Free OET Reading sample · Medicine
OET Reading sample for doctors, with answers
OET Reading is the same paper for every profession: 60 minutes and 42 questions in three parts. This sample uses texts a doctor meets at work: VTE prophylaxis guidance, a memo about out-of-hours CT requests, and an article about stopping medicines in older patients. Try each question, then open the answer.
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Part A · 15 minutes · 20 questions in the real test
Part A: VTE prophylaxis for adult medical patients
The real Part A has four texts and 20 questions; this sample shows three texts and four questions.
For each question, find the answer in the texts and copy the words from the text, checking the spelling.
Assess every medical patient for risk of VTE and bleeding as soon as possible after admission, or by the time of the first consultant review.
In the emergency department, assess any patient who has not been admitted within 12 hours of arrival.
Reassess at the consultant review, or if the patient's clinical condition changes.
Weigh the patient's risk of VTE against their risk of bleeding before offering it.
Start as soon as possible and within 14 hours of the decision to admit.
Acutely ill medical patients: use low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) first line. If LMWH is contraindicated, use fondaparinux sodium.
Renal impairment: use either LMWH or unfractionated heparin.
Acutely ill medical patients whose risk of VTE outweighs their risk of bleeding: continue for a minimum of 7 days.
Before starting, explain the risks of VTE, why prophylaxis matters and its possible side effects, for example a higher risk of bleeding.
Advise patients to keep well hydrated and, if they can, to keep moving.
Question 1 · Matching
Which text tells you how long prophylaxis should be continued?
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Answer: C. Text C gives the minimum of 7 days.
Question 2 · Matching
Which text would help you choose a medicine for a patient with poor kidney function?
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Answer: B. The last line of Text B covers renal impairment.
Question 3 · Sentence completion
If LMWH is contraindicated for an acutely ill medical patient, the medicine to use is ______.
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Answer: fondaparinux sodium (or fondaparinux). Copy the words from Text B and check the spelling.
Question 4 · Short answer
A patient in the emergency department needs a VTE assessment if they have not been admitted within how long of arriving?
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Answer: 12 hours (or twelve hours, or within 12 hours). Text A, second line. The 14 hours in Text B is about starting prophylaxis after the decision to admit, not assessment.
Part B · 6 short texts · 3 options each
Part B: a workplace extract
Part B has six short texts like this one, each with one question. Choose the answer the text supports, not one that is only true in general.
From 1 March, any CT request made between 20:00 and 08:00 must be discussed by phone with the on-call radiology registrar before it is submitted electronically. Requests submitted without this discussion will not be vetted until the morning list. Suspected stroke within the thrombolysis window is the exception: these patients go straight to CT through the stroke team, and the requesting doctor does not need to phone radiology.
Question 1 · Multiple choice (3 options)
The memo tells doctors that
- Asome urgent scans can go ahead without a call to radiology.
- Bsome night requests can be made by phone instead of electronically.
- Csome requests made at night will not be vetted at all.
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Answer: A. Suspected stroke within the thrombolysis window goes straight to CT, and the requesting doctor does not need to phone radiology (A). The phone call comes before the electronic request, not in place of it (B). Requests sent without the call are vetted on the morning list, so they are still vetted (C).
Part C · 2 long texts · 4 options each
Part C: a paragraph from a longer article
Part C has two articles of about 800 words, with eight questions on each. The questions ask what the writer means or thinks, so watch for options that reuse the text's words but change its meaning.
Deprescribing is usually discussed as a gap in knowledge: if doctors only knew which medicines could safely be stopped, they would stop them. In my experience the knowledge is rarely what is missing. The doctor who stops a long-standing medicine takes on a risk that the one who started it never felt, and nobody wants to be the person who stopped the statin before the stroke. So the decision drifts. On the ward it is left for the GP; in the surgery it is left for the specialist who started it; and the patient goes on taking eleven tablets a day.
Question 9 · Multiple choice (4 options)
What is the writer's main point about deprescribing?
- ADoctors need better guidance on which medicines are safe to stop.
- BDecisions to stop medicines are often passed from one doctor to another.
- CSpecialists are more willing than GPs to stop long-standing medicines.
- DPatients are often reluctant to give up medicines they have taken for years.
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Answer: B. The writer rejects the knowledge argument (A): the decision "drifts" from ward to GP to specialist (B). Neither group is said to be more willing (C), and the patient's own view is never given (D).
Six extracts in the real format, marked as soon as you finish. No account needed.
OET Reading questions
Is OET Reading different for doctors?
No. Doctors, nurses and the other ten professions sit the same Reading paper. The texts are about healthcare in general, so a medical background helps you read quickly, but the questions test reading, not clinical knowledge.
What OET Reading grade do doctors need?
It depends on the regulator, and the rules can change, so check the current grades on your regulator's own website (for the UK, the GMC's English language pages) before you book.
How long is OET Reading?
60 minutes and 42 questions. Part A has 15 minutes on its own clock for 20 questions. Parts B and C share one 45-minute block: 6 questions in Part B and 16 in Part C.
Does spelling count in OET Reading Part A?
Yes. Part A answers are words or numbers taken from the texts, so copy drug names and terms exactly as they appear rather than paraphrasing.