OET for Nurses · Updated 2026
OET for Nurses: scoring, NMC requirements, and a 12-week preparation plan
Nursing is by far the largest OET cohort worldwide. If you are a nurse or midwife planning to register with the NMC in the UK, NMBA in Australia, the Nursing Council of New Zealand (NZNC), or NMBI in Ireland, the OET is almost certainly the English test you will take. This guide covers the current score requirements for each regulator, the nursing-specific Writing task, the highest-leverage preparation activities, and a realistic week-by-week plan.
Nursing regulator score requirements
Every regulator sets its own minimum OET scores. Always verify against the official regulator website before booking a test — the figures below summarise the 2026 position.
UK — Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
The NMC requires a minimum grade B (350) in Listening, Reading, and Speaking. In Writing, the NMC accepts either a grade B (350) or a C+ (300-340) combined with a grade B in the other three sub-tests from the same sitting. Combined scores across two sittings are permitted within six months under specific conditions.
Australia — Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA)
The NMBA requires a minimum grade B (350) in each of the four sub-tests. Scores from two sittings within six months may be combined provided you scored at least C+ in the earlier sitting and B in the later sitting in each sub-test you are combining.
New Zealand — Nursing Council of New Zealand (NZNC)
The Nursing Council of New Zealand requires a minimum grade B in all four sub-tests. Results must be no older than two years at the point of application.
Ireland — Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI)
NMBI requires a minimum grade B (350) in every sub-test and results must be current at the time your registration application is processed.
The nursing Writing sub-test
Writing is the sub-test nurses most often need to resit. The task itself is narrow — a single profession-specific letter — but it is scored on six criteria, each of which can pull your grade down independently.
You will be given about 180 to 250 words of case notes covering a patient's admission, treatment, progress, and discharge plan. In five minutes of reading time you must identify the letter's recipient, its purpose, and which subset of the notes are relevant to that purpose. You then have 40 minutes to write 180-200 words.
The six scoring criteria
- Purpose — does the opening paragraph state why you are writing to this specific reader?
- Content — have you included the clinically relevant information and excluded what is not needed for this handover?
- Conciseness and Clarity — are sentences direct, free of redundancy, and easy to scan?
- Genre and Style — does the letter sound like nursing correspondence rather than a report or a summary?
- Organisation and Layout — logical paragraph structure, appropriate salutation and sign-off, no bullet-point lists.
- Language — grammatical accuracy, tense choice, vocabulary range, spelling.
Common nursing letter types
Across recent OET sittings, nursing Writing tasks have clustered around three letter types:
- Discharge letter to a community nurse — transferring ongoing care after hospital discharge.
- Referral letter to a specialist or service — requesting assessment, investigation, or intervention.
- Transfer letter to another ward or facility — handing over active care, often for rehabilitation or palliative care.
Nursing vocabulary to prioritise
Vocabulary range is explicitly one of the Language scoring factors, and case notes use dense nursing terminology. The highest-return vocabulary clusters to study are:
- Assessment language — alert and oriented, afebrile, haemodynamically stable, tolerating diet
- Wound care — dehiscence, exudate, granulating, sloughy, VAC dressing
- Medication administration — PRN, stat dose, titrate, trough level, adherence
- Risk and safeguarding — pressure area, falls risk, deteriorating, escalation, safeguarding concern
- Discharge and community care — mobility aids, community nursing referral, follow-up appointment, compliance with medication
OETgo's flashcard deck includes curated nursing vocabulary sets with native-language translations in 10+ languages, which roughly halves learning time for non-native speakers compared with monolingual flashcards.
A 12-week OET preparation plan for nurses
This plan assumes an upper-intermediate (B2) baseline and about 10 hours of study per week. Adjust the start point based on your current Writing performance in a timed practice letter.
Diagnostic full mock. Daily nursing vocabulary (15 new terms). One timed Writing letter per week. Listening and Reading practice papers on alternate days.
Two timed Writing letters per week across discharge, referral, and transfer types. AI feedback on every letter. Start Speaking role-plays twice a week.
Full mock every week under timed conditions. Keep one Writing letter per week. Refine Speaking role-plays on weaker criteria.
One final mock eight days before the exam. Light vocabulary review and one Writing letter. Rest the 48 hours before test day.
Start preparing with OETgo
Free nursing vocabulary flashcards, spelling practice, and 1 AI Writing Coach correction on every new account. No credit card required.
Create free accountFrequently asked questions
What OET score do I need for the NMC?
The UK NMC requires OET grade B (350) in Listening, Reading, and Speaking, and grade B (350) in Writing. From 2024 the NMC also accepts a C+ in Writing if combined with a grade B in the other three sub-tests taken in the same sitting, and permits combining two sittings within six months under specific conditions.
What OET score does NMBA Australia require?
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) requires a minimum of grade B (350) in each of the four OET sub-tests. Scores can be combined across two sittings within six months, with a minimum of C+ in any sub-test in the earlier sitting and B in the later sitting.
What is the OET Writing task for nurses?
Nurses write a profession-specific letter based on case notes — most commonly a discharge letter to a community nurse, a referral letter to a specialist, or a transfer letter to another ward or facility. You have 45 minutes total: 5 minutes to read the case notes and 40 minutes to write.
How long does it take to prepare for OET as a nurse?
Most candidates with an upper-intermediate (B2) English base need 8 to 16 weeks of consistent preparation. Nurses at C1 level preparing intensively can succeed in 6 to 8 weeks. The limiting factor is almost always Writing — it requires the most targeted practice.
What is the most common reason nurses fail OET Writing?
The single most common issue is treating the task as a summary of the case notes rather than a targeted letter to a named reader. Strong letters select only the information the recipient needs, organise it around the reader's decision-making needs, and use appropriate genre conventions for a nursing handover.
Can I use OETgo's AI Writing Coach for nursing letters?
Yes. OETgo's AI Writing Coach scores nursing discharge, referral, and transfer letters against all six official OET Writing criteria — Purpose, Content, Conciseness and Clarity, Genre and Style, Organisation and Layout, and Language — and returns annotated feedback plus a fully corrected version within one minute.