I wanted to go into more depth concerning the beginning of the OET writing examination as well as some questions you really need to be asking yourself when it comes to the exam.
Right at the beginning, before you’ve even written anything, you’ve got four things you should really be thinking about.
#1. You should ask yourself who you are writing to.
You could be writing to a specialist like a cardiologist for example or you could be writing to a nurse. There’s a whole host of people that you could be writing to so really think about the information that you are selecting from the case notes and how it relates to the information they would need. It’s got to be relevant to that particular profession. The next thing to think about when writing to a specific person is the tone and the register to be used. This is an area we will look at more closely in future articles. Of course, you should be using formal language when you’re taking any OET writing exam . That’s also really important as many students use informal language and this isn’t what examiners want when deciding whether to give grade A’s or B’s.
#2. What important information you should include?
You need to consider what information to include and this relates to the kind of person you are writing to because there is a tendency for a lot of students to just include all the information that they see within the case notes. You just don’t have enough time for this because you will only write between 180 and 200 words. Therefore, do not try to include everything because a lot of it is unnecessary. This then leads me to the 3rd piece of important information you should consider:
#3. What information you should NOT be including?
Whilst you’re thinking about what information you should include, on the flip side, you should also be thinking about the information you don’t need to include because some of it is unnecessary for the particular task in OET writing set. Also, all of the case notes are not necessary based upon the kind of person you’re writing to.
#4. What is the purpose of you writing to this person?
Think about the purpose of about the OET writing task and what your job is. This should be put in your first paragraph. Set your stall out right from the beginning about what you’re going to be writing about. For instance, you could be referring a patient to maybe a cardiologist because the patient has got a long running heart condition.
Once again, before writing, it is important to ask yourself these 4 significant information: who am I writing to? What information should I include?What information should I not include? Lastly, what is the purpose of this letter? If you can remember to think about these 4 questions when you’re in your exam and then implement, you’ll give yourself a great foundation to get a grade A or B.
Hopefully this was helpful for you today and if you have any questions, make sure you put them in the message box below!
If you’re planning to take the OET exam, we’ve got live group classes, speaking mock exam classes, video courses and writing corrections as part of our OET packages. You can click here to learn more: https://staging3.swooshenglish.com/oet-courses/
I would love to help you pass!
Your OET teacher,
Alex
Do you prefer a video of Alex explaining these OET writing tips above? Click on the video below to watch!
JOIN US 100% FREE
