OET Listening practice test
Three parts, 42 questions, about 40 minutes, and you hear each recording once. Grade B usually takes about 30 of the 42 marks.
What do you need from OET Listening?
One or two taps to see where to start.
Question 1
Start with the practice below
Try a set from each part with the audio, then check every answer and the transcript. It shows you which part needs the most work.
You have the Listening grade the NMC and GMC ask for
Keep it there. The GMC needs every grade from one sitting, and the NMC only combines full sittings taken within 12 months, so you still sit Listening if you sit OET again.
Bring Listening up to 350
Grade B starts at 350, which OET says typically means at least 30 of the 42 marks. Work on the part where you lose most marks, with a teacher who checks it.
Send us your result
Your Listening score is on your OET results, from 0 to 500. Send it to an OET teacher and we will tell you what to work on.
OET Listening practice test with audio
Play the recording, answer as you listen, then check the answer and the transcript.
Choose a part
Part A: Consultation notes
Complete the notes with a word or short phrase you hear.
You hear a dietitian talking to a patient called Callum Sharpe, who has just been diagnosed with coeliac disease.
Played 0:00 / 2:02
Show the transcript
- Dietitian: Hi Callum, thanks for coming in. I gather the gastroenterologist confirmed coeliac disease last week. How has that felt, after everything you’ve been through?
- Callum: Actually a relief, if I’m honest. I’d had symptoms for eight months before anyone worked out what it was, so at least now I know what I’m dealing with.
- Dietitian: Eight months is a long time to struggle without an explanation. What was bothering you most, day to day?
- Callum: The bloating was the worst part. By evening I’d look about six months pregnant, my wife used to tease me about it at dinner.
- Dietitian: That’s really uncomfortable to live with. And how were your bowels during that time?
- Callum: Pretty unpredictable. I had diarrhoea most days, sometimes four or five times, which made the office a nightmare, always watching where the toilets were.
- Dietitian: That sounds exhausting to manage on top of a full-time job. Did you notice anything else changing, physically?
- Callum: My clothes started hanging off me. I hadn’t been trying, but I’d had some weight loss, about a stone over a couple of months, without changing anything.
- Dietitian: Right, unintentional weight loss like that is very common with untreated coeliac disease, because the small bowel isn’t absorbing nutrients properly. Did your GP run any blood tests before referring you on?
- Callum: Yes, and apparently my iron was quite low. She said that’s often the first clue something’s going on with absorption.
- Dietitian: It often is. Low iron on its own can point straight to a malabsorption problem. And then you had the endoscopy?
- Callum: That’s right. They confirmed it with a biopsy, they took a few samples from the small bowel while I was under sedation.
Question 1 · Presenting symptoms
Symptoms for gap before diagnosis
Show the answer
Answer: eight months
Callum says “I’d had symptoms for eight months before anyone worked out what it was.” Write the time with its unit: “eight” on its own does not complete the note.
Question 2 · Presenting symptoms
Worst symptom: gap, worse by evening
Show the answer
Answer: bloating
He says “The bloating was the worst part.” The diarrhoea and the weight loss come next, but they answer other lines of the notes.
Question 3 · Presenting symptoms
Bowels: gap most days
Show the answer
Answer: diarrhoea
Callum says “I had diarrhoea most days.” It is a common medical word, so spell it carefully.
Question 4 · Presenting symptoms
Unintentional gap over a couple of months
Show the answer
Answer: weight loss
He says “I’d had some weight loss.” His clothes “hanging off” him describe it, but the note needs the term he uses.
Question 5 · Investigations
GP blood test showed low gap
Show the answer
Answer: iron
Callum says “apparently my iron was quite low.” Write the word you hear; a different word for the same result can lose the mark.
Question 6 · Investigations
Diagnosis confirmed by gap of the small bowel
Show the answer
Answer: biopsy
The dietitian says “endoscopy”, but Callum says “They confirmed it with a biopsy.” The endoscopy is the procedure; the biopsy is what confirmed the diagnosis.
Part B: Workplace extracts
Choose the answer, A, B or C, which fits best according to what you hear.
You hear a paramedic handing over a patient to an emergency department nurse.
Played 0:00 / 0:47
Show the transcript
- Paramedic: This is Mr Kaminski, seventy-two, found by his neighbour confused and feverish. Temp on scene was thirty-nine two, heart rate one twenty, and his blood pressure’s dropped again in the last five minutes, it’s now eighty-eight over fifty.
- Nurse: Right, let’s get him straight into resus, don’t wait for a cubicle. Sugars?
- Paramedic: Checked in the ambulance, six point one, so that’s fine. He’s had a litre of fluid running since we picked him up. His daughter’s following behind in her own car, she should be about ten minutes.
- Nurse: Okay, straight through, I’ll grab the sepsis trolley. Any allergies we should know about?
- Paramedic: Nothing on his ambulance record, and his daughter said on the phone he’s not on any regular medication either.
Question 25
What does the nurse need to arrange first?
Show the answer
Answer: B, a bed in the resuscitation bay
His blood pressure has “dropped again in the last five minutes”, and the nurse says “let’s get him straight into resus, don’t wait for a cubicle.” His sugar was “checked in the ambulance”, and the daughter following by car is background, not a task.
You hear a dietitian and a ward nurse discussing an elderly patient’s feeding plan.
Played 0:00 / 0:50
Show the transcript
- Dietitian: So, Mrs Farooqi’s supplement drinks. She’s leaving most of the bottle each time.
- Ward nurse: I wondered if we should just drop them and push the fortified meals instead, she seems to manage those better.
- Dietitian: She still needs the extra calories the drinks give her, the meals alone won’t get her there yet. What if instead of one big bottle at eleven, we split it, small amounts between meals?
- Ward nurse: We tried the chocolate one last week and she didn’t touch it either.
- Dietitian: It wasn’t really about flavour that time, I think it was the volume put in front of her all at once. Smaller and more often should feel less daunting.
- Ward nurse: Alright, we’ll chip away at it through the day and see how she does.
Question 29
What do they agree to do about her supplement drinks?
Show the answer
Answer: B, offer a smaller amount more often
Stopping the drinks is the nurse’s first idea, but the dietitian says “She still needs the extra calories” and suggests “small amounts between meals”. Flavour was tried already. The nurse agrees: “we’ll chip away at it through the day.”
Part C: Presentations and interviews
Choose the answer, A, B or C, which fits best according to what you hear.
You hear part of a presentation by Priya Chandrasekaran, a quality improvement lead, about an audit of sepsis care in her hospital.
Played 0:00 / 1:36
Show the transcript
- Priya: We reviewed three hundred and forty cases over a full year. And here’s what surprised us. I had gone in assuming the delay would be in spotting sepsis in the first place, that clinicians weren’t recognising the pattern quickly enough. What we actually found was that the diagnosis was usually made in good time, often within the first thirty minutes of arrival. It was everything after that which slowed things down: getting the antibiotic prescribed, checked by a second person, drawn up, and physically given. That chain, not the recognition, was where the hour disappeared.
- Priya: We ran our first improvement cycle around exactly that chain. We tried a poster campaign reminding staff of the target, and honestly, it did nothing measurable, the numbers barely moved. What did move them was a sealed kit, put together for every ward, with the first-line antibiotic, the diluent, the fluids and the paperwork all together in one box. It isn’t that nobody knew what to do; it’s that finding all the pieces in a hurry, at three in the morning, on an unfamiliar ward, was the actual problem. Once the kit was in place, average time from prescription to administration fell by almost twenty minutes.
- Priya: We’re also considering an extra sepsis link nurse on each shift, someone whose job would partly be to keep an eye on exactly this kind of delay, but that’s still under discussion for a future cycle, it isn’t running yet.
Question 33
What surprised Priya most about the audit findings?
Show the answer
Answer: B, how often the delay came after diagnosis rather than before it
She expected the delay “would be in spotting sepsis in the first place”, but “the diagnosis was usually made in good time” and “It was everything after that which slowed things down.” She never compares shifts.
Question 34
What does Priya say improved the times after the first improvement cycle?
Show the answer
Answer: B, a sealed antibiotic kit on every ward
All three are mentioned, which is how Part C distracts you. The poster “did nothing measurable” and the link nurse “isn’t running yet”, but “What did move them was a sealed kit”.
Practise Listening with an OET teacher
Try a trial class with expert British teachers.
How does the OET Listening test work?
Three parts, each heard once. The same test for every profession.
Part AConsultation notes
24Two consultations between a health professional and a patient. You complete the notes with a word or short phrase.
Part BWorkplace extracts
6Six short recordings from healthcare settings, each with one question and three options.
Part CPresentations and interviews
12Two presentations or interviews on a healthcare topic, each with six questions and three options.
How many marks do you need for Grade B?
30/42
OET says Grade B, a score of 350, typically needs at least 30 of the 42 marks. Each test is new, so treat 30 as an estimate. Turn your practice marks into a score with the OET score converter.
Checked on 7 November 2026: oet.com, OET Listening and the OET Test Handbook 2026.
OET Listening tips that save marks
One habit per line. Try them on the practice above.
For Part C, practise prediction, signpost words and distractors with the clips on this page.
- 1Part A: write the words you hear, and never copy words already in the notes.
- 2Use the reading time to guess what each gap needs: a number, a symptom, a test.
- 3Write a number with its unit: “eight months”, not “eight”.
- 4Spell common medical words correctly, like diarrhoea, diabetes and cholesterol.
- 5Part B: listen for what the speakers decide to do, not just the key words.
- 6Part C: all three options are often mentioned, so wait for what the speaker thinks.
- 7Missed an answer? Let it go and catch the next one.
Want a teacher to check your Listening?
Tell an OET teacher how the practice went. We will tell you what you need to pass and how to get there.
Practise the other OET sub-tests
Listening and Reading are the same for everyone. Writing and Speaking use your profession.
New to the exam? Start with what OET is and how it works.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions our students ask us.
- Yes. Listening is the same for every profession. Each correct answer is one mark, and your marks out of 42 become a score out of 500.
- OET says Grade B, a score of 350, typically needs at least 30 of the 42 marks. Each test is new, so the exact number moves a little from test to test. OET score converter.
- No. You hear each recording once and answer as you listen. On paper you get two minutes at the end to check; on computer there is a short pause after each question.
- No. OET asks you to complete the notes with the words you hear. You lose marks for repeating words from the notes, adding information that is not in the recording, or making your answer unclear.
- They can. Listening is more flexible than Reading, but spell commonly used medical words, such as diabetes or cholesterol, correctly. Grammar mistakes can lose marks too.
- Mainly British, Australian and American, with others such as New Zealand, Irish, Canadian and South African.
- No. They are Healthcare Pass practice recordings, written in the OET format, with every answer explained.
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