OET scores: 350 is a B, and a B is what most nurses and doctors are asked for

OET's own sheet maps the 500-point scale to grades like this: A is 450 to 500. B is 350 to 440 (printed in two rows, 400–440 and 350–390). C+ is 300 to 340. C is 200 to 290 (250–290 and 200–240). D is 100 to 190. E is 0 to 90.

Each grade comes with a descriptor written for clinical work. Grade B reads: can communicate effectively with patients and health professionals using appropriate register, tone and lexis, with only occasional inaccuracies and hesitations. Grade C+ and C share one descriptor: can maintain the interaction in a relevant healthcare environment despite occasional errors and lapses.

The grades are per sub-test. A Statement of Results carries four scores and four grades, and the organisations that accept OET set their requirement sub-test by sub-test.

Reading and Listening each have 42 questions, one mark each, and the raw mark out of 42 is converted to the 500 scale. OET states that test-takers awarded grade B (a scale score of 350) typically achieve at least 30 marks.

Read the word typically as OET wrote it. 30 of 42 is a guide, not a published cut score, and the page does not say the conversion is the same on every test form.

Which sub-test holds candidates back most often? OET does not publish that. Dr. Alecia Banfield of promedicalenglish.com, who coaches healthcare professionals for OET: "It's often reading. But writing comes next." That is one tutor's experience, not an OET figure.

Writing is marked on six criteria (Purpose, Content, Conciseness and Clarity, Genre and Style, Organisation and Layout, Language). Speaking has four linguistic criteria marked out of 6 and five clinical communication criteria marked out of 3. In both, the criterion scores are combined and converted to the 500 scale.

OET publishes two benchmarking tables. On the CEFR: grade A is C2, grade B is C1, and grades C+ and C (200 to 340) are B2. The CEFR table stops at C; it gives no CEFR band for D or E.

On IELTS: 450–500 is 8.0 to 9.0, 400–440 is 7.5, 350–390 is 7.0, 300–340 is 6.5, 250–290 is 6.0, 200–240 is 5.5, and D and E are less than 5.5.

So the B that many healthcare regulators ask for sits where OET places IELTS 7.0 and CEFR C1. These are OET's own equivalences, published by OET. For how IELTS describes its own bands, see our IELTS guide, and for every major English test side by side, the comparison.

The UK's Nursing and Midwifery Council lists the OET grades it accepts: B (350 or above) in Listening, Reading and Speaking, and C+ (300 or above) in Writing. Writing is the one sub-test where it asks for less than a B.

The NMC also accepts results combined from two sittings taken within 12 months of each other, if you sat all four sub-tests each time, reach the required grade in each sub-test across the two, and meet its minimum scores in both sittings. It does not let you mix OET with IELTS. It treats results as valid for two years.

That is one regulator. Other boards, councils and countries set their own grades, and OET says the same about validity: the length of time the results are recognised as valid is decided by the authorities that recognise the OET Test. Check the body you are applying to before you book.

OET on Computer and OET@Home results can be available within 48 hours of completing all four sub-tests. OET on Paper results can be available 12 days after the test date, and in as little as 5 days in India and 6 in the Philippines, with a note that holidays can shift those dates.

A re-mark must be requested within 72 hours of the results being released. The fee is AU$120 per sub-test (US$95 in the US), refunded only if your grade changes. OET says the outcome takes three to six weeks, and a re-mark can raise a score, lower it or leave it unchanged. Once published, a re-marked result cannot be swapped back for the original.