Improve OET Reading & Listening: Skills First

Get Paul's document from the video here: Document: 5 Ways to Improve OET Reading & Listening 

Introduction

In this session, Paul (SET English) explains how to raise your scores by first building the right skills for OET Reading and Listening. The key message: strategy only works when comprehension and core skills are in place.

Scores Follow Skills

Many candidates focus on “getting a higher score” while overlooking the skills that produce that result. Paul frames improvement around three pillars:

• Comprehension (vocabulary + grammar) to understand texts and questions.
• Targeted strategy for each question type and test part.
• Distraction awareness (e.g., false comparisons, partial matches) to avoid traps.

“You can have the best strategy and vocabulary, but if you can’t inspect questions accurately and search texts appropriately, you’ll still struggle.”

What Really Underpins Success

Underneath strategy and language knowledge are operational skills: identifying the right keywords, navigating multiple texts, predicting information, and ignoring noise. These make strategy usable under time pressure.

Five Areas to Train On...

1) Build Massive Experience

Don’t arrive at the exam under-exposed. Read, listen, watch, speak, and write in English daily—preferably content you enjoy (medical dramas, TED-Ed explainers, podcasts). You won’t memorize every word from lists; instead, let repeated exposure accelerate pattern recognition and paraphrase awareness.

2) Learn Vocabulary in Context

• Collect: After each class/mock, extract 10–15 useful items.
• Organise: Track synonyms and word families (e.g., possible → possibility → possibly).
• Map paraphrases: Train recognition across forms to match OET’s rewording.

3) Revise Vocabulary to Stick

Review cycles improve spelling (vital for Listening Part A) and refine meaning. Use same-day, next-day, and weekly reviews to move items from short-term to long-term memory.

4) Practise Reading Skills (Not Just Questions)

Most learners neglect core skills training. Add short, social drills with friends or colleagues:

• Skimming: 60–90 seconds per article to capture the gist and structure.
• Scanning: Turn clues into hunts (e.g., “find a word meaning ‘never-ending’”).
• Referencing: Track pronouns and what they refer to across sentences.

5) Do Keyword Analysis Before You Read

From each option, select words that are searchable in the text (e.g., domain nouns like money/fees, not vague adjectives like “too long/too high”). This speeds locating the right paragraph and distinguishes look-alike options.

Language Awareness from Exposure

Experience also tunes your expectations. For instance, words like initially often cue a contrast later in the sentence; simply often means “only/just,” not “easily”; patterns like not only… signal an additive structure. These cues improve prediction and reading flow.

Action Plan

1. Schedule daily input (articles, lectures, series) you genuinely enjoy.
2. Run a fixed vocab routine: collect → organise → paraphrase map → review.
3. Drill skimming, scanning, and referencing 3–4×/week with a partner.
4. Pre-read options for searchable keywords before diving into the text.
5. Practise under time using authentic tasks; analyse mistakes for distraction types.
   
   Get Paul's document from the video here: Document: 5 Ways to Improve OET Reading & Listening