OET Insights Speaking: Medicine

Watch this letter to see where and how to start getting ready for the role-play.

Find out how key-words can help give you an insight into what to do in the role-play.

Let's work through a sample role-play and hear one student's version.

Here, you'll be able to practise some useful expressions for greeting your patient depending on whether you know them, or don't.  Read out aloud and practise pronunciation and intonation to improve your score.

Once you've greeted your patient, you need to begin the consultation.  Here, we look at different ways you can do so, from the more formal, to the more friendly.

Learn how to ask the patient about the location and duration of the pain.

Now, focus in on how to ask the patient about the type and severity of the pain.

Learn useful sentence stems that you can complete as necessary when you are prescribing.

Focusing on grammar constructions and pronunciation, this lecture helps you learn a selection of useful phrases to  give your patients advice and suggestions.  

Now, practise the language, pronunciation, and intonation needed to convey a sense of urgency and to give your patients strong advice and warnings.

Learn how to deal with a difficult patient.

It's never easy to break bad news in any language, but here are some sentences and strategies to help you.

Learn and practise useful phrases to check that you have understood all the information the patient has given you accurately, as well as checking that the patient has understood all that you have told them correctly.

As you draw towards the end of the consultation, learn which phrases you can use to signal that the consultation is coming to an end, as well as how to take leave of your patient.

Listen to a model role-play between a GP and a patient from the UK.  Identify how the doctor structures the consultation, highlight the criteria being met, and revise some useful expressions that you can take away with you and use for the test and when you start practising.

How many expressions can you remember?  Fill in the gaps and answer the questions to identify key ways to satisfy the criteria.

Analyse an OET role-play task and learn techniques to help you maximise your planning time.

Listen to the model role-play by a doctor from India, and then work through the exercises to identify key phrases and way the test criteria is fulfilled, as well as ways in which to improve the interaction.

Listen to feedback commentary on the role-play you've just heard and find out what works well and what can be improved to score more highly in the test.

This video was first published on our YouTube Channel.  You can watch it again here.

In this role-play, we come across a patient who is difficult to deal with.  How would you manage the situation?

This role-play focuses on the information you need to get and give to a patient who is about to have a steroid injection.  Let's look at how you can use signposting to help make it easier for your patient to follow, and take a look at how you can explain steroid injections to them in a non-medical way.

Let's work through a role-play where you'll have to reassure and advise a patient who has sciatica.

In the video, we go through some further free resources that you can use to extend your study beyond the course.  Then, grab a colleague, friend, or family member and get practising!

Just before we finish the course, let's summarise the key points that you should remember.