One OET Grade, Nine Different Passing Scores

The Occupational English Test is the closest thing healthcare has to a single language currency. Nine bodies in this series accept it.

No two of them ask for the same thing, and one of them gives two different numbers for the same letter grade.

SpeakShark is free for the sub-test set highest almost everywhere, three AI conversation sessions a day with no card.

In this guide: nine requirements · letters and numbers · one letter, two numbers · the odd one out · profession versions · at home · speaking on top · what to do · limits · method · FAQ

Key takeaways

• Nine bodies accept OET; no two requirements match.
• Some state letters, some numbers, some both.
• Ontario asks for C plus at 320 in writing and C plus at 330 in reading.
• The HCPC uses a total of 1400 where everybody else works per sub-test.
• Speaking is set highest almost everywhere; writing is dropped most often.

Nine bodies, nine requirements

Nine rows. Nine different requirements, on one test.

Letters, numbers, or both

The reporting convention alone splits three ways.

Letters only. The GMC, the GPhC, NMBI and Nova Scotia state grades. A candidate reads B or C plus and looks up what that means.

Numbers only. The HCPC and, since May 2026, the American federal list. The HCPC never mentions a letter; HRSA moved from grades to numbers in the revision we cover in the US lowered every score except speaking.

Both. The NMC and Ontario give a letter with a number attached: B at 350 or above, C plus at 300 or above.

That third group is the useful one, because it exposes something the first group hides.

One letter, two numbers

Ontario's table is the sharpest illustration in this whole comparison.

Two sub-tests carry the same letter and different numbers, ten points apart.

That is only possible because a letter grade is a band rather than a point. C plus covers a range, and a regulator setting a requirement inside that range can place it wherever it likes.

So a candidate holding a C plus in reading may or may not satisfy Ontario, depending on where in the band they landed, and the letter on the certificate does not tell them.

Anybody applying to a body that states letters only is trusting that its grade boundary and the provider's are the same thing. Anybody applying to Ontario can check.

The total that nobody else uses

The HCPC is structurally different from all eight others, and it is worth understanding before booking.

Its requirement is 1400 with no element below 300, and for speech and language therapists 1800 with no element below 400.

That is a total across the four sub-tests plus a floor, where every other body works sub-test by sub-test with no total at all.

The consequence is compensation. Under the HCPC rule a strong sub-test can carry a weak one, provided the weak one clears 300. Under the GMC rule it cannot, because every sub-test must reach B independently.

Two designs, two different exam strategies, and a candidate who prepares for one and applies to the other has optimised for the wrong thing. We set the HCPC numbers out in speech therapists against doctors, and the GMC's in the GMC requirement for doctors.

The version matters

OET is profession-specific, and the bodies name versions rather than the test.

The HCPC row is the one to read twice. It accepts OET for six of the fifteen professions it regulates, each with its own version, and the other nine cannot use OET at all.

So a physiotherapist and a paramedic on the same register have different options, and a veterinary OET satisfies nothing on a pharmacy application. Reading the version name is as important as reading the grade.

The at home split

Three positions on the same product, from three bodies in one country.

There is no UK healthcare position on remote delivery. We worked through the full picture in pharmacists and straight sevens and eight UK regulators, eight different English rules.

Speaking sits on top

Across the nine, one pattern is stable.

Speaking is set at B, or its numeric equivalent, at every body that distinguishes between the sub-tests. The American list makes it explicit: 360 speaking, 350 writing, 340 reading, 320 listening.

Writing is the sub-test most often permitted lower. The NMC allows C plus in writing and requires B in the other three. Ontario and Nova Scotia allow C plus in writing and reading.

Nobody, anywhere in this comparison, sets speaking as the concession.

That matches what we found across entirely different test menus in every US healthcare English test now ranks speaking highest and Ontario ranks speaking above reading on every test.

What to do with this

• Read your own body's row, and nobody else's.
• Book the version for your profession, not for the test.
• If your body states a number, use the number. A letter is a band.
• Check whether the rule is per sub-test or a total. They reward different preparation.
• Check the delivery mode. Three bodies, three positions.
• Assume speaking is the binding sub-test. It almost always is.

Speaking at grade B, in a clinical role play with a trained interlocutor, is not a skill that improves 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 where you stand. Irish nursing English covers the any-one-component design, CELBAN speaking for Canadian nurses covers the nursing-specific alternative, 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 read OET's own grade boundary documentation. The relationship between letters and numbers is taken from the regulators that publish both.

We did not verify that every body uses the same boundaries. That is the point of the finding rather than something we could check.

We did not check every profession version's availability.

We did not check bodies outside this series. OET is accepted more widely than nine places.

Requirements change. Every row is as published on the day we read it, and one of them changed in May 2026.

This is not registration or immigration advice. It is a comparison of published requirements, all linked below.

How we researched this guide

This comparison could not have been written from any one page, and that is the point of it.

Each body publishes its OET requirement as though it were the requirement. Read nine of them and the test turns out to carry nine different meanings, expressed in three different notations, with one structural outlier and one profession-specific restriction.

The Ontario row is what turns an observation into a finding. Two sub-tests, the same letter, different numbers. Once that is visible, every body that states only a letter becomes a body whose exact requirement you cannot see, and the ones that publish both are doing candidates a service nobody asked them for.

The HCPC row we checked twice, because a total with a floor is so unlike the other eight that it looked like a transcription difference at first. It is not. It is a different instrument, and it rewards a different exam strategy.

The speaking pattern was already established elsewhere in this batch, and this comparison is the third independent confirmation of it, on a test menu that shares nothing with the other two.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, and the OET speaking sub-test is the closest thing in language testing to what we do.

It is a role play. A trained interlocutor plays a patient or a carer, and you have to explain, reassure, check understanding and handle what comes back. Nothing about that improves by reading.

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, we are not affiliated with OET, and we do not reproduce its role play cards or teach profession-specific clinical vocabulary.

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 the speaking sub-test is the one deciding your grade.

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.

• Site: speakshark.com
• Support: speaksharksupport@gmail.com
• Free tier: 3 AI conversation sessions per day, no card

Sources

• HCPC, certificate of English language proficiency: the OET requirement of 1400 with nothing below 300, the 1800 with nothing below 400 for speech and language therapists, the six profession-specific versions accepted, and the official test centre condition
• GPhC, guidance on evidence of English language skills, June 2025: the Pharmacy OET requirement of at least a B in each area at one sitting and the refusal of OET@Home
• NMC, accepted English language tests: the OET requirement of B at 350 or above in listening, reading and speaking with C plus at 300 or above in writing
• College of Nurses of Ontario, language proficiency: the OET benchmarks giving writing C plus at 320, speaking B at 350, listening B at 350 and reading C plus at 330
• RCVS, English language requirements: the veterinary OET requirement of grade B overall with B in three components and C plus in one
• HRSA, updated list of tests and scores for foreign health care workers as of 12 May 2026: the numeric OET requirement of 360 speaking, 350 writing, 340 reading and 320 listening, replacing the previous letter grades

FAQ