Hello, healthcare professionals, who want to pass OET.

I’m Sergei, a doctor from the middle of Russia

and I cleared OET at the first attempt (L370 R390 W410 S380) on 21 September, this year. First of all,
you all can do that, you need only strong passion, perseverance, clear plan and deadline throughout
your preparation. I managed to prepare while having two kids (3 and 1 years old), working as an
anaesthetist in a big regional hospital, with all relatives far away from us (big thanks to my wife, without
her I couldn’t do that)! In general, I spent 7 months for the preparation (3 for general English
preparation, 2 months for the IELTS and 2 for the OET). I’m going to tell you about my experience of self-
preparation! I hope it will help!

My started level of English knowledge was something in a range of A2-B1 and it was January 2019. I
used to read a lot of medical literature before this point and was able to maintain only a simple
“touristic» conversation without any particular fluency. In February, I started to study general English.
For Russian-speaker students, I recommend that source http://quantum-start.com/explain/30 and an
app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quantumstart.qs with an excellent grammar
explanation and a great tool for self-practice (sorry, I don’t know similar staff for other languages).

The next good resource is https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/ with useful grammar practice. Then I
started to strengthen my vocabulary with flesh-cards. It’s a really great method of strengthening your
lexical resources. https://apps.ankiweb.net/ Initially, I did common vocabulary, mostly for an IELTS. I
strongly believe that if you don’t have a good base B1-2 level of English it’s too early to prepare for OET
directly. There are some good Decks for that purpose -
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EE6rDOoJZumSfK9AX14X710j7Mqaj4iD Try not to put a lot of new
words per day, at least no more than 20. I used to do this type of studying two times a day for two
months until I started to feel confident with my vocabulary. Additionally, I recommend using the next
Internet facilities.

1. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr2TgqpOrU3kUTkVy5XoLow Christian is a great teacher

with a lot of fun, philosophy and he uses deep scientific approach of learning the language.

2. https://teacherluke.co.uk/ Luke and his podcast is a source not only for listening practice but
grammar and native British vocabulary and idioms lessons, especially in his “premium”
subscription plan.

3. https://www.engvid.com/ a lot of grammar, vocabulary and other staff about English in a very
suitable manner.

What I should say about listening – it’s the most undervalued method of language learning. From the
beginning of my preparation, I started to listen to almost all the time of the day – while commuting to
work and playing with kids, washing home and driving to the countryside etc. Having wireless earphones
it’s easy to do (but I have to listen to with only one ear most of the time, as second was for heating my
children ))). There are useful sources of listening:

1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 you can also install their app

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bbc.globaliplayerradio.international&hl=en
clear pronunciation and interesting programs guaranteed.

2. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ted.android&hl=en TED talks – I love it.

Truly inspirational stuff to get to know more about life around.
 3. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=vina.pod2.economics&hl=en to be familiar with
western world problems and way of thinking.

General reading – I read such magazines as

1. https://www.theguardian.com/international

2. https://www.vox.com/

3. https://www.theatlantic.com/world/

I didn’t read them in a strict manner, mostly as leisure. Also, I watched different YouTube videos to have
some rest from intense studying but still to be washed with English:

1. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwWhs_6x42TyRM4Wstoq8HA

2. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLXo7UDZvByw2ixzpQCufnA

3. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu4XcDBdnZkV6-5z2f16M0g

4. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0p5jTq6Xx_DosDFxVXnWaQ

You could use whatever you like, just try to be in constant touch with English! My choice was due to the
desire to get to know more about our world from a different western perspective.

Good source of general English learning and even conversation are - https://www.futurelearn.com/ and
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ef.efhello

It took me to do such things from February to May. Then I started to prepare for the IELTS (May-June),
but eventually, I realized that it’s a really daunting task, especially in terms of writing! Though I tried to
do direct IELTS preparation, I did all the same things that I’ve already described. Finally, I made a
decision to take OET and started to prepare in July. I put the date of the exam on 21 of September
because it’s only one way to keep you in the right mood for preparation. What made my decision hard,
that we don’t have in Russia OET exam centres and I had to go to Istanbul as the nearest place with OET
facilities. It shouldn’t be mentioned that it put a big financial burden on my family, as it cost me twice
(exam fees + fly tickets + accommodation etc.) But it was the right gamble!

At the moment of preparation beginning, I had approximately B1-B2 level of English. I think that if you
don’t have enough money to buy all official books about OET, you should stick with this unofficial by Dr
Samed Alsalemi. If he is a real person – he is a great man! Thank you, Dr Alsalemi. Again, it’s more than
enough to use only this book for the OET preparation.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MfNkIF3Kf7DwUQ5JK4pdgH7_3t173GcF

Also, I used E2Language https://app.e2language.com/Account/Login?ReturnUrl=%2fStudent%2fHome

cheapest subscription to have a view of “official preparation provider» It’s good stuff to begin, in order
to have a general understanding of the exam’s structure and it contains 5 good test samples (if take into
account 2 samples on official OET site – there are 7 of them). My suggestion is to start with the hardest
parts of the exam as speaking and writing. A good OET group on Telegram
https://t.me/joinchat/JqTGZxRKr5k0EVBFXLrR1g

There are good sources of understanding of medical English and how to interact with patients:
 1. https://www.vitaltalk.org/

2. http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/IHIWhitePapers/ConversationReadyEndofLifeCare.aspx

3. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgsr_to7CZZ-GZDcwKE7Mrg

4. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr-ODu8TnpqF2sJMi1LCM4w

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LZJz7GtJA0&list=PL5DbVK6aj7dyrKXvNyFT_cYO2rh6FeDH
D&index=2&t=0s

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHGvjv_7PLU&list=WL&index=10&t=0s

Writing.

You should read the appropriate chapter of the above-mentioned book and start practice! I did more
than 30 letters. In order to find my quality of writing, I used Benchmark correction services.
https://edubenchmark.com/oet-writing-correction In common, they have a good price, but the quality
of the correction could really be different from letter to letter. I did 16 letters with them, and it’s more
than enough to understand, what you should do during your writing part. I’ve never achieved all A grade
or even B with them, my average was C+ but finally, I got 410 on writing during the exam. There is my
bulk of the corrected letters from Benchmark -
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HNZ7zgx6hV1TqTzmzKaV-h56A_DYU17A The rest of the letters I
corrected with Cambly (I’ll write further about it) tutors - Miss Sandy Louise and Hanna Wimbledon
here are the letters: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rReG5mMJbzlYJMBRUIFGO6Ekqda6VDJY
Having a good basic grammar structure and practice of the letter is sufficient to pass that part of the
exam successfully. On 21 of September, the task was really straightforward. But it's a good idea to
practice with the most sophisticated ones, as usual! Don’t be obsessed with the word count – it’s normal
to write up to 250 words if you don’t include something extremely irrelevant.

Speaking.

Again - read an appropriate chapter of the above-mentioned book and start practice! There are two
Decks for the OET that I made by myself. It's quality don’t good enough but there are no shared decks
anyway - https://drive.google.com/open?id=19oVcwdO-Wsc3bJRmi-eClUt0IEZ1zexm

What I understood that only one way to learn a language and start to speak fluently is to speak! In April,
I started to use Cambly. It’s not advertising but it's a really good source to have lessons with native
speakers! For instance, in Russia a good teacher of English demand more than 15 $ per hour of the
lesson. And with Cambly, I could afford the most expensive plan (it’s when you buy an only one-month
subscription - the longer the subscription the cheaper single lesson) with the price 12 $ per hour! Of
course, there are different tutors with different quality of teaching, but I managed to find the best!
Moreover, together we figured out what is OET and how to prepare for the speaking part and I write the
list of them for you! Here is promo link to have free minutes to understand what it is Cambly -
https://www.cambly.com/invite/sergei199

About the tutors. First of them, in my personal rating is unequalled Miss Sandy Louise! She is an IELTS
writing tutor from the USA, and initially, I practised IELTS writing task, but then I switched to OET
together we could understand what is OET writing about! Sandy is very kind and passion to help people
with a strong desire to learn English and finite resources! Also, she has her own FB page and provides
private lessons not only with Cambly https://www.facebook.com/IELTSWritingCoach/
Also, good Cambly tutors with healthcare background are Hanna Wimbledon (she is also an
anaesthetist), Becky P (she is former GP), Roz Collins (she is a physiotherapist) and Justina A (she is a
pharmacist).

Good teachers with a lot of experience and passion are tilly anne, Marie O'C, Paul JK, Andy, Patrick
Thomson, Dave R and Jane, who has experience of being OET interlocutor! If you have a subscription,
you should put their usernames to tutors search and book a lesson. If there wrote that “This tutor has
not opened any spots for reservations” you can message them directly and ask for the lesson.

My way of learning with them was to have a role-play conversation according to exam circumstances
and then tutors told me my mistakes and what should sound natural. I did more than 88 hours of
lessons for over 5 months. I think it made my English as it is now. The total cost of such lessons with
Cambly for me was 731 $ in the current course of ruble. It was great and fun. All of them are very good
and educated people.

In addition, I recommend that place to practice English for free! https://www.free4talk.com/ You also
could create your own OET group there.

Listening.

For me personally, it was the toughest part, because of all this noise in the exam room and general
anxiety. I think this part shouldn’t be the first part of the exam, the second as you have to have some
time to calm down. In ideal circumstances, it should be reading to face the first on the exam. But we
have what we have. You should keep listening to a lot but, in addition, include healthcare programs such
as https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019dl1b (you may find it in BBC radio app) and
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/healthreport/.

For training to the test, I recommend doing that using speakers, because it matters – as I know, the vast
majority of the OET centres don’t provide participants with the headphones. You should be familiar with
this type of work. Also, after you did all available for you OET listening samples (there are not a lot of
them with good quality), I recommend doing the same job with the IELTS samples because there are a
lot of them for free! The basic principle is the same – you must be able to share your attention between
listening, reading, keeping an eye on script and writing! It’s a tricky job!

Reading.

It's the easiest part. You just read a lot and if you have good general English level it’s enough. Just do all
available test samples (don’t use different books with unknown authors such as «Maggie Ryan”) and
keep reading different medical scientific articles what you are interested in. Part A is stressful because of
time, but practice with test samples can get reed of troubles.

I took the exam on the British side centre in Istanbul. I can recommend that place as there good staff
and in general, all was smooth and fast. There is a long road ahead; I hope we can handle all the
obstacles! Just surround yourself with English and OET and dream come true! Wish all the best for all!

My crazy work place during preparation: