If you want to know more about OET Speaking you’re in the right place. Follow our ten handy hints to help you on your OET test day.
An important part of your job as a healthcare professional is to understand and interpret what your patient is saying. And that means stopping and checking you’ve understood by asking questions to clarify. It may sound obvious, and you probably do it without thinking in everyday life, but when it comes to exams, we’re all a little nervous, and it’s easy to think that you just need to keep on talking no matter what. Or, you may feel embarrassed at having to go back and ask something again because you’ve not followed what the patient has said. Well, don’t feel worried about it - just do it! It doesn’t mean that you don’t have the ability to understand - so don’t worry about losing marks because you didn’t catch something - it is in fact better for your score if you do stop, go back over something, and ask questions to make sure you’ve understood everything correctly.
If you check out the OET criteria, they actually want you to demonstrate your ability to clarify and check meaning. They want you to stop and ask questions and go through things again, especially if you aren’t clear on what your patient has said. And don’t forget, it might not be your listening skills that cause the confusion - it might be because the patient is angry, or worried, or nervous and jumbles up their explanation.
Here are some useful expressions to help you get clarity. Try and remember them for your OET role-plays.
1. Sorry, could you tell me a little more about that?
2. What did you mean by … exactly?
3. You said … Could you tell me more about it?
4. I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that. Could you repeat it for me?
5. Can I just check that I’ve got all that correctly. So…
To learn more useful expressions, along with pronunciation, and useful tips on using register and tone, why not check out our on-demand video course on Udemy.
Click on the link to buy our on-demand video course.
Photo by
from