IELTS - Vs - OET

Disclaimer: This blog is for a doctor who is preparing to take PLAB exams or looking for GMC registration via other routes, and who:

- failed in an IELTS and is in a dilemma to decide if it is a good idea to take OET next time,

Or

- never took any English language exam before and yet undecided between IELTS & OET.

Which category of the exam in IELTS and OET is required by GMC for doctors?

IELTS

IELTS has two categories: General Training and Academic. You have to choose an academic version.

IELTS is conducted by two bodies – the Australian Education Office and the British Council. Both of these are equally acceptable.

OET

Occupational English Test (OET) has many categories. OET for dentistry, dietetics, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, optometry, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatry, radiography, speech pathology, and veterinary science.

You have to choose the medicine version of OET.

OET is conducted by only one body – Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment.

What are the required band scores for IELTS?

You need at least 7.0 in each of Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking and an overall score of at least 7.5 to qualify for PLAB 1 exam or for GMC registration.

However, if you want to apply for a 2-year UK foundation training program by UKFPO, then the requirements of IELTS scores are different. For this, you need a higher score i.e., at least 7.5 in each band and an overall score of 7.5.

What is UK Foundation Program?

UK foundation program is a structured training program for doctors after the completion of medical school in the UK. This training program is delivered from UK Foundation Program Office (UKFPO).

It has two levels. FY1 (Foundation Year 1), which is equivalent to the first year of internship/house job in the rest of the world and FY2 (Foundation Year 2), which is equivalent to the first year of medical employment in the rest of the world.

What are the required band scores for OET?

To be eligible to sit for PLAB 1 or secure GMC registration, you must score at least 350 in each band of Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking. This is equivalent to letter grade B in each band. (OET was previously scored only by letter grade but is now being replaced by both letter grade and numeric score.)

However , for an FY2 standalone program, you need at least 400 in each band. 

What is FY2 standalone program?

This is a 1-year supervised training job at the FY2 level. With this, you don’t need a separate CREST form (Equivalent FY2 Competency form for non training jobs) to enter into core training

Note: Still, the full 2-year UK foundation program doesn't accept OET.

Which exam should I take?

The type of exam that you have to choose (IELTS Academic or OET medicine) depends upon various factors like cost,  your individual situation and the type of role you are aiming for, to start your career in UK.

 

The cheaper option is IELTS academic. It costs 170 GBP.

OET medicine is more expensive (587 Australian Dollar ~ 330 GBP).

If you have never taken any English language exam before, I would strongly recommend to take OET. OET is tailor-made for doctors so you are always in your comfort zone. Audio tracks in the listening section of OET are health care related, reading tasks are all the excerpts from the medical journal, medical news or memos, writing task is either to write a referral letter to the consultant or a discharge letter of a patient and a speaking session are like a real-world consult with the patient.

Whereas IELTS is a more generic English language exam with no particular occupation in focus.

Likewise, I have experienced that writing practice for OET will improve your referral letter writing skills and the speaking practice will help you in the communication skills section of PLAB 2 or MRCP PACES exams. Thus there are always an added advantage of preparing for OET in the future.

But you said OET is expensive and is not accepted for the 2-year UK foundation training program?

That’s true!!! OET is expensive but is helpful for various purposes in your future as described above.

OET is not accepted for a 2-year UK foundation program as well, but  if you have already completed an acceptable pattern of internship in your home country, a 2-year foundation program should not be the one that you are looking for. Your target must be to achieve a non-training F2/ST1/ST2/Registrar level of trust grade job first to start your career in NHS. Then later get a CREST form signed by your supervising consultants and move to a Core training program. These trust grade roles will just require a GMC registration (which you can also achieve from an OET itself).

Recently, UKFPO has also decided to accept OET for FY2 standalone program. So even if you start your career in the UK from the F2 standalone program OET is still accepted.

My situation is different, I have failed in an IELTS exam, is it a good idea for me to now go for OET?

First of all sorry about that. Even by failing an IELTS exam, you at least learned something new in the English language. Whenever you fail, experience is the reward.

Now lets come to the main question, is it now a good idea to go for OET? My answer would be based upon your performance of IELTS. If you are struggling in listening, reading, or speaking part of IELTS, it's not entirely a good idea to go for OET. Listening in OET has three parts – A, B, and C. Part A is the easiest of them all, but the challenge is, you should answer correctly more than 90% or sometimes even 100% in this part, as part B and C will become more and more difficult, and is thus not going to be easier than IELTS. The same goes for the Reading task as well. However, the speaking task of OET is, in fact, more difficult and complicated than IELTS. Yes, you will be in the comfort zone of your profession, but the marking scheme has about 9 different criteria that are broken down to two main categories of linguistic and clinical communication criteria, hence struggling in speaking of IELTS will not ensure you that you will perform well in OET too.

But having said that, if you are consistently struggling in writing tasks for IELTS, then OET might be a good alternative for you. You just have to write a letter to the consultant or prepare a discharge letter. This is something you have done many times in your daily life and it is always going to be easier to score grade B in writing in OET than to score 7.0 or higher in IELTS.

If you want to know, about how I prepared for my OET, here is the link:

https://sidukjourney.blogspot.com/p/oet_5.html

If you want to see some of my notes taken during my OET preparation, here is the link:

https://sidukjourney.blogspot.com/p/oet-notes.html

If you have any further questions to me, you can use the comment section below.

Update 1:

This article has been updated on Sep 9, 2019, after the decision of the UK home office, to scrape off the separate requirement of IELTS for UKVI solely for tier 2 visa purposes. From now on, whichever exam is used by an individual to prove their English language competency in the GMC, the same can be used for tier 2 visa purposes as well. These changes are said to be effective from October 1, 2019.

The previous notion of taking IELTS for UKVI (academic) first, thereby trying to secure required bands for GMC and if in case one becomes unsuccessful in doing so, using that test report for applying for Tier 2 visa and then only going for OET should now CHANGE!!!

Link to this recent change is here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/expansion-of-the-shortage-of-occupation-list?utm_source=63fa355e-448b-4f7c-b636-2b1c0727ba35&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

Update 2:

Uk Foundation Programme Office, which previously accepted only IELTS (and not OET) has recently started accepting OET for F2 standalone program, but with higher requirements. Changes will be effective from August 2020.

This article has been updated on December 5, 2019, following these changes.

Link to this update is here:

https://foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/content/f2-stand-alone-programmes-2020-update-person-specification-criteria-eligibility