Quick answer: OET Reading gives you 60 minutes. Part A takes the first 15 and then closes for good. Parts B and C share the remaining 45, which works out at about 85 seconds for each Part B extract and about 2 minutes for each Part C question. The candidates who run out of time almost never run out in Part A. They run out in Part C, because they spent Part B like it was free.
Prefer to watch? This is the Part A lecture, and the 15 minute race is the part of it that belongs here. The clock for the whole hour is written below.
Why You Keep Failing OET Reading in 2026 | Part A Strategy + 3 Mistakes42 minutesDr. Nasir Bukhari
The whole hour, in one table
Print this, or copy it onto the first page of your notebook. It is the only timing plan you need, and it is the one thing no other page on this site carries in full.
| The clock | Where you are | What is in front of you | The budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00 to 15:00 | Part A | 20 questions, four short texts | 45 seconds a question. Finish the text hunt, do not read for pleasure |
| 15:00 to 15:30 | The reset | Part A closes and cannot be reopened | Breathe once. Write nothing. The clock for B and C starts whole |
| 15:30 to 24:00 | Part B | 6 short workplace extracts | 85 seconds an extract. One read, one decision, move |
| 24:00 to 56:00 | Part C | 2 long texts, 16 questions | 2 minutes a question. 16 minutes a text, and that includes reading it |
| 56:00 to 60:00 | The sweep | Every blank answered | No blanks. A guess scores sometimes, a blank never does |
Part A is a race, and it is the only part that is
Fifteen minutes, twenty questions, four texts. That is 45 seconds a question, and you are not reading, you are locating. The skill is finding the word, not understanding the passage. The full Part A system, with the Highlight Trick and the spelling rules, is here.
One timing rule belongs here rather than there: if a Part A answer has not appeared in 45 seconds, leave it and come back. Four abandoned questions revisited at the end cost you less than one stubborn question hunted for three minutes.
The Part B and Part C split, where the hour is actually lost
After Part A closes you have 45 minutes and 22 questions. Most candidates treat that as one pool and start reading Part C like a novel. Split it before you start.
- Part B, 6 extracts, about 85 seconds each, roughly 8 and a half minutes total. Each extract is short enough to read once. Read the question first, read the extract once, decide. The Part B method is here.
- Part C, 2 texts, 16 questions, about 32 minutes, so 16 minutes a text. That 16 minutes includes reading the text, which is why the reading has to be purposeful. The Point Making Method is here.
- The last 4 minutes are not spare. They are the sweep, when every blank gets a letter.
The per question budget, written as numbers
| Part | Questions | Minutes | Per question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part A | 20 | 15 | 45 seconds |
| Part B | 6 | 8.5 | 85 seconds |
| Part C | 16 | 32 | 2 minutes |
| The sweep | any blanks | 4 | as fast as you can write |
The stuck question protocol
Everyone teaches you to move on. Nobody tells you how to decide, in the moment, while the clock is running. So here is the rule, and it takes no thinking.
- Read the question once more. Half of all stuck questions are a misread question, not a hard one.
- Cross out the two options you can argue against. You almost always can.
- If two remain and the budget is gone, mark one and put a dot beside the number. Not a circle, a dot, so your eye finds it in the sweep.
- Move immediately. The next question is worth exactly as much as this one, and it may be easier.
The rule under the rule: a question you spend four minutes on costs you two other questions. You did not lose one mark, you lost three.
Four weeks of timed drills
Timing is trained, not decided. You cannot walk into the hall intending to be faster.
- Week 1, Part A alone. 15 minutes on the clock, four texts, every day. Mark where the clock ran out, not just what was wrong.
- Week 2, Part B alone. Six extracts, 85 seconds each, timed individually with the phone, so the budget becomes a feeling.
- Week 3, one Part C text. 16 minutes, eight questions, no pausing. Then check which paraphrase you missed.
- Week 4, the full hour. All three parts, one sitting, no breaks, and the sweep at the end. The free Reading mock runs on the real 2026 difficulty, so your clock is being tested against the real paper.
And the number that tells you the training worked: you finish with the sweep, not with blanks.
Spend the hour where the marks are
Part A carries 20 marks, Part B 6, Part C 16. Part C is where most of the time goes and where most of the panic lives, which is why the budget above gives it two thirds of the back half. The full Reading system, part by part, is here, and the score calculator turns your raw marks into the 500 scale so you can see what a finished paper is actually worth.
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 multiple times and cleared it multiple times, and has taught healthcare professionals in more than 40 countries. More about Dr. Nasir.