How OET is scored: the 0 to 500 scale, the grades, and what Grade B means

OET gives you four results, one for each subtest: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. Each one is reported twice, as a number on a scale from 0 to 500 and as a letter grade from A to E. The number is the precise result; the grade is the band it falls into. Regulators and employers usually talk in grades, which is why "Grade B" is the phrase you hear most.

This post explains how the two fit together so you can read your statement of results, set a realistic target, and understand what a practice score is telling you. The scale and grade boundaries below describe the test at the time of writing. OET publishes the current ones at occupationalenglishtest.org, and that page is the one to trust if anything here looks different.

The scale and the grades

The numerical score runs from 0 to 500 in steps of ten. The grade is simply a range on that scale:

• Grade A: 450 to 500
• Grade B: 350 to 440
• Grade C+: 300 to 340
• Grade C: 200 to 290
• Grade D: 100 to 190
• Grade E: 0 to 90

So a 350 and a 440 are both Grade B, and a 340 is Grade C+. The number tells you how far inside a grade you are. If you scored 350 in Writing, you reached Grade B with nothing to spare. If you scored 440, you were ten points from an A.

Why Grade B matters

Most regulators that accept OET set their minimum at Grade B, which corresponds roughly to a strong, independent user of English in a healthcare setting. Some accept a lower grade in one subtest, most commonly Writing. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and the General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK each publish their own table of minimum grades per subtest, and those tables are the ones that count, not a figure you remember from a colleague. Check your regulator's website before you set a target, and check it again before you book, because the rules change.

A regulator's minimum is a minimum. Aiming for the boundary exactly leaves no margin for a difficult paper or a bad night's sleep. A sensible target is comfortably inside Grade B in every subtest, so that an ordinary bad day still clears the line.

There is no overall score

OET does not add the four subtests together or average them. You can score 420 in Listening and 330 in Writing, and the result is a B in one and a C+ in the other. Regulators look at each subtest against its own minimum. This is why preparation has to cover all four, and why a strong speaker who neglects writing can end up re-sitting the whole test or, where the regulator allows it, one subtest.

How the four subtests are marked

Listening and Reading are marked against an answer key. Each paper has 42 questions and every correct answer counts. Your raw mark is converted to the 0 to 500 scale through a process OET uses to keep results comparable across different versions of the paper, so the same scaled score means the same thing whichever paper you sat. Spelling matters in the parts where you write an answer rather than choose one, and OET publishes guidance on what is accepted.

Writing is marked by trained assessors against six criteria: Purpose, Content, Conciseness and Clarity, Genre and Style, Organisation and Layout, and Language. Speaking is marked by assessors from a recording of your two role-plays, against four linguistic criteria and five clinical communication criteria. In both cases more than one assessor is involved, and the criterion scores are combined into the 0 to 500 figure. The criteria are public, and we go through each of them in the Writing and Speaking guides in this section.

Reading a practice score

A practice score from any preparation tool, Clodia included, is an estimate. For Listening and Reading it can be close, because the marking is objective. For Writing and Speaking it is a prediction made by applying the public criteria, which is what human assessors also do, but they do it with the official training and the official paper. Treat a predicted 350 as "about the line, keep working" rather than "done". The useful information in a practice result is the breakdown: which criterion is holding you back, and which question types in Reading and Listening you keep dropping marks on.

Validity and re-sitting

OET results are released online, and a statement of results shows all four numbers and grades. Each regulator sets how old a result can be when you apply, often two years, and whether results from two sittings can be combined. Those rules belong to the regulator, not to OET, so look for them on the regulator's site.

If you need to re-sit, you can book the whole test or, where available, a single subtest. Whether a single-subtest result is accepted depends again on the regulator.

In short

• Four results, one per subtest, each as a number from 0 to 500 and a grade from A to E.
• Grade B begins at 350. That is the usual regulator minimum, with some exceptions per subtest.
• There is no combined score. Every subtest has to clear the line on its own.
• Listening and Reading are marked from an answer key; Writing and Speaking by assessors against published criteria.
• Confirm the current grade boundaries on occupationalenglishtest.org and the minimums on your regulator's site.

Clodia reports practice results on the same 0 to 500 scale with the same grades, and shows the criterion-by-criterion breakdown behind a Writing or Speaking prediction, so the number you see in practice means the same thing as the number on the statement.