Title: IELTS TRAINING CENTRE KENYA - IELTS PREPARATION | OET | TOEFL | PTE | GRE | DUOLINGO

Tips and strategies for OET Listening A

Listening A is the first part of the listening subtest and the first part of the entire OET test. You want to start strong. 

This post will cover:

• The structure of OET Listening Part A and how it fits in with Listening B and C
• Three common problems faced by students
• Three daily activities that will supercharge your Listening A preparation

 

The structure of Listening Part A

The first part of the OET listening test is worth 24 points in total. Your task represents notes taken by a healthcare professional during a five-minute conversation. There are two conversations and each conversation contains twelve blanks for either a word or a phrase. The conversations carry twelve points for the key pieces of omitted information. You need to follow the interaction and catch the relevant information in time to write it down without losing track of the flow. You need to be flexible as the listening extracts may come from a variety of healthcare settings and feature a range of healthcare professionals including specialists, therapists, and primary care physicians/general practitioners. There is no need to have specialised knowledge as the conversations typically focus on the background for an ongoing condition or a review. There will be medical language and terminology, but it will not be specialised. 

You have thirty seconds before each audio to preview the 12 questions, which helps you anticipate the relevant information and the cues from the speakers.  

 

Test tips for oet listening a

You’ll also hear a variety of accents and ways of speaking; however, you will not hear country-specific slang and the speakers, who will be one male and one female, will always speak clearly. They will not speak over each other or interrupt, which means that you should be able to hear everything clearly. There is a sound test at the start, and in the unlikely event that there is a problem with hearing the audio, you should alert the test official.

 

What do I need to score in Listening A to be on track for a B overall? 

To be confident of a B score on OET listening overall, which is worth 42 points, you need to score 75% across each of the three parts or 31 points.  

In theory, this means you want to have a maximum of six errors on part A. However, in practice, many people aim for a much lower error rate because they really want a strong start in the listening test. 

 

How do the skills and knowledge of listening part A fit into the rest of the Listening subtest? 

According to the OET, a candidate at OET Grade B can 

• follow patient consultations, workplace discussions, professional talks and presentations in a wide range of medical contexts with relative ease.
• mostly record detailed content of a general medical nature accurately.
• mostly understand and follow extended speech on abstract and complex topics within the healthcare field. 
• understand complex healthcare and technical information, such as operating instructions, details of treatments and best practice procedures within a healthcare setting. 

Obviously the first and the second abilities are relevant to Listening A. You need to follow the patient/carer consultation and also be able to record information accurately. However, the bottom line is VOCABULARY, and being able to relate medical vocabulary from the notes to the lay language spoken by the patient. 

 

Let’s now take a look at three common problems faced by students:

Problem 1:  ‘I can understand everything I hear, but I cannot connect it to the questions on the page’ 

Another version of this is ‘it all makes sense until I need to complete the blanks’. 

If you are facing this kind of problem, then the chances are you feel frustrated and a little disconnected from the paper. The good news is that you can follow everything, which is a necessary condition for answering the questions. The bad news is that you are likely spending all your mental energy on following just to process the meaning. 

 

Solution: Connect the flow of words as sound to the flow of words on the page. 

This means that you need to recognise when the speakers are paraphrasing information. For example, if a question gap says 

‘GP prescribed 4 (________________) and recommended more exercise’

And you hear 

‘I was told to get more exercise by my GP and started me off on beta-blockers’  

Then you have heard the cue word ‘I was told to…’ instead of ‘recommended’.  Also, notice that the patient did not say ‘prescribed’ but used the phrasal verb ‘put me on’…You need to connect the word ‘prescribed’  to the phrasal verb ‘started me off on beta-blockers’. 

Phrasal verbs which are used in conversation often take a second longer to register than medical terms. This is partly because they contain more syllables ‘start-ed-me-off-on’ has five syllables compared to the two in ‘pres-cribed’ and also because they are often more complex in structure too. 

 

Takeaway: 

Identify how the language you hear is different from the language on the page. Develop your knowledge of phrasal verbs, and idiomatic language for describing body parts, sensations and problems. Anticipate how a patient will express the language written in the notes, so you are ready to recognise when you are hearing information that is going to complete the gap logically. 

Problem 2: ‘I get lost’ 

Other ways this problem shows up for students are: ‘While writing an answer I lose track of what they are discussing’ 

 

Solution: Improve your writing so that you can easily record the answer without losing track. 

If your writing is more or less automatic, then you can get the answer down quickly, and keep the focus on the audio. 

Also, learn how to recognise the patterns of language which relate to the information coming. For example, if you see the heading ‘Initial treatment’, you’d expect to hear something like ‘At first…’ or ‘I started with…’ as well as ‘We first tried…’. These are transition statements that tell you the information is on the way. 

 

Takeaway: 

1. Use dictation to build your accuracy and speed at recording audio. 
   The resource ‘Youglish’ presents an audio clip of a word used in a piece of real speech. Choose a word you’d like to practice and press play. Write down the sentence you hear and then rewind to see it written down.
2. If you are taking the test on a computer and you are slow at typing, learn to touch type
3. If you miss an answer, write the first letter of the word and then move on.
4. Write only what you hear
5. Write the answer in the right place!

 

Problem 3: I panic if I hear English in an accent I am not used to. 

This problem comes up when you hear English in an unfamiliar accent. It might sound strange at first or even too fast to follow. This experience can also lead you to question your ability and affect your confidence. 

 

Solution: Get confident listening to different accents 

Again, Youglish is an excellent resource for building confidence in listening to different accents. The main varieties of English accents are British, American and Australian accents, and these are the big three that you should get comfortable with. OET did an excellent video on the differences between these three accents. 

Listening to podcasts, TED talks, and TV shows from all around the world is the best way to strengthen your skills. You can set yourself the goal of anticipating what you’ll hear: the topics, the speakers, their intentions and three words that might be used. As you listen, make notes and then re-listen. 

Finally, make sure that you are aware of sentence and word stress. Stress is a huge part of decoding English because a lot of syllables are said quietly or not at all. Also, the rhythm of English is around stress patterns, not syllables as is the case in many East Asian languages. A good way to train your ear is to watch a talk that has subtitles (Youglish again!) and speak the words you see at the same time as hearing them. Doing this will help you adjust your ears to the rhythm of English, and significantly help your speaking skills as well. 

 

Takeaway: 

Comprehending different accents will become easy with practice. Remember that even in your native language, you are likely to adapt to different accents. Exposure really helps. 

 

Three daily activities to improve your Listening A skills 

Outside OET test papers, you should be doing the following activities. 

1. Record information accurately and quickly. Use Youglish to listen to a couple of sentences. 
2. Listen to content from a country whose accent you are less familiar with. Again, Youglish can help. 
3. Shadow a native speaker; speak at the same time as them, to improve your awareness of stress and intonation patterns. 

 

Maximize your OET Listening A success with tutoring

Starting strong in OET Listening A is crucial, as it sets the tone for the entire test. A dedicated OET tutor will help you delve into the structure of Listening A and its connection with Listening B and C, addressing common challenges with personalised strategies.

Author: Vincent

Published on: 2024-09-10 12:53:54