Part A: completing the notes

What Part A asks you to do

Part A has two consultations. In each one, a health professional talks to a patient (sometimes a parent or carer). Each recording is about five minutes long and is played once. While you listen, you complete a set of case notes with 12 gaps, so Part A gives you 24 of the 42 Listening marks.

The notes are organised under headings, such as presenting complaint, history, medication and social history. The gaps follow the order of the conversation. Your job is to write the word or short phrase you hear that completes each line of the notes.

• The answer comes from the recording. You do not summarise, explain or translate it into your own words.
• Each answer is usually one to three words. Very occasionally a gap needs a little more, but a long answer is a warning sign.
• Spelling counts. Common medical words must be spelt correctly; a marker may tolerate a tiny slip only when the meaning is still unmistakable, so never rely on it. British or American spelling are both fine.
• On paper, you get a short time at the end to check. On computer and OET@Home there is a short pause instead, so check as you go.

Use the reading time well

Before each consultation starts, you get a short time to read the notes. Do not just look at them. Work through them with a plan.

1. Read the headings first. They are a map of the conversation and tell you what topic comes next.
2. For each gap, read the whole line, including the words after the gap.
3. Predict the type of word: a noun (a body part, a drug), an adjective (sharp, constant), a number, a time, an activity (-ing word).
4. Predict the content if you can: 'worse after ____' probably needs a food, an activity or a time of day.
5. Notice small grammar clues: 'a ____' needs a singular noun; 'two ____' needs a plural; 'feels ____' needs an adjective.

Presenting complaint
- pain in upper abdomen, described as ____ (1)   [adjective: burning? sharp?]
- worse after ____ (2)                         [food or activity]
- has tried ____ (3) from pharmacy             [a medicine or product]
Social history
- works as a ____ (4)                          [a job, singular noun]
- drinks approx. ____ (5) of wine per week     [number + unit: glasses? bottles?]

Patient words, note words and the answer

The notes are written in clinical language. Patients speak in everyday language. This is the main skill Part A tests: you hear 'my tummy feels like it's on fire' and you must recognise that this is the line about the nature of the abdominal pain.

Be careful here. The notes guide what to listen for, but the answer is still a word that is said. You do not change the patient's words into a medical term that nobody said.

Fit the gap, and do not repeat the notes

Read your answer together with the words around the gap. The finished line should make sense and should not say the same thing twice. Repeating words that are already printed, or adding information that is not in the recording, can cost you the mark.

Keep going when you miss one

Everyone misses a gap sometimes. The real danger is not the missed gap. It is losing the next two or three while you are still thinking about it.

1. Mark the missed gap with a small dot and move your eyes to the next gap immediately.
2. Listen for the next heading or topic change. That tells you where you are.
3. If you caught part of the answer, write that part down quickly. A partial note is better than nothing.
4. At the end, fill the missed gap with your best guess that fits the grammar. A blank always scores zero.

A short routine for every gap

• Before: know the word type and the topic of the next two gaps.
• During: write the key word as soon as you hear it; tidy spelling later.
• After: read the line with your answer. Does it fit the grammar? Does it repeat printed words?
• At the end: check spelling of medical words and plurals, and fill every blank.