OET coaching built for clinicians, not adapted from IELTS.
Role plays are patient consultations. Writing is a referral letter. General English practice, however good, trains the wrong reflexes entirely, which is why so many excellent clinicians stay stuck at Grade C.
Who this is for
- Doctors and GPs registering with the GMC
- Registered nurses and midwives registering with the NMC
- Veterinary surgeons registering with the RCVS or equivalent
- Pharmacists registering with the GPhC or equivalent
- Healthcare professionals stuck at Grade C in one sub test
- Clinicians who’ve tried generic English tutoring and seen no movement
- Anyone deciding between OET and IELTS for registration
What this test is really measuring
OET Medicine, for doctors and GPs
High stakes consultant referral letters written from chaotic surgical case notes under a tight clock. Live role plays where you deliver difficult diagnostic news, manage a complex treatment adjustment, or handle a patient who has already decided against your recommendation. If you have been searching for an OET medical letter structure case notes breakdown, this is where that gets fixed.
OET Nursing, for registered nurses
Bedside handovers, and turning messy ward entry charts into crisp home care or community nurse discharge letters. Role plays with combative, uncooperative or anxious post operative patients, the ones who refuse the line change and will not be talked round easily. Most OET nurse referral writing criteria drops come from including everything rather than selecting what the receiving nurse actually needs.
OET Veterinary Science, for vets
Sifting complex animal history logs and laboratory data into formal specialist veterinary hospital referral letters. Live communication cards where you explain an expensive surgery, or handle a financial objection from a distressed pet owner or a livestock manager counting costs per head. A genuinely different communication problem from human medicine, and almost nobody teaches it properly.
OET Pharmacy, for pharmacists
Reviewing prescription history interaction files and writing concise formal advisory correspondence to general practitioners. Counselling patient role players live on complex dosages, side effect thresholds and controlled substance disputes, where the person in front of you may be anxious, insistent, or both.
If you are stuck at C plus and need Grade B in Writing, or you are looking for fail OET letter remarking help after a third attempt, the cause is nearly always the same and it is not your English. Here is why:
This is the single most important thing to understand about OET, and it explains almost every stuck score:
OET is assessed on linguistic criteria and clinical communication criteria together. The other half is how you communicate as a healthcare professional, how you build rapport, structure information, check understanding, and respond to a patient’s concerns.
If you are working through an OET medical letter structure case notes breakdown, or hitting repeated OET nurse referral writing criteria drops, the cause is almost always the information dump error rather than your English.
This is why clinically excellent, highly experienced professionals still get Grade C. Being good at the job is not the same as scoring well on how OET assesses the job. And it’s why general English tutoring cannot fix it, the thing being marked isn’t general English.
Recent changes that affect your preparation
OET remains profession specific, with separate versions for Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy and others. Listening and Reading are shared across professions; Writing and Speaking are tailored to yours.
Worth knowing on the Australian route: AHPRA revised its English requirements in April 2026. If you’re preparing for Australian registration, confirm the current thresholds directly rather than relying on older guidance.
The advantage people miss: once you’ve passed OET for UK professional registration, it generally also satisfies the English requirement for the Health and Care Worker visa. IELTS does not carry that shortcut, you’d potentially sit two tests instead of one.
Which version do you need?
| Regulator | Requirement |
|---|---|
| NMC (UK nurses & midwives) | Grade B in Listening, Reading and Speaking; C+ in Writing |
| GMC (UK doctors) | Grade B in all four sub tests, in a single sitting |
| Other regulators | HCPC, AHPRA, NMBI and others accept OET, confirm your own regulator's current thresholds |
PTE will not work for healthcare registration
PTE is not accepted by the UK NMC, the UK GMC, Ireland's NMBI, or CGFNS/VisaScreen in the US. Several websites claim otherwise. If you're registering as a nurse or doctor, your accepted options are OET or IELTS Academic, nothing else.
Where the marks actually go
What usually goes wrong, what I look for in your work, and how we work with it.
Writing, the referral letter
A profession specific letter built from case notes. Assessed on purpose, content, conciseness, genre, organisation and language.
What usually goes wrong
- Dumping every case note into the letter instead of selecting what the reader needs
- No clear purpose statement in the opening
- Writing to the wrong reader, register aimed at a patient rather than a colleague
- Treating it as an English essay rather than a clinical document
- Assuming better grammar will lift the grade when structure is the issue
How I work with it: Case note selection is a learnable, mechanical skill and it’s where most Grade C letters are lost. We work on what to leave out, which is harder and more valuable than what to put in.
Speaking, the role play
Two clinical role plays. Scored on linguistic criteria and clinical communication criteria simultaneously.
What usually goes wrong
- Leading with clinical content and skipping relationship building the criteria explicitly reward
- Memorised openings, which assessors are trained to spot
- Not checking the patient’s understanding or responding to their concern
- Freezing when the interlocutor goes off your expected script
- Treating it as an exam rather than a consultation
How I work with it: Recovery technique matters more than scripts. We work on sounding like a clinician talking to a worried person, which is exactly what the criteria reward, and what experienced professionals already do at work but abandon under exam conditions.
Reading
Profession neutral. Fast expeditious reading plus careful reading under real time pressure.
What usually goes wrong
- Part A time pressure, the most common failure point
- Over reading when scanning is required
- Losing marks through spelling in gap fill answers
- Not adjusting technique between Part A and Parts B and C
How I work with it: Part A is a speed and technique problem, not a comprehension problem. Targeted practice moves it quickly.
Listening
Consultation extracts and workplace presentations.
What usually goes wrong
- Missing detail while writing the previous answer
- Spelling of clinical terms costing marks unnecessarily
- Losing the thread in Part C’s longer extracts
- Not predicting what kind of answer the gap needs
How I work with it: Note taking discipline and prediction, plus the spelling accuracy that quietly costs marks for people whose comprehension is perfectly fine.
Common score patterns
If your report looks like one of these, the cause is usually known and specific.
Grade C in Writing, Grade B in everything else
Third or fourth attempt with the same result
Strong clinician, unexpectedly low Speaking grade
Passed everything except one sub test
Tried generic English courses with no improvement
If this is you
Excellent clinically, marked down anyway
Writing keeps landing one grade short
Freezes when the role play goes off script
Been told to ‘improve your English’ with no specifics
What we fix first
Most tutors offering OET are teaching general English with medical vocabulary added. That does not address what OET actually marks.
The clinical communication criteria are published. Most candidates have never read them. I mark your letters and role plays against those criteria specifically, the actual descriptors, so you know precisely which one is holding the grade, rather than being told to work on your English generally.
If you’ve failed OET more than twice while being good at your job, this is almost always why.
When this is not the right test for you
OET suits most healthcare candidates, but not everyone.
- If you also need a Student visa for specialty training, OET may not cover it, check UKVI Test.
- If OET test centres are scarce where you live, IELTS Academic is also accepted by the NMC and GMC and runs far more widely.
- If you’re not in a regulated healthcare profession, OET isn’t the right test at all.
Weighed against that: OET generally covers your visa English requirement too, so for many people it’s one test instead of two.
What you get in a Diagnostic Session
- Your score report or writing reviewed properly, not skimmed
- The exact weakness named, criterion, skill or route
- A written report and a one page plan naming what to fix first
- Honest advice on whether to continue, retake, or switch test
Diagnostic Session, £40, or the Rescue Session, £185 for three sessions on the one sub test that is stuck. See full pricing.
No score report? You don’t need one. The Diagnostic works just as well from a goal and a deadline.
My daughter became much more confident speaking English. She now participates more in class and is much less afraid of making mistakes.
Li
China
I struggled to speak English during meetings and conversations. The lessons gave me practical speaking practice, and I now express my ideas much more clearly.
Sophie
France
I knew the grammar but struggled to speak fluently in the IELTS test. Regular speaking practice and detailed feedback helped me improve my fluency and confidence.
Ahmed
Saudi Arabia
I understood English when people spoke to me but found it difficult to reply quickly. The lessons helped me respond more naturally and speak with less hesitation when travelling.
Elena
Spain
I often gave very short answers during speaking practice. With structured practice and feedback, I learned how to develop my answers and speak for longer with more confidence.
David
Italy
I needed English for communicating with international clients. We focused on real workplace conversations, and I now feel much more comfortable speaking during meetings and calls.
James
UK
Clinical communication, not general English with medical words.
We do not teach the question. We teach you to recognise what the question requires.
The topic and wording can change on exam day. Your preparation should therefore go beyond memorising model answers or rehearsing one familiar question type. We work from the current requirements of this exam, look at how you approach the task and help you build a method you can transfer when the question changes.
Your words stay yours. Where language is the blocker, we strengthen it. Where the real problem is task understanding, timing, technique or pressure, that is what we work on.
You are being prepared for the communication purpose, the genre and role play demands, and the criteria of your specific profession. Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Veterinary Science are not interchangeable, and one profession’s material is never substituted for another.
How your classes happen
Classes take place online using Cal Video. There is nothing to download. Your private meeting link is provided automatically with your confirmed booking. At the scheduled time, simply click the link to join from a phone, tablet, laptop or desktop connected to the internet, wherever you are.
Questions about OET
Is OET only for healthcare professionals?
Yes. It’s profession specific by design, with separate versions for Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy and others. If you’re not in a regulated healthcare profession, it isn’t the right test.
Why do I keep getting Grade C?
Usually because OET is marked on clinical communication criteria as well as language, and general preparation doesn’t address those. In Writing it’s most often case note selection; in Speaking it’s usually skipping the relationship building the criteria reward.
Is my writing the problem, or the format?
Almost always the format and the selection, not your English. Candidates with excellent written English routinely score C because they include everything from the case notes instead of choosing what the reader needs.
Would IELTS be better for me?
Both are accepted by the NMC and GMC. OET suits most clinicians because the content is familiar, and it generally covers your visa English requirement too. IELTS runs at more test centres. Worth deciding deliberately, that is what the Diagnostic Session is for.
I failed one sub test. Do I retake everything?
Most candidates only need one sub test rescued. The Rescue Session is three sessions targeting exactly that, rather than restarting from scratch.
Does OET cover my visa English requirement?
Generally yes, for the Health and Care Worker visa, once taken for UK professional registration. IELTS does not carry that same shortcut. Confirm against your specific visa route before relying on it.
What is an OET score report and how is it worked out?
It shows a grade from A to E for each of the four sub tests, with a numerical score alongside. Writing and Speaking are marked on clinical communication criteria as well as language, which is why a clinically excellent letter can still come back as a C. Most candidates have never read those published criteria, and reading them is the cheapest improvement available.
What actually happens in a Diagnostic Session?
Sixty minutes, live. We go through your score report or your writing line by line. If you have no report, we do a short skills check instead, across all four skills if it is your first time, or focused on the weakest one if you have sat before. Then I name the specific thing holding your score, show you the evidence in your own work, and give you a plan. Afterwards you get a written report and a one page plan by email.
Can I pay in instalments?
Instalment options, where available, are shown at checkout. Payments are handled securely through Stripe.
What payment methods do you accept?
Payments are handled securely through Stripe. Available payment methods are shown at checkout. All processed securely by Stripe, so we never see or store your card details.
Still not sure what's holding your score back?
Start with a Diagnostic Session. If it turns out you don’t need lessons at all, I’ll tell you that.