OET grade C+ plan, week 1: Listening Part A notes and medical spelling

This week's sessions

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1. Day 1 · ⭐ Mixed · about 35 minTake the quick checkDo all four parts of the quick check, then type your latest official OET scores on your plan home if you have them. Note which sub-test is furthest from 300.
2. Day 2 · 🎧 Listening · about 25 minListening Part A: a GP consultationRead this week's lesson, then do the Part A set below. Predict the type of answer for each gap before you play the recording, and complete the notes in one listen.
3. Day 3 · 🎧 Listening · about 20 minNote-taking: a health conversationListen to the GP episode once without the transcript and write keyword notes: the problem, what the doctor asks, and the advice. Then check your notes against the transcript.
4. Day 4 · 🔤 Vocabulary · about 20 minYour medical spelling listWrite a list of 30 words from your profession (medicines, conditions, body parts, procedures). Cover it and write ten from memory. Check every letter, then practise the spelling table in this week's lesson.
5. Day 5 · 🗣️ Speaking · about 20 minRole-play: a warm openingRead the simple structure on the role-play guide. Then say aloud an opening for each role-play card on the practice test: your name, your role, the patient's name and an open question.

This week's lesson: accurate notes in Listening Part A

In Listening Part A, you hear a consultation between a health professional and a patient, and you complete a set of notes. At grade C, most lost marks here come from three habits: writing too much, missing small details, and misspelling words you actually heard. All three can be fixed with practice.

Read the notes before the recording starts

Use every second of reading time. Look at each heading (presenting complaint, history, medication, plan) and each gap, and predict the type of answer:

• pain worst when lifting arm above ______ → a body position or level
• woken ______ times a week → a number
• start ______ each morning → a medicine name

Prediction tells you what to listen for. When you hear a number, a body part or a medicine, you're ready for it.

Write only the words you need

The notes already contain most of the sentence. You only add the missing word or short phrase, using the words you hear. Compare:

Gap: Aggravating factors: coffee and ______ Too much: she says big dinners make it worse Right: big dinners

Long answers take time, and while you write them you miss the next answer. Two or three words is usually enough.

Small words carry the meaning

Details like left or right, below or above, mild or severe, and two or three times are exactly what Part A tests. If the patient says below my breastbone, chest alone is not enough. Train yourself to hear the whole phrase, not just the main word.

Spelling counts

A misspelled answer is marked wrong, even if you understood it. The words people misspell most often are the ones you hear every day at work:

Use one spelling style (British or American) consistently. Listen for spellings in the recording too: when a speaker spells a word aloud, it's often an answer.

Build your own spelling list

Start a list today of 30 words from your profession: medicines, conditions, body parts and procedures. Each day this week, cover the list and write ten of them from memory. Check every letter, and move the ones you get wrong to the top of the list.

Listen once, then check

In the test, you hear each recording once. In practice, listen once and complete the notes without pausing. Then play it again only to check spelling and fill gaps. Notice why you missed each answer: did you not hear it, not understand it, or not spell it?

This week

Take the quick check, do this week's Part A set, and practise note-taking with one of our listening episodes. By day 5, your goal is to complete a set of notes in one listen, with short answers and no spelling errors in the words you already know.

Practice for this week

Listening Part A: a GP consultation

Weekly check: Reading Part A baseline

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