OET Speaking: the 9 scoring criteria, role-play format, and how to practise with AI

What OET Speaking actually tests

OET Speaking tests your ability to communicate effectively in a healthcare workplace, not your ability to perform as a fluent orator. The sub-test is built around two profession-specific role-plays. An interlocutor plays a patient, parent, carer or relative; you play yourself, a healthcare professional in your own profession.

Each role-play lasts roughly five minutes. You receive three minutes of preparation time before each one to read a card that tells you the setting, your role, and four to six task bullets — for example, "find out what's worrying the patient", "explain the risks of the procedure" or "agree on a plan for follow-up". The patient persona is hidden from you; you discover what they want through the conversation.

The total Speaking sub-test runs around 20 minutes including a short warm-up about your professional background. Audio is recorded and assessed by trained OET examiners, not by the interlocutor in the room.

The 9 OET Speaking scoring criteria

Every OET Speaking role-play is scored on nine independent criteria, grouped into two sets. The four linguistic criteria assess how you speak; the five clinical communication criteria assess how well you handle the consultation.

Linguistic criteria (4)

• Intelligibility — How easy you are to understand. Pronunciation, stress, intonation and the clarity of unfamiliar medical terms all feed in. Strong candidates are easy to follow even when their accent is non-native.
• Fluency — Your pace, rhythm and ability to keep talking without unnatural hesitation. False starts and self-corrections are normal — long, repeated stalling is not.
• Appropriateness of Language — Whether your register, tone and vocabulary fit the situation. Healthcare professionals adjust the way they speak to a frightened parent versus a referring colleague — examiners listen for that flexibility.
• Resources of Grammar and Expression — The range and accuracy of your grammar and word choice. Errors that don't impede understanding rarely cost you a grade; errors that confuse meaning do.

Clinical communication criteria (5)

• Relationship Building — Initiating the conversation, showing respect and warmth, using the patient's name, demonstrating empathy when concerns or fears come up. This is the criterion most candidates underestimate.
• Understanding the Patient's Perspective — Eliciting and acknowledging the patient's ideas, concerns and expectations — not just their symptoms. Picking up on cues like worry about a family history is exactly what examiners reward here.
• Providing Structure — Sequencing the consultation, signposting transitions, summarising what has been said. Structure makes a long answer feel competent rather than scattered.
• Information Gathering — Asking purposeful questions — open before closed, following up on what the patient says, screening for relevant red flags. Closed-question marathons get penalised here.
• Information Giving — Explaining diagnoses, treatments, instructions or next steps in a way the patient understands. Chunking, checking comprehension and avoiding jargon all matter.

Each criterion is scored 0 to 500 in increments of 10, then mapped to a grade band: A (450–500), B (350–440), C+ (300–340), C (200–290), D (100–190), E (0–90). Most regulators require an overall B (350) for registration.

How OETgo's Speaking Coach works

OETgo's Speaking Coach is the closest analogue we know of to the real Speaking sub-test. It runs as a live AI role-play with the same shape as the real test: pick a card, prep for three minutes, talk for up to six, get scored.

Where most candidates lose marks

Patterns repeat across thousands of OET Speaking sessions. The criteria most often pulling candidates down a grade are Relationship Building, Understanding the Patient's Perspective and Providing Structure — not pronunciation or grammar.

• Strong English speakers often skip the empathic acknowledgement because they assume getting to the clinical content fast is "professional". OET examiners read it as cold.
• Closed-question marathons — yes/no questions strung together — tank the Information Gathering score even if every question is grammatically perfect.
• Forgetting to signpost ("Let me first explain… then we'll talk about…") drops the Providing Structure mark even when the content is fine.
• Reaching for high-register medical vocabulary with a worried patient — talking about "neoplasms" when "growths" is what they need — costs Appropriateness of Language.

The fastest fix is repetition with feedback against the rubric: run a role-play, read the per-criterion feedback, run it again targeting the lowest-scoring criterion. See how to prepare for OET Speaking for a four-week plan, or walk through five worked sample role-plays across professions.

Frequently asked questions

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