Quick answer: OET Reading Part A is 20 questions in 15 minutes across four short healthcare texts. Answers are copied word for word from the texts, and spelling must be exact. Part A carries 20 of the 42 Reading marks.
I have taught OET Reading for four years to healthcare professionals in more than 40 countries. I have watched more Grade Bs die in Part A than anywhere else in the Reading test. Not because the student's English was weak. They lost to the clock. They lost to spelling. Both problems are fixable. This guide is the exact system I teach in my live classes.
Part A at a glance
| Time | 15 minutes, fully separate from Parts B and C |
| Questions | 20 |
| Texts | 4 short texts, A, B, C and D, on one healthcare topic |
| Question types | Matching, sentence completion, short answers |
| Answers | Words copied exactly from the texts |
| Spelling | A wrong spelling is a wrong answer |
| Weight | 20 of the 42 reading questions |
Look at that last row again. Nearly half your reading score lives here. So I tell every batch the same thing. Give Part A your highest respect. These are the easiest marks in the whole reading test. You do not need deep analysis. You need to find words and copy them correctly. My rule for my students: no more than 2 mistakes in Part A.
Part A score target
My rule is simple: 18 out of 20 is your baseline. It is a very good score, but do not train only to reach 18. If you want a safer chance of clearing Reading, aim for 19 or 20. The higher you score in Part A, the less pressure you carry into Parts B and C.
Aim for 19 or 20 for a safer Reading score
One thing about that number. OET scores are equated. Every version of the paper is calibrated against its own difficulty, so the raw marks it takes to reach 350 move a little from paper to paper. That is exactly why the target above carries margin instead of sitting on the line. See how the three parts add up to a pass.
What Part A really tests
Part A is a speed reading task. The official word is expeditious reading. It means one thing: reading fast with a purpose. You skim to understand the structure. You scan to find the details. You are not there to enjoy four texts. You are there to hunt 20 pieces of information in 15 minutes. The moment you accept this, your whole approach changes.
How the 20 questions are split
On paper, Part A is two booklets: one holds the four texts, the other holds the questions and your answers. On computer, everything sits on one screen with the timer in the corner. Keep that timer in view.
The 20 questions come in two blocks:
- Questions 1 to 7, matching. Which text holds this information: A, B, C or D?
- Questions 8 to 20, sentence completion and short answers. Write the exact word from the text, in its exact form.
The 15 minute battle plan
Fifteen minutes is 900 seconds. Twenty questions. That is a ceiling of exactly 45 seconds per question. In my classes we train for 30 to 40 seconds per question, because some questions will fight you, and you need spare time for them.
The heart of the plan is my 30 Second Rule: if you cannot find an answer in about 30 seconds, move on. Immediately. No sitting. No staring. No one more look. Here is why this rule wins tests.
- Every second on a stuck question is stolen from an easy question later. Some answers take 10 to 15 seconds. Bank that saved time. It pays for the hard ones at the end.
- You will often find the stuck answer anyway, while looking for the next one. This happens all the time. You move to question 12. While scanning text C, you walk straight into the answer for question 11. Now you write both. If you had stayed frozen on question 11, you would have neither.
One training rule that changes everything: at home, practice Part A in 14 minutes, not 15. In the real exam hall, pressure makes 15 minutes feel shorter. Train under harder conditions than the real day. Then the real day feels easy.
The spelling trap
A wrong spelling is a wrong answer. You lose the full raw mark. One careless spelling mistake can be the difference between 350 and 340. That is why you must copy every answer carefully, letter by letter.
If the text says medications, do not write medication. The exact form is part of the answer. Your eyes go text, page, text again, for every single answer. Ten extra seconds of checking is cheaper than 10 points.
Choose your strategy. Then never change it.
There are two proven strategies for Part A. Neither one is correct. One of them is correct for you. You find out which one in practice, never in the real exam.
Strategy 1. Question first. Best if you panic under pressure. Skim the four headings for about 30 seconds, so you know what each text covers. Highlight as you go, using the Highlight Trick below. Then start at question 1. Do the matching block, 1 to 7. Then move into 8 to 20. Any answer you cannot find, skip it and return on a second pass. This strategy feels safe and structured. Anxious test takers need exactly that.
Strategy 2. Text first. My personal method. Read all four texts fast, about 2 minutes total. While reading, highlight the key details and notice the words that repeat. Then start from question 8, because questions 8 to 20 need detailed finding work, and your fresh memory of the texts makes them much faster. By the time you return to the matching questions 1 to 7, several of them answer themselves. You already know which text talks about what.
How to pick yours: run both strategies across two or three timed practice tests. The one that scores higher is your strategy. Lock it. Stop experimenting. Exam day is for executing a decision you already made.
The Highlight Trick. Skimming and scanning like a pro.
This is the engine inside both strategies. While your eyes move through the texts, mark every answer magnet you pass:
- Numbers and percentages
- Dosages
- Greater than and less than signs
- Medical abbreviations
- Signs and symptoms
- Special names, like drug names, disease names, test names
- Repeated words, because the words that appear again and again in one text tell you what that text is about, and that powers the matching questions
On the paper test, circle them with your pencil. On the computer test, do the same work with your eyes on the first pass. A huge share of Part A questions point at exactly these details. Your marks turn a wall of text into a map.
Two speed tricks my students love
The Half Sentence Trick. Do not read full sentences while skimming. Look at the first words and the last words of the sentence, and let your mind build the middle automatically. Your brain is trained on thousands of sentences. It completes the pattern on its own, and you move through the text almost twice as fast. Full sentence reading is for Part C. Part A is a hunt.
The Corner Rule. If you cannot find an answer, force your eyes to the ends and corners of the paragraphs. Here is the secret. Our eyes naturally skip the last lines of a paragraph. We read the start with energy and fade before the end. The exam writers know this, and answers love to hide exactly there. Before you give up on any question, check the paragraph ends first.
The synonym trend has increased
I have tracked student mistakes and changing question patterns for four years. The trend is clear: synonym-based questions have increased a lot, especially in Questions 8 to 20.
Before, the question often used the same word as the text. Now, the question may use one word while the text uses another.
The question says adverse outcomes. The text says complications.
The question says monitor. The text says observe.
If you only search for the exact word from the question, you may not find the answer. You must also recognise words with the same meaning. This is why synonym training is now an important part of my Part A system.
And there is a special synonym family that students miss every single day: numbers and time. The text says a quarter of patients. The question says 25 percent. The text says a fortnight. The question says two weeks. Your mind must translate these instantly. Learn this small table by heart:
| The text says | It means |
|---|---|
| one fourth, a quarter | 25 percent |
| one third | 33 percent, below half |
| one half | 50 percent |
| two thirds | about 66 percent, above half |
| three fourths, three quarters | 75 percent |
| 24 hours | one day |
| 7 days | one week |
| a fortnight | 14 days, two weeks |
The fix for the bigger synonym problem is systematic training. The same clue word system I teach for Listening Part C works here, because OET recycles the same synonym families across both tests. Study once, score twice. See the 100 Clue Words Masterclass.
Want to see how the synonym questions feel under a real clock? My free Reading mock test shows you in 15 minutes.
Seven mistakes that destroy Part A scores
- Sitting on a stuck question. It breaks the whole time plan. The 30 Second Rule exists for this.
- Spelling errors. The 10 point self inflicted wound. Copy letter by letter.
- Changing the word form. Writing the singular when the text has the plural. The exact form is part of the answer.
- Copying extra words. Write what the gap needs. Nothing more.
- Skipping the headings. Thirty seconds of heading reading saves minutes of blind searching.
- Reading full sentences like it is Part C. Part A rewards hunters, not scholars. Half sentences, highlights, corners.
- Switching strategies on exam day. The decision was made in practice. Execute it.
How to practice Part A. My protocol.
Do full 20 question Part A sets, timed at 14 minutes. After each set, do not just check the score. Build an error log with three columns. Could not find it? Missed a synonym? Spelling or form mistake? Within three or four tests, the log shows you your personal weakness. That is the one you drill. Random practice gives random results. Diagnosed practice gives grade As.
Ready to test the system under real conditions? My free trial gives you a full Reading mock test and a full Listening mock test, built to the current exam format and marked instantly. 7 days free. No card needed.
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.