Quick answer: OET Listening Part B has 6 questions, numbers 25 to 30. Each question has its own short workplace audio extract and 3 options. The audio stops after every question, so you get a gap to mark your answer. The whole part takes only about six minutes. Target: 4 or more out of 6.
Part B is the smallest part of the entire OET exam. Six questions. About six minutes. And that is exactly why almost nobody prepares for it properly. Here is the question I ask every batch. Everyone knows there are 6 questions in Part B. Everyone. You know it, the student sitting next to you in the exam hall knows it. So where is your advantage? Your advantage is knowing the thing they never studied: the question types, and the exact signal words each type hides behind. Students who just read the question, hear the audio, and pick an answer get stuck at 310, 320. Students who listen actively for the signals take marks the others never even hear. This guide gives you that edge: the Question Type Code, the Three Sentence Catch, and the mindset rule that protects 30 percent of your listening before the audio even starts. For the whole sub test, start at the OET Listening guide.
Part B at a glance
| Questions | 6, numbers 25 to 30 |
|---|---|
| Audio | One short workplace extract per question, a few sentences each |
| Format | Multiple choice, 3 options per question |
| Rhythm | The audio stops after each question. You get a gap to mark and reset. |
| Total time | About six minutes |
| Target score | 4 or more out of 6 |
| What it tests | Main idea, opinion, attitude, and purpose of workplace talk |
4/6
Six marks, about six minutes. Land this alongside 22 in Part A and you are clearing Listening before Part C even begins.
The Listening Grade Equation
Before strategy, know your numbers. My targets for the whole Listening test are simple. Part A: 22 or more out of 24. Part B: 4 or more out of 6. In my tracking, a student who lands those two targets has a 90 to 95 percent chance of clearing the Listening exam before Part C even begins. That is why these six little marks matter so much. They are not extra. They are part of your clearing core. Treat each one like money.
The Reset Rhythm
Part B has a gift that no other listening part gives you: the audio stops after every question. Question 25 plays, silence, you mark. Question 26 plays, silence, you mark. Six mini tests, six fresh starts. Use each gap with discipline. First, mark your answer fast, with a reason. Second, pre read the next question and its options, so when the next extract starts, your mind is already oriented. And if an extract went badly, the gap is your reset button. Best pick, breathe, next question with a clean mind. One bad extract can only take one mark. Never let it take two.
The Start Trap
One warning before the code. In these short extracts, the answer can live in the very first sentence. I have watched students tune in slowly, like the audio is a movie that needs an introduction. Then the first sentence passes, and sometimes the whole answer was inside it, and the rest of the extract was decoration. Your ears switch on at second one. Every extract, from the first word.
The Question Type Code
This is the hack. Part B questions come in families, and each family announces its answer with signal words. If your mind is oriented to the signal before the audio starts, you catch the answer in real time. If you listen passively, the same words fly past you. Here are the families, with the signals from my classes.
1. Agreement and disagreement questions. What do the nurses agree about? Do not wait for anyone to say the word agree. Nobody says it. One speaker makes a statement, and the second speaker reacts. The tiny words are the answer. Yes. Definitely. Exactly. That small yes after a statement is the agreement. A contradiction, or a different opinion, is the disagreement. Train your ears for the small words, because the exam hides big marks inside them.
2. Priority questions. What is the most important point? The speaker will stress it with priority words: vital, crucial, must, essential, necessary, paramount, worth mentioning, very important. Here is the rule from my classes: wherever you hear a word like this, the answer sits in that same sentence. The moment your ears catch vital, everything in that sentence becomes gold.
3. Wish questions. What does the patient wish to be able to do? Nobody says wish in the audio. They say the wish family: desire, hope, prefer, request. I desire to speak with the consultant. I prefer the evening medication. They have requested a second opinion. All of these are wishes wearing different clothes. Know the family, and the question opens instantly.
4. Describe questions. How does the radiologist describe the image? Here is the trap and the key. In describe questions, all three options usually get mentioned somewhere in the audio. A disease name is mentioned. An abnormality is mentioned. But the speaker is explaining one thing, and that one thing is the answer. He may name the disease in passing, but he is explaining the radiograph. So your mind goes in oriented: I am picking the thing being explained, not the things being mentioned. The mentions are distractors. The explanation is the answer.
5. The rest of the family. Suggestion, advice and recommendation questions. Warning questions. Clarification and confirmation questions. Next step questions. Each has its own flavor of language, and in my live classes we drill them across test after test, because two or three of these families appear in every single exam. Once you can name the family from the question stem, the audio stops being a stream of words and becomes a conversation with a known destination.
Hear the signal words in a real mock. My free OET Listening test plays once, like the real exam.
The Three Sentence Catch
Now the mechanical hack for the paper test, where the pressure is highest. Each Part B extract is short, three or four sentences maximum. So while the audio plays, your pencil writes the main words of each sentence in short form. Just the core words, abbreviated, sentence by sentence. When the audio stops, you look at your scratch marks and rebuild it instantly. First sentence said this. Second said this. Third said this. Now which option matches? With this habit, you never lose an extract to a blank memory, because the extract is sitting on your paper in ten words. On the computer test the options stay on screen in front of you, which makes life easier, but the same discipline of catching each sentence keeps your mind anchored.
The 30 Percent Rule. Protect your mind before the audio starts.
Here is something I learned from watching hundreds of students. When a student walks into the listening exam thinking, my English is not good, how will I understand, that passive mind breaks about 30 percent of their listening capacity before the first word plays. Fear makes ears slow. So the rule is simple and it is not motivation talk, it is exam technique: you enter every audio with one sentence in your head. I can listen, and I can understand. One of my students once scored a full 500 in listening. On her first attempt, her listening was weak. She rebuilt it with the systems on this page and walked in with a working mind, not a frightened one. The skills carry you, but only if the mind lets them work.
How to practice Part B. My protocol.
This is not a one day job, and two practice tests prove nothing. My protocol: do the test, mark your score, then interrogate every wrong answer. Replay that extract again and again until your ears finally catch the line. Write the sentence down. Write one line on why the right answer is right and why your pick was wrong. You must have a reason for every answer you ever mark, because guesses are wrong far more often than students believe. Then, days later, do the same test again and watch the difference. And remember my home rule: at home, try to make more mistakes. Home is where mistakes are free. The exam is where they cost you. A weak score at home with honest review beats a comfortable score built on easy materials, because the real exam does not run on easy materials.
Put the Question Type Code to work today. My free trial gives you a full Listening mock test with real audio that plays once, plus a full Reading mock, both marked instantly with your grade estimate. 7 days free. No card needed.
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Have not read Part A yet? Start there. OET Listening Part A: the complete guide. And when Part B is solid, Part C is where the grade gets lifted.
About the author. Dr. Nasir Bukhari, MBBS, is an OET Certified teacher. He completed OET's official Teacher Training in all four skills, Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking, certified by OET's Head of Education. He has taught OET to healthcare professionals in more than 40 countries. He is the founder of CliniVerba, the house behind OET HQ.