OET Strategies
Why Your OET Score Drops Even When the Test Felt Easy
Oct
Many OET candidates share the same experience.
They walk out of the exam room feeling confident, convinced they understood everything.
Then the results arrive, and the score is far below the expectation.
A large number of OET candidates, especially internationally trained doctors, have always been strong academic performers.
They excel at tests. So why does their performance in the exam room not translate into strong scoring outcomes?
OET Covers a Vast Range of Medical Topics
To begin with, OET draws from an extraordinarily wide scope of themes across general medicine.
- Allergy & Immunology
- Cardiology
- Dermatology
- Emergency Medicine
- Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism
- Family Medicine
- Gastroenterology
- Infectious Disease
- Internal Medicine
- Nephrology
- Neurology
- Oncology
- Orthopedics
- Otolaryngology
- Pathology
- Pediatrics
- Psychiatry
- Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine
- Radiology
- Rheumatology
- Thoracic Surgery
- Urology
- Vascular Medicine
- (and more)
Some topics appear frequently while others show up only once a year or less. Naturally, the more schema and background knowledge a candidate holds, the easier it becomes to interpret the material.
Conversely, the farther the topic deviates from one’s specialty, the more difficult the test becomes, and scoring tends to become less consistent.
By comparison, exams such as university entrance tests or USMLE follow more stable and predictable boundaries. Increased input usually correlates directly with improved scoring.
Without recognizing this key difference, candidates may feel:
“I studied so much, yet my score dropped.”
Motivation falls. Confidence declines.
Some even start questioning the overseas career they once aimed for.
Which topics appear more frequently?
Despite the broad distribution, certain themes repeatedly appear because they relate closely to daily clinical practice.
Chronic conditions in primary care
• Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Migraine
Acute and infectious conditions
• Dengue fever
• Acute infectious diarrhea
Procedures and treatment
• Obstetric ultrasound
• Post-surgical patient management
Public health and general topics
• Vitamin C deficiency
• Bed bug infestations
• Safe use of sunscreen
Current global issues also influence what appears. For example, during peak pandemic years, COVID-19 topics were common. Keeping track of contemporary medical news can offer a strategic advantage.
The Fundamental Difference in Question Design
The most significant reason for score–perception mismatch lies in the nature of multiple-choice questions in OET.
In many widely used English exams, candidates typically approach multiple-choice questions with a familiar strategy:
- Read the choices first
- Scan the passage or audio for matching information
The same applies in listening. Candidates preview options, predict likely answers, and then listen for specific clues. This scanning-based approach rewards locating a single matching detail.
However, OET is deliberately constructed so that multiple options often contain information mentioned in the text or audio.
When several choices feel correct, candidates frequently select the first detail they recognize and then move on. The immediate impression is:
“I heard that. So I definitely got it right.”
Yet the test may be assessing something more precise:
• The speaker’s main concern
• The clinical reasoning behind an action
• The most accurate or context-appropriate interpretation
When the selected option does not align with the deeper intent of the question, the result becomes a significant mismatch between test-day confidence and actual scoring.
Candidates often think they “got it,” when technically the answer that best reflects clinical communication was the one left unchecked.
So how do you overcome this?
That requires its own detailed explanation, which will be covered in the next article.
If you are preparing for OET, consider exploring our practice resources at OET Bank.
We are designed not just as mock tests, but as powerful review tools that make it easier to analyze weaknesses and focus on what is needed to pass.
