OET Insights Speaking: Pharmacy

Find out how you can interpret the information given to you in the task to help you prepare for the role play.  The first step is to look at the setting and background.

Use your three minutes wisely and plan what you can say using the key-words given to you.  Let's look at how you can do this.

The final thing you need to do in your 3 minutes' preparation time is anticipate.  Watch this video to find out about the types of things you need to be looking out for.

First things first: how should you begin?  This video looks at how the language practice library works and then goes on to look at useful phrases you can use to begin your role-play.

Learn how to move on from asking open to closed questions.  Practice pronunciation and sentence stress with your teacher.

Practise spotting medical language in the task cards and transforming the expressions into lay language.

It's important to know how to ask polite questions when dealing with sensitive issues.  In this lecture, we go over some ways you can make your questioning sound less direct and so more polite.

Another criterion is to summarise and make sure that you've understood all the information the patient or client has told you.  Here are 6 phrases you can use to begin your summary.

Being able to signpost information and chunk information into manageable and easy-to-understand segments is an important part of your job role.  Let's look at how you can do this.

Let's look at some useful phrases to help you give advice and make suggestions.  We'll also go over the grammar and verb patterns connected to these 10 useful phrases.

When you're giving advice, it's important to be able to differentiate between gentle recommendations and strong advice that the client or patient really does need to follow.  Here are some phrases which will help you convey the fact that you are giving them an essential message.

In this lecture, we'll look at some phrases you can use when giving instructions about how to take medicine.

Sometimes, in a role-play, as in real life, you may have to deal with a difficult patient.  In this video, we go through why a patient or client may be being difficult and look at some useful phrases that can help you manage the situation.

Here is another chance to use your soft skills and this time, we look at how to negotiate.

Once you've given the patient or client some information, it might be a good idea to check that they have understood everything correctly.  This is especially good practice when you're coming towards the end of the consultation as it offers a nice opportunity to summarise everything you've covered and for them to ask any questions they may still have.  Let's look at some useful phrases to help you do this.

Here are some phrases to help you end the consultation.

An introduction to the roleplay section

This video is also available on my YouTube Channel and goes over some useful language to help a client with a sore throat.  We'll also break down a role play.

Let's imagine that a patient has come to you for advice on managing period pain.  What kind of advice could you give her?  Practice some useful language and work through a role-play in this video that is available for everyone on YouTube.

This looks at ways you can address your patient, whether that is when you're speaking to them or writing to them.  There is also some reading practice for you included in this video which is available on YouTube for everyone.

This lecture was first featured on our YouTube channel.  Watch now to find out how you can help a patient who presents to you with a complaint of a fungal nail infection.

Especially for my Udemy students, this role play looks at how to give advice on treating head lice.

Especially for my Udemy students, this role play looks at how to help treat heartburn.

Especially for my Udemy students, this role play looks at how to give advice for a camping trip.

Especially for my Udemy students, this role play looks at how to give advice on contact dermatitis.

Here are some ways you can further your OET practice beyond this course.

Let's summarise what we've learnt.