Quick answer: Australia changed its OET requirement on 23 April 2026. For tests taken from that date, AHPRA wants Listening 350, Reading 360, Writing 350, Speaking 360. For tests taken on or before 22 April 2026, the old rule applies: 350 in Listening, Reading and Speaking with 300 in Writing. Clubbing is allowed, two full sittings within 12 months. OET at home is refused. Single sub-test retakes are refused. One standard covers every profession.
You are preparing for Australia. Someone told you the target is grade B, four 350s. Stop and read this line twice.
Australia moved. Reading now needs 360. Speaking now needs 360. The change came on 23 April 2026, and half the internet has not noticed. A nurse walks out of the hall with a 350 in Reading, celebrates, and AHPRA says no. Ten points. One full exam fee. One more season of waiting. This page exists so that the ambush never catches you.
Your test date decides your table
| If your test date is | Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 April 2026 or later | 350 | 360 | 350 | 360 |
| 22 April 2026 or earlier | 350 | 350 | 300 | 350 |
Notice Writing too. The old rule accepted 300, a C+. The new rule wants 350. The comfortable sub-test just became a full one.
And results live for two years, so a strong sitting from before the change can still carry you. Check its date before you panic. AHPRA also allows results older than two years in certain cases, if you have been working continuously in a recognised country as a registered practitioner, or studying continuously on a Board approved programme.
If your two sittings straddle 23 April
This is the question the forums get wrong, and AHPRA answers it in one line. If your first test was on or before 22 April 2026 and your second on or after 23 April 2026, your first test must meet the old table and your second must meet the new one. Not both against the old. Not both against the new. Each sitting is judged against the table that applied on the day you sat it.
One standard, every profession
Here is something unusual about Australia. AHPRA sets one English standard for all the National Boards, so the same numbers apply whether you are a nurse, a doctor, a pharmacist, a physiotherapist or any registered profession. You sit the OET version for your own profession, and the scores above judge everyone equally. AHPRA states plainly that where OET has no test for a profession, a test from another registered profession is accepted.
Whatever your profession, your free practice material is already waiting. → Speaking role play cards · Writing case notes
The three Australia rules that burn exam fees
- Test centre only. AHPRA refuses OET at home, completely. Paper or computer at a venue, nothing else. One nurse takes the at home test to save a journey, scores beautifully, and the certificate is unusable. Book the venue, always.
- No single sub-test retakes. Failed Reading by ten points? You cannot sit Reading alone for Australia. Every sitting must contain all four sub-tests. The only single skill retake AHPRA accepts is the IELTS one, never OET. The full country by country resit truth is here. → Single subtest retake
- Clubbing works, with floors. Two full sittings can combine, and their test dates must be no more than 12 months apart. But under the new table every sitting must stay above the floors: 320 Listening, 340 Reading, 350 Writing, 350 Speaking. One sub-test below a floor in either sitting breaks the whole club, even if the other sitting was perfect. The full rules and the checker are here. → OET clubbing rules 2026
Now stop guessing about your own card. Enter your scores, your profession and your test date, and see the verdict with every rule shown. → OET eligibility checker
The journey after English, in short
Nurses: English is one step of the AHPRA pathway, and the assessment road that follows it has been under reform, so read the current Nursing and Midwifery Board pathway page the week you apply rather than trusting a version someone described to you last year. Doctors: the same English scores open the door, then the AMC assessment road begins.
And for everyone, the two doors law: your registration English and your visa English are separate rules owned by separate offices. Clear both on paper before you resign from anything.
The five step Australia plan
- Measure first. Free. Sit a Reading paper built on the real 2026 difficulty, under the clock. And for Australia, remember what that number has to show you: not 350 territory. 360 territory. → Free practice tests
- Lock the new targets on paper. 350, 360, 350, 360. Write them where you study. The old numbers in your head are the ambush.
- Train on the systems. Free. The Grade B Equation for Reading, and then past it, because Australia wants more than a B in Reading now. The Listening equation. The Criteria Map for Writing. The nine point pattern for Speaking. → Reading · Listening · Writing · Speaking
- Clear the Clearance Mocks. Then book. Candidates who pass the OET HQ Clearance Mocks go on to clear the real exam around 90 percent of the time, based on OET HQ candidate outcomes. Individual results vary. Then book, at a test centre, never at home.
- Book once. Clear once. Fly once.
Refused by the 360, or by the test centre rule? New Zealand asks 350 in three and 300 in Writing, and never demands all four sub-tests in a sitting. → OET for New Zealand
Coming from India, Pakistan, the Philippines or a Gulf hospital? Your own roadmap is here too. → India · Pakistan · Philippines · The Gulf
How this page stays accurate
This page carries date sensitive numbers, so it gets the strictest treatment on the site. Both tables, the floors and the 12 month window were read from AHPRA’s own accepted tests page on 5 September 2026, and that page still shows its own review date of 23 April 2026. It gets re-read every quarter and again any week AHPRA announces a change, because ten points of stale information here costs a reader a full exam fee. One line that never leaves: the checker predicts, the regulator decides. Confirm with AHPRA before you book.
About the author
Dr. Nasir Bukhari is the Executive Director of CliniVerba, the house behind OET HQ, and an officially trained OET teacher, certified in all four skills by OET’s Head of Education. He has sat the OET exam and cleared it, and has taught healthcare professionals in more than 40 countries. More about Dr. Nasir.