance is the problem rather than availability.

• NMC, United Kingdom: accepted, and may be combined with paper or computer sittings

• NMBA and AHPRA, Australia: at home and remotely proctored versions are not accepted. The venue based computer test is accepted

• Nursing Council of New Zealand: not accepted

• NMBI, Ireland: not accepted

Check acceptance before booking rather than after. A valid OET@Home result that your regulator will not look at is a full test fee lost.

How the pattern has changed

The test itself has not changed. The sub-test structure, the item counts, the 15 minute Part A lock in Reading, the 0 to 500 scale and the assessment criteria are all as they were.

What changed is what regulators ask for. Australia revised its English language standard with effect from 18 March 2025, which among other things extended the two sitting window from six months to 12. A second change took effect on 23 April 2026, moving the Australian requirement from letter grades to numbers at 350 Listening, 360 Reading, 350 Writing and 360 Speaking.

Any claim of a 2025 or 2026 change to the OET format itself is describing a regulator change rather than a test change.

Listening

• Part A: two consultation extracts of about five minutes each. You complete the health professional’s notes as you listen

• Part B: six workplace extracts of about one minute each, with one multiple choice question on each, giving six items

• Part C: two presentation or interview extracts of about five minutes each, with six multiple choice questions on each, giving twelve items

• Forty two items in total, in about 40 minutes

• The same paper is taken by candidates from all twelve professions

The full Listening breakdown covers all three parts and the note completion technique Part A depends on.

Reading

• Part A: a fast reading task on four short texts about a single healthcare topic, 20 items, separately timed at 15 minutes. Matching, sentence completion and short answer questions

• Part B: six short workplace extracts such as policies, guidelines and internal emails, with one multiple choice question on each, giving six items

• Part C: two professional development articles with eight multiple choice questions on each, giving sixteen items

• Forty two questions in total across 60 minutes

Part A is the part candidates run out of time in, because 20 items in 15 minutes allows 45 seconds each. The full Reading breakdown covers the three parts and how to work the Part A clock.

Writing

• One letter, written from a set of case notes. For nursing this is usually a referral letter

• Other letter types that appear include transfer letters, discharge letters, letters giving information or advice to a patient or carer and letters responding to a complaint

• Forty five minutes in total, structured as five minutes to read the case notes and related documents, then forty minutes of writing

• Guidance length is 180 to 200 words

• Assessed on six criteria: Purpose, Content, Conciseness and Clarity, Genre and Style, Organisation and Layout, Language

The full Writing breakdown covers the six criteria and how case note selection drives the Content and Purpose marks.

Speaking

• A short warm up conversation with the interlocutor, which is not assessed

• Two role plays. You play the nurse, the interlocutor plays a patient, relative or carer

• Three minutes to read each role play card, then about five minutes to perform it

• About twenty minutes in total

• Assessed on four linguistic criteria and five clinical communication criteria

The full Speaking breakdown sets out all nine criteria and what the clinical communication half actually rewards.

What is not in the syllabus

• No clinical knowledge test. OET assesses English in a healthcare setting rather than nursing competence

• No nursing specific Listening or Reading. Those two sub-tests are identical across all twelve professions

• No negative marking in any sub-test

• No multiple choice element in Writing or Speaking

• No single skill retake

• No fixed validity period set by OET itself

• No essay. The Writing task is always a letter

How to spend the time

Start with Reading Part A, because it is the only genuinely timed trap in the test. Twenty items in fifteen minutes rewards skimming for a specific fact and punishes reading four texts properly.

Writing is where most nurses lose their registration attempt, and the reason is usually case note selection rather than grammar. The six criteria reward choosing what the reader needs and leaving out what they do not, so practise deciding which notes belong in the letter before practising how to phrase them.

Speaking needs the clinical communication criteria practised deliberately. Relationship building, structure and incorporating the patient’s perspective are assessed separately from your grammar, and a linguistically strong candidate who talks over a worried relative will lose marks on the half of the rubric that has nothing to do with language.

Listening Parts B and C are the quick marks, at one and six questions per extract. Browse the available OET Nursing practice papers.

Common mistakes

• Expecting nursing specific content in Listening and Reading, which are the same for all twelve professions

• Booking OET@Home for a regulator that does not accept it, such as AHPRA, NCNZ or the NMBI

• Assuming Grade B across all four sub-tests is the requirement, when most regulators accept C+ in Writing

• Using the old Australian letter grades after 23 April 2026, when the requirement became 350, 360, 350 and 360

• Reading all four Part A texts before answering, inside a 15 minute limit

• Copying case notes into the Writing letter wholesale instead of selecting what the reader needs

• Planning to resit a single sub-test, which OET does not offer

• Applying to CORU as a nurse in Ireland rather than the NMBI

OET against IELTS Academic

Both are accepted by the major nursing regulators, and the choice usually comes down to whether healthcare context helps you. The IELTS Academic syllabus covers that test in full.

The practical difference is the retake. A nurse who misses one sub-test on IELTS may be able to resit that skill alone, where the same nurse on OET sits all four again unless their regulator allows combining two sittings.

Frequently asked questions

Is the whole OET nursing specific?

No. Writing and Speaking are specific to each of the twelve professions. Listening and Reading are the same papers for every candidate.

How many items are in OET Listening and Reading?

Forty two in each. Listening runs about 40 minutes and Reading 60 minutes.

Is Reading Part A separately timed?

Yes. Part A is locked to 15 minutes and Parts B and C share the remaining 45. Unused Part A time does not carry forward.

What grade do I need for the NMC?

Grade B, meaning 350 or above, in Listening, Reading and Speaking, and C+, meaning 300 or above, in Writing.

What changed for Australia in April 2026?

From 23 April 2026 the requirement is expressed in numbers rather than letters: 350 Listening, 360 Reading, 350 Writing and 360 Speaking. Writing rose from C+ to 350, so C+ is no longer sufficient there.

How long is an OET result valid?

OET sets no validity period of its own. The recognising regulator decides, and two years is the common requirement.

Can I retake just one sub-test?

No. OET has no single skill retake. Some regulators allow you to combine results from two full sittings instead.

Is OET@Home accepted everywhere?

No. The NMC accepts it. AHPRA, the Nursing Council of New Zealand and the NMBI do not.

How long is the OET writing task?

Forty five minutes in total, being five minutes to read the case notes and forty minutes to write. Guidance length is 180 to 200 words.

How many role plays are in the Speaking sub-test?

Two, each with three minutes of preparation and about five minutes of performance, inside a total of about twenty minutes.

Does OET test clinical knowledge?

No. It assesses English language in a healthcare context. Clinical competence is assessed separately by the regulator.

Which regulator covers nurses in Ireland?

The NMBI. CORU regulates ten other health and social care professions and does not cover nursing.