Quick answer: Pakistani nurses use OET mainly for the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The common target is 350 in Listening, Reading and Speaking with 300 in Writing for the UK and New Zealand. Australia has asked for 350, 360, 350, 360 since April 2026. Ireland wants grade B in three components and C+ in the fourth, in one sitting. The fee lands above one lakh rupees per attempt. The full map, the traps and the plan are below.
Read one line before anything else. Every OET page on the internet is written from London, from Melbourne, from somewhere far away. This one is written from Pakistan. I am a Pakistani doctor. I sat this exam myself and cleared it, and I built this whole system from here. So when I tell you what the fee feels like, what the academies here hand out, and which door fits a nurse from Karachi or Multan, I am not guessing from a distance. I am describing my own country.
Why OET, when everyone around you says IELTS
In Pakistan, IELTS is the default. The British Council building, the banners, the uncle who says beta, IELTS karo. Nobody chose it. It was simply there first.
Now look at what each exam asks from you. IELTS Writing wants an essay about museums and technology. When did you last write about museums? OET Writing wants a referral letter from patient notes. You write handovers every duty. OET Speaking is a patient conversation. You have ten every shift. OET Listening is a consultation, the background sound of your ward.
Yes, OET is hard, and it moved harder. But it is hard inside your own house. A nurse fighting in her own house beats a nurse fighting in a stranger’s. The full comparison, with the score table, is here. → OET or IELTS
Where OET takes a Pakistani nurse
| Destination | Regulator | The English door |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | NMC | OET Nursing. 350 in Listening, Reading and Speaking, 300 in Writing. OET@Home accepted. Clubbing across two sittings within 12 months. Then the CBT, and the OSCE after you arrive. |
| Ireland | NMBI | OET Nursing. Grade B in three components and C+, which is 300, in the fourth. The C+ may be any one of them. One sitting only. No clubbing. No OET at home. |
| Australia | AHPRA | Tests from 23 April 2026: Listening 350, Reading 360, Writing 350, Speaking 360. Test centre only. Two full sittings may be combined within 12 months, with floors in both. |
| New Zealand | Nursing Council | 350 in Listening, Reading and Speaking, 300 in Writing. The scores may be collected over more than one sitting, within 12 months of the first. Test centre only. |
| Gulf countries | Local authorities | Thousands of Pakistani nurses work in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar first, save, then use OET to move west. A base, not a destination. Rules vary by authority, so verify yours directly. |
Two rules for every door. One: your registration English and your visa English are different doors, and the UK visa door moved to B2 on 8 January 2026. Two: results live for two years almost everywhere, and New Zealand counts three years from your application. Check both doors, always.
Now stop guessing about your own numbers. Enter your scores, pick your country, and see the verdict with every rule shown. → OET eligibility checker
Taking OET from Pakistan, and the lakh arithmetic
The test runs at venues in Pakistan, on paper and on computer, and there is the at home option. Check the live venue list when you book, because it changes and a wasted journey is its own kind of fee.
Now read this line twice, because it decides destinations for every nurse who does not live next door to a test centre.
OET at home works only for the UK. Australia refuses it. New Zealand refuses it. Ireland refuses it. If your nearest venue is a journey, a night away and a fare on top, then the UK route is the one that can start from your own room. Every other route needs the trip.
Now the money, and feel it properly. The fee is set in Australian dollars, not rupees, so what you pay moves with the exchange rate. The full test is AU$587. At the rate on 4 September 2026 that is about 117,000 rupees, above one lakh per attempt. Some nurses pay it twice. Some pay it five times.
Hold that number against the alternative. Every preparation system in this industry, mine included, costs a fraction of one retake. One avoided retake pays for the preparation several times over. Check the live fee and the live rate on the day you book.
The four Pakistani traps
- The same old files, from Karachi to Lahore. The 2018 papers travel from academy to academy, WhatsApp group to WhatsApp group, until you remember the answers. At home you score 33. In the hall you score 300. Another lakh, gone. It was never your English. It was the material. → Why students fail
- The IELTS by default trap. The academy near your house teaches IELTS, so you sit IELTS, and the band 7 Writing wall eats a year. The test is your career decision, not the neighbourhood’s habit. Decide with the comparison, not with the banner.
- The verification delay trap. Council verification and document work for the NMC and the other regulators runs slow, sometimes months. Nurses clear their English, then sit waiting on paperwork. Start the verification the same month you start preparing. Parallel work saves seasons.
- The at home confusion trap. One nurse books the at home test for an Australian file. AHPRA refuses at home results. A lakh, burned. Match the test mode to the destination before you pay. → What each regulator actually accepts
The five step Pakistan plan
- Measure first. Free. Sit a Reading paper built on the real 2026 difficulty, under the clock. One honest hour before one rupee leaves your pocket. → Free practice tests
- Pick the destination. Lock the target on paper. UK and New Zealand: 350, 350, 350, 300. Ireland: three at 350 and one at 300, one sitting. Australia: 350, 360, 350, 360.
- Train on the systems. Free. The Grade B Equation for Reading. 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.
- Book once. Clear once. Fly once. And send me the sweet from wherever you land.
A doctor reading this? Your door is the GMC or beyond, and the full UK roadmap covers you too. → OET for the UK
Coming from elsewhere? The India and Philippines roadmaps are here. Already working in Saudi, the UAE or Qatar? Start with the Gulf roadmap instead, it was written for your roster.
How this page stays accurate
The NMC, NMBI, AHPRA and Nursing Council of New Zealand rules on this page were each read from that body’s own page, and the fee comes from OET’s own support page with the rupee figure converted on 4 September 2026. Two things are deliberately not stated. This page does not name which Pakistani cities have a test venue, because OET’s venue list sits behind its booking flow and I could not read it, and a nurse who books a journey on a guess pays for that guess. And it does not tell you what the fee is as a share of your salary, because I could not source Pakistani nursing pay well enough to print it next to a career decision. Everything else here comes from a page you can open yourself.
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, starting from his own. More about Dr. Nasir.