How to Prepare for OET Listening

OET Listening takes about 40 minutes and has three parts, with 42 questions in total. You hear each part once only. To do well, read the questions before each extract and predict the kind of answer you need. While you listen, write the words you hear, and use the checking time to correct spelling and grammar.

Key facts about OET Listening

The three parts of OET Listening

All three parts use healthcare settings, and Listening is the same for every profession. Each part tests a different kind of listening, so it helps to practise them separately before you put them together.

Part A: note completion

In Part A you listen to a consultation and complete a set of notes, like the notes a health professional would write during the appointment. OET says you must complete the notes with the same words you hear on the recording. Each gap usually needs one word or a short phrase.

Before the audio starts

You have time to read the notes before each extract. Use it to read the headings, such as presenting complaint, medical history or lifestyle, because the consultation usually follows the same order. For each gap, decide what kind of word fits: a number and unit, a time, a body part, a symptom or a medicine. This tells you what to listen for.

While you listen

Write the answer as soon as you hear it, even if it is untidy, and move to the next gap. The speakers will not wait for you, and if you stop to think about one answer, you can miss the next two. Patients often correct themselves ("about two weeks, no, nearer three"), so listen to the end of the sentence before you decide.

Part A worked example

This short extract and set of notes are fictional and written by our team. Read the notes first, as you would in the test, then read the transcript.

Rules for Part A answers

OET lists several things that lose marks in Part A. In short, your answer should be the speaker's words and nothing else.

Part B: short workplace extracts

In Part B you hear six short extracts from the healthcare workplace, such as a handover, a team briefing or a conversation between colleagues. Each extract has one multiple-choice question with three options. The question usually asks about the main point or the purpose of what someone says.

Read the question and all three options before the extract starts. Wrong options often use words from the recording, so an option that repeats what you heard is not always correct. Choose the option that means the same as what the speaker says.

Part C: presentations and interviews

In Part C you hear two longer extracts. Each is a presentation or an interview on a health topic, and each has six multiple-choice questions. The questions follow the order of the recording, and many ask about the speaker's opinion, attitude or reasons as well as facts.

Before each extract, read the questions to get an outline of the talk. As you listen, keep track of which question the speaker is answering, so that you move on even if you miss one. When a speaker gives an opinion, listen for how strongly they hold it. A speaker who says "it may help some patients" is less certain than one who says "it clearly works".

Common OET Listening mistakes

Improving between tests

Practice tests show you where you lose marks. These habits help you improve between tests:

• Keep a list of medical words you misspell, grouped by topic, and test yourself on it twice a week.
• Listen to health talks and interviews in English with different accents, and write down the main point of each one in a sentence.
• After a Part A extract, listen again with the transcript, if one is available, and underline the moments you missed.
• Read our OET medical vocabulary guide for word groups that come up often in consultations.

For a full study routine across all four sub-tests, read how to prepare for OET.

Written by OET Practice team. Last reviewed: 27 October 2026. Read our editorial policy .