OET Score Chart: How 42 Marks Become a Grade, and What Each Regulator Accepts (2026)

Your OET Statement of Results shows two things for each sub-test: a number between 0 and 500, and a letter from A to E. Most regulators care about the number. Grade B starts at 350, and in Listening and Reading you usually need about 30 correct answers out of 42 to get there. That is the short version. The rest of this page explains how the chart works, why the “marks needed” move from test to test, how Writing and Speaking are scored when there are no right-or-wrong answers to count, and exactly which scores the GMC, NMC, AHPRA and ECFMG ask for as of October 2026.

The OET score chart

OET reports each sub-test separately. There is no overall score and no overall grade. Scores go up in steps of ten (340, 350, 360 and so on), and each score falls inside one letter band.

Grade	Score	What it means in practice
A	450–500	Very high. Rare, and no regulator asks for it
B	350–440	The standard pass for doctors, nurses and most other professions
C+	300–340	Accepted for Writing by some regulators (NMC, ECFMG); not enough on its own elsewhere
C	200–290	Below registration level
D	100–190	Well below registration level
E	0–90	Lowest band

Two numbers on that chart do almost all the work: 350 (the bottom of B) and 300 (the bottom of C+). If you remember nothing else, remember those two.

One more thing to notice. A 440 and a 350 are both “Grade B”, but they are not the same result. Since the numeric scale was introduced, regulators have slowly moved from asking for letters to asking for numbers, and the latest example is AHPRA, which now asks for 360 in two sub-tests (details below). A letter grade is no longer a safe way to describe what you need.

Listening and Reading: from 42 marks to a score

Listening and Reading each have 42 questions, and each correct answer is worth one mark. There is no negative marking, so a guess costs nothing. Your mark out of 42 is then converted to the 0–500 scale.

OET’s own guidance is that candidates who receive Grade B “typically achieve at least 30 marks”. That is the only official anchor point, and it is deliberately vague, because the conversion is not fixed. Every test date uses a new paper, and a new paper is never exactly as hard as the last one. OET adjusts the conversion so that a 350 means the same level of ability whether the paper you sat was slightly easier or slightly harder. On a harder paper, 29 might be enough. On an easier one, you might need 31.

What this means for your practice tests:

• If you are scoring 28–29 out of 42 at home, you are on the borderline. On test day, under pressure, borderline usually falls the wrong way.
• Aim for 32 or more, consistently, before you book. That gives you room for one bad part.
• Count your mistakes by part, not just in total. Listening Part A (24 marks) and Reading Part A (20 marks) are where most lost marks hide, because they are note-completion tasks with spelling and timing pressure. Six wrong in Part A alone uses up most of your margin.

The parts are weighted by their question count, nothing more. Listening is Part A 24 marks, Part B 6, Part C 12. Reading is Part A 20, Part B 6, Part C 16. A mark in Part B counts exactly the same as a mark in Part A.

Writing: six criteria, two assessors

There is nothing to count in Writing, so the score is built from assessor judgements. Your letter is read by two trained assessors, independently. Each gives a band for six criteria:

Criterion	Scale	The question the assessor is answering
Purpose	0–3	Is it clear early in the letter why you are writing, and is the purpose expanded where needed?
Content	0–7	Is everything the reader needs included, and is it accurate?
Conciseness and clarity	0–7	Have you left out what the reader does not need?
Genre and style	0–7	Does it read like a letter from one clinician to another?
Organisation and layout	0–7	Does the information arrive in a sensible order, in paragraphs that make sense?
Language	0–7	Grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation

The bands are combined and converted to the 0–500 scale. OET does not publish the conversion table, and it would not help much if they did, because the bands themselves are the thing to work on. In our experience, letters stuck at 300–340 are rarely failing on Language. They are failing on Content and Conciseness: a key case note left out, or two paragraphs of history the reader already knows. If your Writing score will not move, that is the first place to look. We wrote a separate piece on why Writing scores get stuck around 300.

Speaking: nine criteria across two role-plays

Speaking is recorded and marked later, again by two assessors, each working alone. They use two sets of criteria:

• Four linguistic criteria, each marked out of 6: intelligibility, fluency, appropriateness of language, and resources of grammar and expression.
• Five clinical communication criteria, each marked out of 3: relationship building, understanding the patient’s perspective, providing structure, information gathering, and information giving.

Again, the marks are combined and converted to the 0–500 scale. The clinical criteria are only marked out of 3, which makes them look minor. They are not. They are the reason a fluent speaker can score 330 and a hesitant one can score 370: the second one checked what the patient already knew before explaining, and signposted what was coming next. Our guide to the Speaking assessment criteria goes through each one with examples.

What each regulator accepts (October 2026)

This is the table most people are really looking for. Check it against the regulator’s own page before you book, because these figures do change. The AHPRA row changed in April 2026.

Regulator	Listening	Reading	Writing	Speaking	Sittings
GMC (UK doctors)	B	B	B	B	One sitting. Must be your most recent test
NMC (UK nurses and midwives)	350	350	300	350	Up to two sittings within 12 months, with floors (see below)
AHPRA (Australia, tests from 23 April 2026)	350	360	350	360	Up to two sittings in 12 months, with floors (see below)
ECFMG (US, IMGs)	350	350	300	350	One sitting

A few details that matter more than they look:

GMC wants Grade B in all four, from the same test, and it has to be your most recent sitting. If you pass everything, then re-sit to improve Writing and drop below B in Reading, the GMC will look at the newer result. Think before you re-sit. More on the GMC’s rules in our GMC English requirements guide.

NMC is the most forgiving of the four. Writing at C+ (300 or above) is fine as long as the other three reach 350. You can also combine two sittings, provided you sat all four sub-tests both times, the test dates are within 12 months of each other, and both tests are under two years old when the NMC assesses your application. Each minimum has to be reached in at least one of the two sittings, and nothing in either sitting may fall below 300 in Listening, Reading or Speaking, or below 250 in Writing. The NMC accepts OET on Paper, on Computer and OET@Home, and lets you combine any two of them. If you are deciding between tests for UK nursing, see which English test you need for NMC registration.

AHPRA changed its standard for tests taken on or after 23 April 2026. The old requirement was B in Listening, Reading and Speaking and C+ in Writing. The new one is written in numbers: 350 in Listening and Writing, 360 in Reading and Speaking. Note what that did to Writing: it went up from 300 to 350. You can still combine two sittings within 12 months, but only if no single component in either sitting falls below 320 for Listening, 340 for Reading, 350 for Writing and 350 for Speaking. Tests taken on or before 22 April 2026 are assessed under the old table. Our AHPRA English requirements article covers the other accepted tests.

ECFMG asks for 350 in Listening, Reading and Speaking and 300 in Writing, all in one test administration. If you miss one, you re-sit all four. For the 2027 Pathways the test must have been taken on or after 1 January 2025. One practical change from May 2026: when you release results to ECFMG you now need your MyIntealth ID, not your USMLE ID. If the ID or date of birth in your OET profile does not match ECFMG’s records, the result simply does not arrive. The full process is in our ECFMG Pathway guide.

Combining two sittings: a worked example

Suppose you are applying to the NMC and your two results look like this.

	Listening	Reading	Writing	Speaking
Sitting 1 (March)	370	340	310	360
Sitting 2 (September)	350	360	290	350

Listening, Reading and Speaking each reach 350 in at least one sitting, and Writing reaches 300 in the first sitting. Nothing drops below the NMC’s floors of 300 (Listening, Reading, Speaking) and 250 (Writing), and the two test dates are six months apart. This combination works for the NMC.

Now run the same two results past AHPRA’s post-April-2026 table. Reading needs 360 and Speaking needs 360: Speaking never gets there. Writing needs 350: neither sitting reaches it. And the 290 in Writing in sitting 2 is below the 350 floor, which would rule out combining anyway. Same candidate, same scores, different answer. This is why “Is 340 a pass?” has no single answer. It depends entirely on who is reading the certificate.

Results, validity and re-marks

• When results arrive. OET Test on Computer and OET@Home results can be released within 48 hours of your last sub-test. OET Test on Paper results take around 12 days, with faster release in India and the Philippines. ECFMG tells its applicants to expect about 10 business days.
• How long they last. Two years is the standard validity period at the GMC, NMC and AHPRA, counted in slightly different ways: the GMC checks the date it approves your application, the NMC the date it assesses your complete application, AHPRA the date you lodge. If you combined two sittings, the clock usually runs from the earlier one.
• Sharing. You release results to a regulator from your OET account by naming the organisation. Regulators increasingly accept only results shared this way, not PDFs you email.
• Re-marks. You have 72 hours from receiving your results to request a re-mark of one or more sub-tests. Re-marks rarely change Listening or Reading, since those are already machine-checked. Writing and Speaking are where it occasionally pays. Our re-mark guide explains when it is worth the fee.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an overall OET score?

No. Each sub-test is scored and graded on its own, and regulators set a minimum for each one. A strong Speaking result cannot rescue a weak Writing one.

How many marks do I need for Grade B in Listening?

Usually about 30 out of 42, but the exact number moves slightly with each test version. Treat 32 as your practice-test target.

Is 340 a pass?

340 is the top of C+. It is enough for Writing at the NMC and ECFMG, and nowhere else. For Listening, Reading and Speaking, every major regulator wants at least 350.

Does a 360 count for more than a 350?

Both are Grade B, but some regulators now set minimums above 350. AHPRA asks for 360 in Reading and Speaking for tests taken from 23 April 2026. Always check the number, not the letter.

Can I combine my best sub-test scores from different tests?

Only if the regulator allows it. The NMC and AHPRA accept two sittings within 12 months, with conditions. The GMC and ECFMG want everything in a single sitting.

Why did my friend get a B with fewer correct answers than me?

Different test dates use different papers, and the mark-to-score conversion is adjusted for each one. A 350 means the same level of ability on every paper, even if the raw marks behind it differ by one or two.

---

If you want to see where you stand before booking, our free OET practice test gives you one question from each sub-test with the answers explained, and the full Vol.01 set is free on the app.