Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Reading sub-test
Test information
The OET Centre GPO Box 372 Melbourne VIC 3001 Australia
OET Centre Test information
General Information
Time Allocation
The Reading sub-test takes 60 minutes. Part A = 15 minutes Part B = 45 minutes
Test topics
The topics of the Reading sub-tests are chosen carefully to be accessible to all candidates of the OET. They are of general medical interest and cover a wide variety of issues. The OET is a test of English, not of medical knowledge, and the test developers are careful in the test design to minimise areas where candidates may use prior knowledge rather than language skills to respond. Topics will vary from administration to administration and while some topics may include content that is familiar to one particular health practitioners area of experience and expertise, the language tasks and questions associated with the texts are designed to test language knowledge and ability, over and above, the candidates knowledge of that field. In other words, correct responses cannot be simply predicted because a candidate has experience in that area. Reading texts are selected for their concentration of content of a general health literacy nature; elements that can be considered common across multiple professions. The topics of all texts are designed to be comprehensible to any educated lay native speaker, or highly proficient non-native speaker, and this is regularly demonstrated through the trialling process (both internal and external). The reading texts are developed according to strict specifications (in terms of word length, difficulty of vocabulary etc.) by test development specialists at the University of Melbourne. In response to feedback on initial topic ideas and drafts of materials, texts are refined and then question and response formats are developed by the university team. These are subjected to trialling, analysis and further refinement. Through this process a marking key is developed for use by assessors. A sample key is included in the sample reading materials.
Part A of the Reading sub-test is a test of your ability to skim read and scan quickly across different texts to choose selected information in order to summarise. It is not a test of detailed reading for comprehension purposes - that particular skill is tested in Part B of the reading sub-test. Remember also that the first paragraph of the summary passage may not necessarily always directly relate to the first text (A1) of the Text booklet. Information for the first two or three gaps in the summary passage might only be located by reading another text. That is why it is very important to quickly establish a sense of the topic and focus of the first paragraph; to direct your reading straight away to the appropriate text therefore making efficient use of the time available. Reading: Part A - Answer Booklet Do Write at least 1 word, or up to 3 words for each answer.
TIME LIMIT: 15 MINUTES Complete following using the in (i.e., the four-) texts, A1-A4, provided on For pages 2 and 3 of thea low-cholesterol Consider words the that aresummary spelt with a information hyphen as ONE word. example, Text Booklet. diet (counts as three words) whereas a low cholesterol diet (counts as four words and will NOT You do not need to read each text from beginning to end to complete the task. You should scan the texts to find the receive any marks) information you need.
Gaps may require 1, 2 or 3 words. You will not receive any marks if you write more than 3 words. Make sure you write your response in the same numbered box as the gap in the summary passage You should write your answers next to the appropriate number in the right-hand column. (see diagram below). Sometimes the numbered boxes in the Answers column may not line up Please use correct spelling in your responses. Do not write abbreviations. across the page with the same numbered gaps as they appear in the Summary column.
Instructions
Summary
Vasectomy One method of contraception is male sterilisation or vasectomy. Statistics for 2008 showed that
(1)
Answers
1. 2. 3. 4.
18% 70 constant
.... of adult men aged under (2) .... in Britain had undergone a vasectomy and that this proportion had been
(3)
.... serious risks or complications. After the operation, which is (5) ....carried out under local anaesthetic, the man will often experience
(4)
procedure
5. 6. 7.
Assessors are trained to only consider responses given within the Answers column (on the right). Physical exertion should (8) If a response is written in the Answer column or 8. in the wrong box AND the candidate has NOT minimum. If the site of the operation becomes (9).... indicated clearly (e.g., withisan arrow) or greatly swollen, or if there bleeding, the where patient the response should be, it CANNOT be marked. If you miss an answer make sure you move on to10. the correctly corresponding numbered item before .... may form if there is any leakage of sperm into writing the anything further. write, for example, your answer for the gap for item 15 in the box for (11) can beDont painful but are (12) . ....; these .... 11. item 14 in the Answers column. Use correct spelling. Responses that are not spelt12. correctly will not receive any marks. American and British English spelling variations are accepted, e.g., color or colour. Use words with similar meaning to words in the texts if you cant find a word (s) directly from the texts. These words are known as synonyms. 2 TURN OVER If you are required to write down numbers or figures you can write either the full form (e.g., three, one hundred or one million) or the number form (e.g., 3, 100, or 1,000,000). Use the headings of the four texts in the text booklet to help you understand which text to use to complete different parts of the summary passage. Use words surrounding the gap for the missing word (s) in the summary passage to help you predict what kind of information is missing and to anticipate the type of missing word (s) you need to write.
should seek immediate medical attention. After the operation and for several months subsequently, (10) 9.
Dont
Read the instructions carefully. Have the Text booklet open in front of you so that all texts are visible at the same time. Have the Answer Booklet slightly to the side so that you can write your responses as you read the texts. You may write your answers in either pen or pencil for Part A.
Write more than 3 words for each answer. Write your responses in the wrong gap. You will NOT receive any marks for answers written in the incorrect gap number. Write in the Summary passage itself. Responses must be written in the Answers column on the right hand side. Write two options (separated by / or , or ( )), even if they appear in the texts and mean the same thing (e.g., if you write greater/larger, you will NOT receive any marks). Spend time thinking about whether a word should be capitalised or not. Capitalised and noncapitalised forms are accepted (e.g., CANADA, or canada, or Canada are ALL acceptable).
Dont Get stuck on one question keep going and come back to it at the end when you have answered all other questions. Marks are not deducted for incorrect answers. Cross out mistakes when you are filling out the Answer sheet for Part B. Unlike for Part A, in Part B you need to erase wrong answers completely then fill in the correct answer fully. There are clear instructions on the Answer sheet about how to fill in your answers. Fill in more than one box on the Answer sheet as the scanner will not be able to recognise your answer and you will not receive any marks for that question.
Test Assessment
The OET assesses all four language skills listening, reading, writing and speaking with an emphasis on contextualised communication for professional purposes. The Listening and Reading sub-tests are common to all candidates while the Speaking and Writing sub-tests are specific to each profession. The Reading sub-test consists of a short answer response (summary completion) test (Part A) and a multiple-choice questions (MCQ) test (Part B). Candidate answer sheets for Part A are marked by trained assessors and score sheets for Part B are computer scanned. The item-level data are analysed using a RASCH analysis approach, for overall internal consistency and item quality. Any items found to be performing unacceptably (i.e., with fit of above 1.3 or with discrimination levels of less than .25) are removed from the subsequent analysis.
Test Scores
Each section of the new format Reading sub-test is weighted equally. That is, Part A is worth 33.3% and each text in Part B is also worth 33% of the total score. Why is the Reading sub-test weighted equally when there are more questions (items) in Part A? When you sit the reading test, you will get a raw score on Part A (between 25 and 35 depending on the number of items on that particular test) and a raw score on Part B (between 16 and 20 depending on the number of items on that particular test). Your scores will then be converted to a total score for the reading test in which your score for Part A counts for 33.33% (one-third) of the total score, and your score for Part B counts for 66.66% (two-thirds) of the total score. Your total score for the reading test will then be transformed into a grade (A E). This type of weighted score conversion is very common. For example, in the listening sub-test, although one Part A might have more available marks than Part B, your score on each part is converted so that it counts for exactly 50% of your total score for the whole listening sub-test. The reason why there are different weightings for each part of the reading test is to reflect the relative importance of the skills we are measuring in each part in the overall estimation of your reading ability. Part A tests a relatively narrow set of reading skills skimming and scanning whereas Part B tests a range of different reading skills through different types of multiple choice questions. Do I need to get the same score for each Reading section individually? Part A and Part B scores are converted to a percentage (reflecting relative weighting) that is then converted to a total score. Data from your total score across both sections are used to calculate band-scores for each administration. The score is a combination of your total weighted scores for Parts A and B. Conceivably, you may score slightly lower for one section but still maintain an overall higher level if your scores for the other section are higher.