11 min read

The NMC Wants Speaking Marked by a Person, Not a Computer

The UK nursing regulator publishes six criteria a language test must meet. One of them rules out computer-marked speaking outright, and it decides the list.

Regulators publish lists of accepted tests. Almost none of them say what got a test onto the list.

The NMC publishes six criteria, and one of them rules out computer-marked speaking outright.

SpeakShark is free for the kind of speaking a person has to listen to, three AI conversation sessions a day with no card.

In this guide: the criterion · all six · what it excludes · context not general · the scores · criteria over lists · what to do · limits · method · FAQ

Key takeaways

  • The NMC requires the speaking element to be tested by a person, not a computer.
  • It publishes six criteria a test must meet before it will consider accepting it.
  • Only IELTS Academic and OET currently qualify.
  • The test must be healthcare or academic, not general.
  • Writing is set at 6.5 where the other three domains are 7.

The criterion

Buried in a list of acceptance criteria, the Nursing and Midwifery Council states:

The speaking element is tested by a person and not via a computer test.

That is one sentence and it is the most consequential thing any UK regulator in this series has published about how speaking should be assessed.

Every other body names the tests it accepts and leaves you to infer why. The NMC has written down a property that a test must have, and applied it as a filter.

The full list of six

The NMC says it will only consider accepting an English language test if it meets all of the following:

  • It tests knowledge of English in either a healthcare or academic context. It must not be a general test.
  • It tests reading, writing, speaking and listening.
  • The speaking element is tested by a person and not via a computer test.
  • There are high level security procedures for the test production and delivery.
  • There are test score verification systems that allow the NMC to confirm your results.
  • There is appropriate evidence of the reliability of the test and the dependability of its scores.

Based on those, it accepts IELTS Academic and the Occupational English Test, and states these are the only tests it can accept. It adds that it is not looking to accept any other tests at the moment and will update its website if the position changes.

What that rules out

The human-marking criterion has real teeth, because automated and part-automated speaking assessment is now common.

Test How speaking is marked
Michigan MET certified raters grade speaking and writing; other sections scored automatically
Cambridge Linguaskill hybrid marking, combining human examiners with auto-marking
Oxford Test of English adaptive delivery, invigilated and marked by real people
EF SET not stated on the page we read

Those figures come from earlier work in this series: MET for Australian visas for the Michigan marking split, Linguaskill Speaking for the hybrid model, and Oxford Test of English for the adaptive but human-marked combination.

Read the NMC's criterion against that table and the effect is clear. A test can be rigorous, secure, well-evidenced and four-skilled, and still be excluded on how one section is marked.

It also puts the NMC at the opposite end of a spectrum from the osteopathy regulator, which accepts any test demonstrating C1 and says nothing about how it is marked, covered in the regulator that accepts any test proving C1. One body is open about instruments and silent on method. The other is closed about instruments precisely because it has a view on method.

Healthcare or academic, not general

The first criterion deserves as much attention as the third.

The test must assess English in a healthcare or academic context and must not be a general test.

That single word explains a pattern running through this whole series. The GPhC accepts IELTS Academic and Pharmacy OET and refuses IELTS for UKVI Life Skills. The GDC directs applicants to IELTS Academic. The RCVS accepts the veterinary version of OET. The GOC accepts IELTS Academic and IELTS for UKVI Academic.

Nobody in UK healthcare accepts IELTS General. The NMC is the one that says why.

The reason is not snobbery about registers. A general test measures whether you can function in everyday life. A clinical conversation is a different register with different consequences, and the OET's profession-specific versions exist because of exactly that gap.

The scores, and the one lower domain

Test Listening Reading Writing Speaking
IELTS Academic 7 7 6.5 7
OET B, 350 or above B, 350 or above C plus, 300 or above B, 350 or above

Writing is set half a band below the other three, and the NMC names it.

That is worth setting against the two other designs in this series. Ireland's nursing board allows 6.5 in any one domain and lets the candidate choose which, covered in Irish nursing English. The optical council names speaking and sets it a full band higher than the other three, covered in the regulator that wants 7.0 in speaking.

Three bodies, three answers to the same question about whether the four skills are equal. The NMC concedes writing. NMBI hands the choice to the candidate. The GOC protects speaking.

Speaking is at 7 in all three of them.

Why criteria beat a list

This is the part worth taking away, even for applicants who will never sit an NMC assessment.

A bare list tells you nothing about your own certificate. If your provider is not named, you do not know whether it failed on rigour, on security, on being a general test, or simply on nobody having assessed it.

Published criteria turn that into a question with an answer. You can hold your own certificate up against six statements and see which one it fails.

They also make the list honest over time. A regulator that has published criteria has committed to a reason, and adding or removing a provider becomes a decision it can be asked about. The GPhC makes a related commitment, undertaking to consult before changing its guidance to include new evidence, covered in pharmacists and straight sevens.

What to do with this

  • Check the register you are joining, not the profession next door.
  • Do not book a general English test for any UK healthcare register.
  • Do not book IELTS Online or the One Skill Retake for the NMC.
  • Plan for four domains at once. The NMC requires all four in the same sitting.
  • Writing is the concession here, not speaking. Speaking sits at 7.

A 7 in speaking, marked by a person, in a healthcare or academic register, is a specific thing to prepare for and it is not achieved by reading quietly. Role play scenarios and a daily speaking partner are the practical routes, speaking practice for nurses covers the clinical register, and testing your speaking level free shows the gap. CEFR levels for speaking explains the scale, IELTS for UKVI by CEFR level maps bands to levels, and English certificates that expire covers validity. For how examiners mark spoken English, Cambridge speaking criteria by level works from real scored candidates.

What we could not verify

We did not verify how each test actually marks speaking. The marking descriptions in the table are the providers' own published statements, gathered earlier in this series.

We did not establish which tests have been assessed and rejected. The NMC publishes criteria and a list of two, not a list of applicants that failed.

We did not read the NMC's guidance on language requirements in full. It publishes a longer guidance document alongside these pages.

The page carries a last updated date of 8 March 2024. Positions change.

We did not check whether OET's speaking is marked by a person in every version. The NMC has evidently satisfied itself; we have not independently confirmed it.

This is not registration advice. It is a reading of published criteria, linked below.

How we researched this guide

We opened this page for the score table and stopped three lines above it.

Acceptance criteria are the sort of section a reader skips, because they look like they are addressed to test providers rather than to candidates. This one contains a sentence that decides the whole list, and the list is what the candidate came for.

What made it register was having read seven other regulators first. Every one of them names accepted tests. None of them says what qualified those tests, so a reader builds a working assumption that the lists are conventional. Finding one body that publishes the reasons shows the assumption was wrong: at least one list is a filter with stated criteria behind it.

We then went back through the marking arrangements already gathered in this series and put them in a table, because a criterion only means something once you can see what it excludes. Hybrid marking and part-automated scoring are common enough that the human-marking rule is not a formality.

The healthcare or academic criterion came from the same list and explains something we had noticed four times without a reason: nobody in UK healthcare accepts IELTS General. The NMC is the only one that says why.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, so we should be direct about this one.

A regulator has written down that when a decision is being made about whether somebody can nurse in Britain, a person should be listening to them speak. We think that is right, and it is not a position that hurts us, because we are not a test and we never claim to be.

What an AI practice partner is for is the hundred conversations before the one that counts. Nobody can give you unlimited patient hours with a human examiner, and that is the gap.

You talk, the AI answers what you actually said, and you get speaking feedback while the conversation is still running. The free tier gives basic feedback; the detailed pronunciation and grammar breakdown is on Premium.

Being straight about the limits: a free session runs five minutes with four turns, we issue no certificates, and nothing we produce would satisfy any of the NMC's six criteria, by design.

Start free with three sessions a day and no card. Paid sessions run ten minutes with unlimited turns. Limits are on the pricing page, and how it works walks through a session. Sign up here if a 7 in speaking is what stands between you and the register.

We are a speaking improvement tool. We are not an exam preparation provider, and we are not affiliated with Cambridge English, the IELTS partners, Pearson or any exam board. For test format, booking and official practice material, go to the exam body directly. Use SpeakShark to make your spoken English stronger, and use official material to learn the test.

Sources

  • NMC, accepted English language tests: the six acceptance criteria including that the test must assess English in a healthcare or academic context and not be a general test and that the speaking element is tested by a person and not via a computer test, the statement that IELTS Academic and OET are the only accepted tests, the required scores of 7 in listening, reading and speaking and 6.5 in writing on IELTS and B at 350 or above with C plus at 300 or above in writing on OET, and the two year validity
  • NMC, IELTS Academic: the refusal of IELTS Online and of the One Skill Retake, and the requirement to be tested in all four domains at the same time
  • Cambridge English, Linguaskill: the hybrid marking model combining human examiners with auto-marking, used for comparison
  • Oxford Test of English: the statement that the tests are invigilated and marked by real people, used for comparison

FAQ

Does the NMC accept computer-marked speaking tests?
No. Among the criteria it publishes for accepting a language test, the Nursing and Midwifery Council states that the speaking element must be tested by a person and not via a computer test. It is the only regulator in this series that takes a published position on how speaking is marked.
Which English tests does the NMC accept?
IELTS Academic and the Occupational English Test, and it says those are the only tests it can accept as proof of English language competence. It adds that it is not looking to accept any other tests at the moment and will update its website if that position changes.
What are the NMC's criteria for accepting a test?
Six. The test must assess English in a healthcare or academic context rather than a general one, must test all four skills, must have the speaking element marked by a person, must have high level security procedures for production and delivery, must allow the NMC to verify scores, and must have evidence of reliability.
Why does the NMC publish criteria rather than just a list?
It makes the list explicable rather than arbitrary. Most regulators name accepted tests without saying what qualified them, so an applicant holding a result from an unnamed provider has no way to know whether it fell short on rigour, on security, or simply on nobody having looked at it.
What scores does the NMC require?
On IELTS Academic, 7 in listening, 7 in reading, 7 in speaking and 6.5 in writing. On OET, grade B at 350 or above in listening, reading and speaking, and C plus at 300 or above in writing. Writing is the one domain set lower than the others.
Does the NMC accept IELTS Online?
No. It states it does not accept IELTS Online, and it does not accept the IELTS One Skill Retake either, because applicants must be tested in all four domains at the same time and cannot take or retake individual domains separately.

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