Reading
OET Reading (Nursing) gives you 60 minutes and 42 questions in three parts. Texts are authentic-style healthcare material: clinical guidance, hospital policy, research commentary. You are tested on speed as much as comprehension - Part A is deliberately tight.
The three parts
- Part A (15 minutes, 20 questions): four short texts on one clinical topic - for example delirium, pressure injury prevention or IV fluid balance. Questions ask which text contains a piece of information, and you copy the exact words from the text, up to three words.
- Part B (about 20 minutes, 6 questions): six short workplace texts of 100–150 words - a memo, an email, a policy extract, a notice - each with a three-option question on purpose, main point or implication.
- Part C (about 25 minutes, 16 questions): two longer texts of roughly 800 words, eight four-option questions each, on opinion, attitude, inference and argument.
Worked example
A Part A question asks: Which text states the maximum time a tourniquet may remain in place? Scan for digits and unit symbols rather than reading each text; "3 minutes" appears only in Text C. The answer is the phrase as printed - "3 minutes" - not "three minutes" and not a paraphrase. In Part C, a question asking what the author thinks of a screening tool cannot be answered by an option that merely repeats a fact from paragraph two; the answer must reflect evaluative language such as "overstated" or "of limited value".
Traps
- Part A: reading every text fully. Match the question to the text; do not absorb the content.
- Copying with altered spelling or a changed word form - marked wrong even if the meaning is right.
- Part B: picking an option that is sensible in real life but not supported by the text.
- Part C: choosing an option because it echoes the text's vocabulary while reversing its logic.