OET Writing prep · Updated 2026
How to prepare for OET Writing: a four-week plan and a structure that works every time
Writing is the sub-test most candidates resit, and it is also the one that responds fastest to targeted practice — because the problem is almost never your English. It is that a clinical letter is a genre with rules, and you have never been taught them. This guide gives you a four-week plan, a paragraph structure that fits every task type, and a routine for the last five minutes of the exam.
Start by finding out what's actually wrong
Before planning anything, write one letter under exam conditions and have it marked against all six criteria. Almost every candidate is failing on one or two criteria, not six — and the fix for a Content problem has nothing in common with the fix for a Language problem.
Two patterns are worth naming, because they need opposite treatment. If your letters are accurate but score low on Content and Conciseness, you are transcribing the case notes rather than selecting from them: the fix is planning, not grammar. If your selection is good but Language is dragging, the fix is a small set of recurring accuracy habits, which is a different exercise entirely.
A structure that fits every task
You do not need a different plan for referrals, discharges and transfers. One shape covers all of them, and having it memorised frees your planning time for the decision that actually matters — what to leave out.
Opening
1 sentenceWho the patient is and what you want. Age, relevant identity, and the request. Everything the Purpose criterion is looking for lives in this sentence.
Paragraph 1
~45 wordsThe current situation: why this patient is being written about today. Presenting complaint, recent findings, what has changed.
Paragraph 2
~55 wordsRelevant background, in summary. Past history, medications, allergies — but only what bears on the request. This is the paragraph where most candidates lose Content marks by including everything.
Paragraph 3
~45 wordsSocial and functional context where it matters: who is at home, mobility, ability to manage a treatment plan. Skip it entirely if the task doesn't need it.
Closing
1–2 sentencesRestate the action you want, specifically, and offer contact. 'Please assess and consider…' beats 'Please do the needful.'
Three body paragraphs is a default, not a law. A letter to a patient's carer might need two; a complex transfer might need four. What matters is that each paragraph does one job and the reader can tell what that job is from its first line.
Selecting from the case notes
This is the whole test, and it is the part candidates skip. Case notes are deliberately longer than your letter. They contain information that is irrelevant to this recipient, and putting it in costs you marks — it is not neutral.
Use one question on every line of the notes: does the recipient need this in order to do what I am asking? If the answer is no, cross it out on the question paper. Being decisive during reading time is what makes 25 minutes of writing feel unhurried.
Usually in
- The presenting problem and recent findings
- Current medications, allergies, and anything affecting treatment
- Past history that explains or complicates the current problem
- Social factors that change what the recipient can realistically do
Usually out
Resolved conditions with no bearing on today, routine observations within normal limits, and detail the recipient will generate themselves. When a fact is genuinely borderline, a four-word clause is better than a sentence — and better than omitting it.
The four-week plan
Three to four letters a week, every one of them marked. If you only have time for either writing more letters or marking the ones you have, mark them.
Structure
Stop writing full letters. Take five sets of case notes and, for each, produce only a plan: recipient, purpose sentence, and one line per paragraph saying what goes in it. Fifteen minutes each. The aim is to make selection automatic before you add the pressure of producing prose.
Full letters, untimed
Three full letters, no clock. Write, then mark against the six criteria one at a time — read the letter six times, looking for one thing on each pass. Slow and deliberate. You are building a self-check habit that will run automatically later.
Your two error types
By now your marked letters will show two errors that keep recurring. Work only on those. Write three letters and count instances of those two errors in each. The count is the metric, not the score.
Exam conditions
Four letters at full exam timing — 5 minutes reading, 40 minutes writing, handwritten if you are sitting the paper test. No pausing, no looking things up. The goal is to confirm the structure holds when the clock is running.
If you have eight weeks, run the cycle twice rather than stretching it — the pattern of diagnose, drill, test is what produces the improvement, and it works better repeated than slowed down.
The last five minutes
Leave five minutes and check in this order. It is deliberately short — you cannot re-read for everything, so check the things that carry the most marks per second spent.
- Does the first sentence say who the patient is and what you want? If not, fix that before anything else.
- Scan for tense only. Is anything still true written in the simple past? Is any dated event in the present perfect?
- Scan for articles only. Singular countable nouns with nothing in front of them.
- Any case-note shorthand left in? SOB, N&V, 3/7, c/o — write them out.
- Is the closing line a specific request rather than a vague one?
Separate passes beat one general re-read. Looking for one thing at a time is the only way you will actually see it.
Getting your practice letters marked
The plan above depends entirely on feedback, which is the part that is hard to arrange. A tutor gives the best marking and is worth booking before the exam, but the turnaround makes three letters a week impractical for most people, and the cost adds up quickly.
OETgo's Writing Coach exists for the weeks in between. Paste a letter, pick the recipient, and get per-criterion scores, line-level annotations on what cost marks, and a corrected rewrite — fast enough to write a letter and mark it in the same sitting, which is what the week-three drill actually requires.
Mark your first letter free
One free correction on every new account. No credit card required.
Create free accountFrequently asked questions
How long does it take to prepare for OET Writing?
Four to six weeks of focused work is enough for most candidates who already work clinically in English, writing three to four letters a week with feedback on each. If you have failed Writing before while passing the other sub-tests, the problem is usually a specific recurring habit rather than your general English, and it can often be fixed faster than that.
How many practice letters should I write?
Three to four a week, every one of them marked. Twelve corrected letters will move your grade further than forty uncorrected ones, because repetition without feedback entrenches whatever you are already doing wrong.
Should I write practice letters by hand?
If you are taking OET on paper, yes — at least once a week. Handwriting is slower than typing, and you need to know what 190 words looks like in your own hand and whether you can produce it in 25 minutes.
Why do candidates pass Reading, Listening and Speaking but fail Writing?
The other three sub-tests test English you already use at work. Writing tests a genre — the clinical letter — with conventions about selection, register and layout that nobody teaches on the ward. It is a learnable format, which is why targeted practice moves the grade quickly.
Is it worth memorising set phrases for OET letters?
A small number, yes: an opening that states purpose, a line handing over care, and a standard closing. Beyond that, memorised phrases start to work against you, because assessors can tell when a letter is assembled from templates rather than written for the patient in front of you.