OET Exam for Nurses is a Crucial Part of Your Nursing Journey

Luciana Da Silva, Marketing Director Connetics USA: Good morning, good afternoon. Good evening to our friends here, here in the United States and around the world. This is onwards and upwards. It's Friday, and today we have a very special topic for you. We are going to be talking about the OET exam. My name is Luciana Da Silva. I'm for Tanya Freedman today. We have a very special show for you. So if you don't know, the OET is now being approved for part of the Visa screen. So it's a very big deal, it's really big news. And I am joined today by some OET experts.

These are the world leaders on this exact topic. Hello. I've got Gary and Rafael. Enjoy. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thanks, Luciana. Great to be here. Yeah, absolutely. So let's start with some introductions here. Gary, if you'll go first. Sure. Yeah. So I'm the VP of America for OET and I was working for an English language training company in Dublin about 15 years ago and it was bought by an American company. And I moved to the US then, so I've had the experience of being an immigrant to the US and navigating that journey. And it's terrific now to be able to help nurses and healthcare professionals make the same journey. That's absolutely wonderful.

Let's move on to joy. Welcome. Thank you. My name is Joy Ingwerson and I'm a registered nurse and I've been a registered nurse for many years. A lot of my work has been in nursing education. And then at the end of my career, I worked in nursing regulation with the Oregon State Board of Nursing. So I was very involved with the whole licensure processes and also with all the nursing education programs in that state. And I have a strong interest in testing. I always have had. I know that's unusual, but it's something that really fits for me. And I was delighted to have the chance to work with the occupational English test and looking at helping other boards bring this online for their applicants like it happened in Oregon. Thank you. What a great journey and to be able to help people as well someone else helping people every day.

Rafael, tell us about yourself. Hello, Luciana. Hello, Gary. Enjoy. Very happy to be here with you. Well, basically, although I started Madison at university, I've been preparing candidates for international English class for many years, basically since I prepared lots of candidates for Cambridge exams and now more recently OET. We also run two test centers in Brazil, one in Rio and one in Jersey fora and we have candidates going there for OETC, mainly doctors and nurses. And I'm very happy to be here today.

Well, welcome to you as well, and welcome to all of our audience. Please put in the chat where you're from, say hello, your name and please ask questions. This is a Q and A about the OET English Proficiency Exam and we really welcome everybody who is here today. Thank you so much for introducing yourselves.

Let's get started. First, I want to start let's go with the basics of the OET. So, Gary, what is the OET? OET is the only globally recognized English test that's specific to health care. And the thing that really kind of distinguishes it from the other tests is that in the writing and speaking sub tests, it's profession specific. So if you're a nurse, you would get case notes in the writing test, and you typically write a letter to another healthcare professional. And obviously, during the preparation, you're preparing to be able to do that in the test, whereas in a typical general academic English test, you could be writing on pretty much any subject. And then in the speaking test, it takes the form of a role play.

So as the candidate, you take the part of the professional, and there's an interlocutor who plays the part of a patient or a relative or a caregiver, and there are two scenarios you have to resolve during the role play. So it's really preparing you for the experience of being a nurse or a health care professional in an English speaking environment.

Rafael, tell us about why is the OET important for an international nurse coming to the United States? Well, as Gary pointed out, it's an English test, and there are several English tests out there. The different thing here about OET is that it's related to your profession, more specifically nursing. So if a nurse tries OET, it means that he or she will be dealing with tax relevant in that area. Not only that, for the speaking parts of the exam. For example, as Gary also mentioned, you'd be talking to a person playing the role of a patient, which is more relevant if you want to work as an English speaking country.

Let's talk about the latest news that I mentioned earlier in the show. Before we do that, we have some people saying hello over in the chat. Deborah saying hi. Happy to be here. Anthony is saying, hello, team. We have fate. Random people are tagging their friends. Mohammed. Wow, this is interesting. It really is interesting. I do have a question here from Dr. Alyssa Scotland. This is a Q and A. Let's take this question. So which occupational English test does a medical laboratory scientist choose to take? And we're now joined by Edwin. Hello, Edwin. He's also a nurse as well.

Let's get to this question from Dr. Alyssa. Which occupational test medical laboratory scientist joy, can you answer that question? Yes, I think I can. There's not a specific test for that type of educational preparation, but I think that we need to keep in mind that this is a test of English language ability, not of healthcare knowledge. So I think that what the best thing to do would be for that person to look at the practice test for medicine, for nursing, perhaps for pharmacy and sort of make a determination of which one rings true for the kinds of medical reading that that person is used to doing, for the kind of terms that they're used to using in their profession. And probably one of those would be a potential fit. But I think working with the practice test would be the best way to determine that. Thank you.

Gary, tell us the latest news about the OET exam and how it works with immigration now for nurses to come to the United States. Yeah. So OET is approved for the Visa screen certificate by CGFNS. It was first listed by her sir, the Health Resources Services Administration, as an acceptable test and then subsequently approved by CGFNS on the 1 August. So as of now, candidates can use their OET results to apply for immigration to the US. And it's a bit complicated, the journey. They also have to apply for a particular state nursing license as part of that process, and I'll explain a little bit more about how that works for candidates who are holding OET results a bit later.

What about the state licensing? That's a big question that we're getting here right now, is which states are accepting that license? How does that work exactly? Joy, can you take this question? Well, I'll let Gary chime in. Okay, let me get Gary to do that one. Luciana, I don't know if there's a slide there that we could send up. That's wonderful. There we are. So the reason the reason I asked was because it's quite complicated and you really need to speak to the Board of Nursing directly about their regulations and talk to Connetics who have experts who can help you along the way. But you need to decide which state you want to live and practice in. And ideally, you can apply directly to that state, but depending on your circumstances, it might be you have to take a more securities route.

So I'll do my best to explain the issues around that and to show you the opportunities that we feel exist for OET candidates. So there are   states that have directly listed OET as an approved test, and you can see that on their websites. So Florida is one of those. And you're going to need to use English proficiency for two purposes. One for the state license, and with Florida you can, and also for immigration, and now with CGFNS, when you apply for the Visa screen, you can as well. The other thing you have to think about is whether that state is going to need you to have a Social Security number when you make the application. And obviously, if you're applying by consular process from your own country, it's unlikely that you're going to have that. So there are some states that don't require you to have that Social Security number when you initially apply, and some will issue the license as well if you don't have it, so they will probably be the easiest ones to make the application too. In Florida, you can make your initial application. You can sit the NCLEX test, but they won't issue the license to you until you have the Social Security number. But you can get an official record of your NCLEX score. Use that to make the immigration application, which will be enough for you to get an occupational visa and come to the US. And then once you're in the US. You can get your Social Security number. Have your Florida license issued. In Washington, there's no Social Security number requirement. And OET is accepted. And obviously you can use your OET results for visa screen, as is the case in all of these.

Michigan has something called a Social Security Number Affidavit form, which you need to complete during the application and that allows the license to be issued and they also accept OET. Massachusetts is so recent, we haven't actually had time to put it on the OET website yet. But if you go to the Massachusetts board website, you will see that they are now accepting OET as well. We don't think you need the Social Security number, but check with the board. It's so recent, we haven't had that fully confirmed yet. In Oregon, as Joy said, Joe was involved with the acceptance of OET. There you can use your OET results, but you do need a Social Security number, and there's one possible option there, which is if you were to come to the US on an F1 visa for a study program, maybe to study English, you can use your F1 status to make your license application.

So there are some options there, but again, talk to Connetics about that and they'll be able to advise you on the best way to do that. Then there are some other states where you don't need to provide proof of English language proficiency in order to make an application. So New York, North Mariana Islands and Montana would be examples of those. But you would still need to use your OET results to apply for the Visa screen, but you could make your application to any one of those states or territories. And then there were two other options there. One is that you could apply to one of those states I just listed, initially, establish residency, and then apply for license by endorsement to another state. And the majority of other states don't require you to show English proficiency at that point. So just with your OET results, you could take that route. Or you could apply to one of the states in the initial list, Florida or Montana, which are in the

Nursing Compact, which is a multi state license group. And then once you've arrived, you can apply for an upgrade to your single state license and apply for a multi state license. And then you can work in any one of those 39 states so they are probably the most straightforward options for candidates. And then the next slide, which I saw pop up briefly there. Thank you.

These are kind of more complicated routes, but again, talk to Connetics about how this works in practice. They'll give you expert advice on that and talk to the nursing boards. But there are a number of states which will accept the Visa Screen Certificate for the state license as well. West Virginia is one of those. And they may or may not require the Social Security number. You'll need to check that. But you could initially apply to a state that accepts OET, use the NCLEX score transfer to get the Visa Screen Certificate, and then apply to one of those states with the Visa Screen Certificate. So that's one group of states that offer another route. Then there are a group of states that if you have taken your nursing program, the language of instruction is English, and that might be in the Philippines, for example. Then they would exempt you from the English proficiency requirement when you apply for the state license.

That's the really cool thing about Connetics, too, is that we lead you through that process. The nurses that come through Connetics and the medical technologist too, we work with direct hire just to let our audience know. And direct hire means that you're not coming here on a temporary visa. No, we don't do temporary visas. We get our nurses EB3 green cards for you and your family, or a TN visa, which is only for the Mexican and Canadian citizens. So the process, absolutely it begins with passing the NCLEX as well as passing these English preparatory exams.

I saw a question here as well. In the chat Gigi, Santos is asking is PTE accepted instead of IELTS? PTE is the Pearson exam. And, yes, that is also being accepted along with OET and the Cambridge and Michigan English test, as well, as always, the TOEFL and the Tower. So there are a lot of new options for nurses instead of the aisles that you can take in order to qualify for that Visa screen to get the green card to come to the United States. It's all part of that wonderful process. Thank you so much, Gary, for going over that with us and explaining how those state licensure work.

And if you have any questions, conneticsusa.com/application. This is a nice little short link there on your screen conneticsusa.com/application, and we can absolutely get you rolling on this process.

And on that note, let's bring in Edwin here. This is a nurse as well. Edwin, please introduce yourself. You're on mute, Edwin. Hello, everyone. My name is Edwin Pingen. Sorry about that. No, we welcome it. Yeah, I'm currently on duty right now. I'm on a long day, so my name is Edwin. I'm the OET hero for the Philippines for the year 2020. I'm already here in the UK working as a cardiac intensive care unit nurse to one of the biggest cardiac center in England. And nice meeting you all. Thank you so much for joining us today, especially because I know you're on duty, so you can't get more live and real than that. Yeah.

Edwin, tell us your story. What was your experience with the OET exam? Well, OET is something that you need to look forward to. I've taken my NCLEX way back 2012 before, and I've taken IELTS as well. And my IELTS has expired, like, after three years, I think. And then I've decided to go here in the UK. And the very first option for me is again taking I out. But then some of my friends are actually taking OET, and it's my very first time hearing about OET and they've told me information about it. I was browsing the OET website.

That was like a couple of months ago before I go to the UK, and I found out that there is a program that is currently being advertised by the OET team in which you can become an OET hero. So I've tried applying for it, recording a video for it, and fortunately, I was chosen among thousands of applicants before I was chosen as the OET hero for the Philippines. And taking the OET exam, I would say it's a life changing experience. When I took it is the best path that brought me here in the UK. And I would say that it's better for you to take OET if you're a nurse or if you are in the healthcare profession, because you can easily adjust on it, especially the speaking part and the writing part. Everything is absolutely lovely for OET if you're a nurse.

I have a question here in the chat from Janelle saying that she spoke to IPASS. IPASS is actually a partner of Connetics for the NCLEX exam, and they said that all states except OET for Visa screening. Is that true? Who wants to take it? Not sure. I think Luciana, unfortunately, is the answer there. Sorry, could you just repeat the first part of the question? So the question is that she understood that all states except the OET for Visa screens. And is that true? Anyone applying to the US for any state license is going to need to go through the Visa screen for those seven professions. They have to obtain health care worker certification to make the immigration application. But you can't necessarily use the Visa screen certificate to demonstrate English proficiency for the state license in every state.

You can in some states, but not in all states. I want to take this question over to Joy. Now, let's talk about the exam structure, the contents. How is the OET different from the IELTS from the Pearson PTE? Explain that to us, please. Yes, I think, as have been mentioned earlier, the sections of the test are the same as any English proficiency test that requires the four elements speaking, listening, writing and reading. But within the occupational English test, all of those are within healthcare scenarios.

So it's still a test of English, but it is all within healthcare scenarios. And I as a subject matter expert have reviewed practice tests and the actual test materials to make sure that they make sense in terms of the healthcare context in the US. That their accurate information, if you will, in terms of health care scenarios. And also looking at are those scenarios things that are just going to be commonly things that nurses would come across or those in a health care profession would come across. They're not completely obscure kinds of diseases and conditions that people would not have heard of. And I think, as Edwin was trying to share, when you're trying to come up with words and it's challenging, it's in a language that maybe you're not using all the time, for you to be able to pull from those words in the language that you know from working in a healthcare context that creates an advantage for you in terms of taking the Occupational English test.

So the four sections are timed. Listening is 40 minutes, reading is 60 minutes, writing, you get five minutes to read the scenario and then 40 minutes to write a case notes summary like Gary mentioned, and then 20 minutes for speaking. But being focused on the time issue is probably not the best way to start. The best way to start is with the practice materials, the practice test, and start trying to get the rhythm of what's required in the test and then start focusing on the amount of time it would take to complete those sections. So I hope that helps a little bit with the question.

Yes, and how about moving from there? Let's talk about the various versions of the OET. There are various versions of the test depending on your profession. What are they, what's the difference, and who should take either version. Sure. So basically OET Yes, it's an English test, as they mentioned, for healthcare professionals. And the listening in the reading, they are the same. So for all healthcare professionals, but writing and speaking, they depend on the person's profession.

So for example, if you're a doctor, the writing and speaking will be different from the one for nurses or the one for pharmacies. So it's specific to what you do. And there are twelve altogether. Maybe Gary or Joy can tell you more about this. Gary Tap Phillips, do you know the twelve? Can you name them? Yeah, I could, but it would probably run us over time. But the thing is the largest number of nursing and medicine and going back to the specific CGFNS recognition with Med tech, we've been talking about that internally, which one would be most relevant for Med Tech to use, and technically they can use any profession, as far as the recognition is concerned, any version of OET is acceptable, but they would expect it to be a logical choice.

So if you're a nurse, you would choose nursing. Maybe if you're a med tech, you would take medicine, maybe pharmacy even, or nursing. But any of those choices are going to be more familiar to you and more relevant than if you are taking a general test where you might be talking about jam making or a trip to the zoo or something like that. So it's a test of English proficiency, irrespective of which version you take, but it's more familiar content. And speaking of the nursing exam oh, go ahead, Joy. I just was going to say, if you are a healthcare professional that works with people, you probably want to steer clear of the veterinary exam. I think that that's a really good idea. No charge for that advice. Very good at first advice.

You heard it here on onwards and upwards. Edwin, I am absolutely guessing that you took the nursing version of this exam. Was there a particular section that you found the most difficult or more easy? Well, to be honest, my Waterloo, even before, is actually listening. I really don't like listening, but with the help of my OET premium providers, they're actually the one who trained me. Because you don't build your success for OET in a single night. You need to work hard for it and you need to make a schedule for yourself to understand every classification of every sub test. You need to schedule your review for your listening, for your reading, for your writing and for your speaking.

But with that question, I really love speaking with OET. The speaking sub test, I just love it because it's just like you're having a normal conversation with a patient. It's pretty normal and I love it. How long ago did you take the test? I think, if I'm not mistaken, that was August of last year. Tell us about exam day. Tell us about exam day. Yeah, the exam day, the OET on a computer in the Philippines before is quite new and everybody is actually they're afraid of taking the OET and concern because we don't know anything about it. And I've took the rise. OET actually spoke to me and they've told me about them launching the OET on a computer in the Philippines.

And I've said, Why now if I'm going to be the one to take it and I can share it to other nurses? That my experience about it. And I absolutely like it. It's just like me taking the IELTS exam for the computer base as well. So it's pretty easy. The listening is just all right. I mean, it's quite difficult. But there's nothing that you can understand about the instructions as well. The way that it was done, the OET and the computer, it was absolutely okay. Even the writing subject, I actually like it as well. It gave me a lot of time. Instead of me writing on the paper, I was able to type in. And just like for I think, if I'm not mistaken, in 15 minutes, I was able to finish my writing. That's wonderful, Edwin. I think you got frozen there for just a moment, but we can still hear you fine. He's got a smile on his face.

How about tell us, where can a nurse take the exam? There's a lot of testing center in the Philippines, but there is only one testing center, if I'm not mistaken. Before I flew here in the UK. It's in Manila in the Philippines. But for the Phantom, there's a lot of venue where you can take the OET exam. Absolutely. And Japanese.

Tell us more about these different locations. I know you could take it all over the world. Tell us about that. Yes, in Brazil, for example, we run two test centers. One in Rio, which is a paper based center. It actually works inside a hospital in Rio called Santa Casa.  And we also have one in miniature rise in Georgia fora where you can also take the exam. And that's in our English school. And of course, you can take the exam in different countries, including the US. So worldwide, Luciana, it's 304 venues in 62 countries. There are kind of daily updates on that. But I checked yesterday, and those were the numbers.

Ed, how long did you study for the OET? To be honest, the target with my premium provider is actually two months. But my hospital in the UK, I've been receiving a lot of emails coming from them that I need to take the English exam as soon as possible. So I spoke with the OET team, I spoke with my premium provider, and they allowed me to take the OET after a month. So what they did was we had a very comprehensive review in which I did it every day. I had a review with them every day. And after the scheduled review, I always make sure that I allow two to 3 hours for myself to have a self review as well. So, again, it would be an advantage for you if you keep on reviewing, if you keep on studying, because it's not just a one night success.

I think we lost the audio there. But, Joy, tell us, what are some of the common errors that students make  during the exam? Well, we were talking about this a little bit yesterday, and if you go into the OET website and you look at the preparation materials, you'll see a lot of tips for how to prepare for the various parts of the exam.

And those questions will tell you exactly where people tend to get into trouble. It's talking about the use of certain tenses in how you construct a sentence. It's talking about whether or not you're able to put the appropriate amount of information in your writing, as opposed to just repeating everything that you've read in the case notes. So a lot of those tips that are being provided there link directly to where people typically get into trouble.

One thing I did want to mention is nurses and doctors as well. We sort of have an issue in terms of writing full sentences. So typically, when you're charting about a medical condition, you're using a lot of abbreviations. You're not making full sentences. But keep in mind that OET is a test of English language use, not whether or not you can chart quickly. So you need to think about it in that context and make sure that you're using full sentences and that you are able to do that when you're communicating in both the speaking and the writing in particular. The other thing is that letting go of that time pressure, I think, is important, using those preparation materials to make sure that you've got it down and then start looking at, would I be able to do this in the time frame of the test?

We have several viewers here that are now saying hello. We have Deborah, who's saying that they are happy to be here. We also have Glenda saying hello from Abu Dhabi. We have faith from Daval here. Also, we have Yusuf, who is a registered nurse and also trained in the operating room in Nigeria. Hello, Yusuf.

He's also looking for some preparatory materials for OET. So, just to let you know, Yusuf, that we are going to now start using, including the OET exam course preparation in our Connetics College. If you don't know about Connetics College, it is every Monday at 05:00 am. Pacific Standard Time. We have full on classes, 1 hour long free, just for you to learn these different exams.

We've been doing it with IELTS, and we also do NCLEX courses as well. But we are now going to be starting the OET class with niner on August the 22nd. Swoosh will also be helping us out and giving their expertise for OET classes as well. We'll also be including the PTE exam and, of course, the IELTS. A lot is coming up on this topic.

Glenda is asking, can I use OET for my license endorsement in Michigan, aside from the Visa screen certificate? Gary, can you answer this one? Yes. You can? Yes. Michigan accepts OET. It's a score of 300 in each skill. Sarah is asking. She's saying? I have passed the NCLEX RN for New York State Board of Nursing, and I'm going to be preparing myself for OET for the visa screen process. My question is that if I want to endorse for another state, is any English Proficiency Certificate needed? Thank you. Depends on the state.

Each state has its own requirements, so you just have to decide, which state do I want to go and work in? Look at that board of Nursing's requirements. And then if you're working with Kinetics, check with. Their experts to make sure there aren't any hidden problems in the process, because it is quite complicated. But you do need to check state by state. And if you would like to work as a nurse here in the United States, apply to conneticsusa.com/application. It's conneticsusa.com/application. We also have a short link that's down here at the bottom of your screen. See conneticsusa.com/application and we will take care of you, get you a job here in the United States at a health care facility, full time, full benefits, same pay as an American nurse. And we will guide you through the entire process, including this immigration licensing visa screen, English proficiency exams all the way until past the circle of support whenever you come here to the United States.

So we're looking forward to seeing you here. And I have another question from Keith. Let's see. Good day. I just want to ask, do you need a current or recent hospital experience for employment for nurses? That absolutely depends, Keith, on your specialty. So please submit your application and one of our recruiters will reach out to you and answer all of these questions for you. We also have a people saying Hello, Nazi watching from Nigeria. Welcome to you as well.

Let's get on to the next question here. I want to speak a little bit more about that preparation. Rafael you help prepare these students for this exam. What is your process for students to help prepare and study and pass this exam? Absolutely to prepare, yes. First of all, I think it's really important to understand your current level of English where you are right now. I mean, it is an English test and the preparation time can change depending on where you start. So I think it's really important to start with the placement test. This is something you can do on our website. I'm happy to share the link with you.

So basically you start with a placement test and there's a quick test. There is also on the OET website something called OET post, which again is a very quick and important placement test to assess your current level of English. And once this is established, then we can start planning your preparation. Now, this can go from a one year preparation in some cases. Sometimes we have crash courses for OET as well. So we can prepare students in two weeks, depending on their level. If your level of English is really good, it's just a matter of making you familiar with the test so that you understand what you have to do, which is usually not a big problem for nurses because it's part of their jobs anyway.

If the level of your English is not that yet, you may have to take some general English lessons first so that you improve your general knowledge of the English language. And later on you can start going towards OET. That's basically our process. And also just something important. Although we do have groups, and there are groups preparing for OET. Most of the time, we prepare students on a one to one basis because I think it's better depending on the students level and also their availability.

As I'm sure you know, most nurses, at least in Brazil, are very busy. I'm told that one of the most challenging pieces of any English proficiency test for a nurse that is abroad, coming to the United States, a lot of it can be the speaking portion of the test and tell us, are you actually speaking during the exam? And a lot of people get scared. It can be scary to speak in front of people. I think public speaking is like one of the number one fears of mankind.

So how do you help Raphael? How do you help students overcome that stage fright and have that confidence? This is absolutely true. People usually do get more nervous for speaking, more than, I think, listening, reading, and writing. Now, there are several things we can do. I mean, first of all, we try to make sure students are really familiar with the fact so they know what to expect. For the OET speaking, there is one interlocutor. I work as an OET interlocked. There is one interlocutor and one candidate.

And first of all, there are some warm up questions, and those questions are not assessed, so it's just to break the ice, basically, and so that the candidate can also relax a little bit. And then there are the two role plays. Now, something important before the roleplays starts. Candidates have three minutes to prepare so they actually have some time to read the cards and understand the cases.

Something that something that they are aware of. They can ask questions if they're not sure about something. They can ask questions to the interlocker before they start the role play. Once the role play starts as an interlocker, I just play the role of a patient, and they play their professional role, for example, as a nurse. In my experience, when people start, they are very nervous, especially during the warm up questions.

But once the role play starts, some candidates, they focus on what they're doing, and they relax, really, during the test. And then they get better, which is very interesting. The English also improves. And then there is a second role play, and they're more familiar with the tasks they're usually able to perform well. I think it's important if you're preparing for OET to make sure you have some mock tasks.

We do a lot of those so that's you know exactly what to expect. And the speaking test is recorded. It's not assessed by the interlocked. It's assessed later on. But I think that once candidates understand that they are supposed to act as nurses, they usually relax and perform well. And that health care focus that the OET has. Actually, let's talk about the speaking part or even the writing, because you can take some English proficiency exams and that the question will be, tell us about sports, and do you think that sports players should make a million dollars?

Yes or no? The questions for the OET are going to be a little bit different. Correct. Because it's now speaking on another level. Does that seem to scare George? Do you see that kind of making it more difficult for nurses, or do you think that that actually makes it easier because of the subject matter? I think it definitely makes it easier.

And Edwin kind of alluded to this earlier when he said, once you get into it and you're talking about things that you would be sharing with a patient or with a patient family member about a condition, that starts to feel a little bit more natural. Even if you told me to just speak about sports or answer questions about sports, I think I would find that difficult.

So I think, as Raphael and Edwin mentioned, you feel like you're in your role in providing care to someone. Edwin, it might have been too long ago. Do you remember this portion of the exam and how that went and how you felt? Oh, yeah. That's why I said a while ago, I just love speaking for OET. So when I had my OET, I've done it by a zoom. So they've scheduled it a day before my actual exam for writing, reading and listening.

So I had first speaking a day before. So it was absolutely all right. It was just like there's patient complaining about the pain, as far as I can remember. And I've just mentioned some of Health teachings. Whatever your role as a nurse on that kind of scenario, because you're going to be given a situation like a plaque card in which you can see how will the conversation go and what are the possible questions that you can throw to the patient.

What I love about OET is that you will be given like, a couple of minutes before you go for the actual speaking to read on the situation, and you will have the time to think about the rebuttals about certain information that you can actually give to the patient or you can tell to that kind of scenario.

Gary, what are some misconceptions that nurses have about these exams? Because now we're doing the reality check. But tell us about a few myths. Yeah, I suppose one is that they feel that their medical knowledge is going to be assessed when it is an English Proficiency Test. And as Joy and Edwin and the others have said, it's actually quite helpful if you have medical knowledge just in terms of making you feel more at ease and the language is more familiar, so you perform better, but you're not going to be assessed on your knowledge of how to do procedures. If you say the wrong thing about how a procedure works, you won't be marked down. But if you use English wrongly while you describe it, you will be Rafael.

Do you want to say a couple other myths that you may have heard about the OET and set the record straight? Absolutely. Some candidates do ask me if OET is easier than IELTS. This is something we hear a lot, and the answer is no, it's not easier than IELTS. It's just specific to your profession. This is something quite common.

Another question I get a lot is whether they can sort of use their knowledge to fall back on, especially in the speaking part of the exam. The answer is, yes, you can do that. As long as you don't change the cards or what's on the cards, but yes, you can do that.

Joy, do you know any myths as well about the OET that you also want to mention to us and to our audience? I guess the only one I'm thinking of right now is kind of Linked In with what Raphael was saying, and that is that if I have a scenario come up that's talking about diabetes, I don't want to be thinking, oh, I don't know very much about diabetes. That's not the point. The point is that you would be looking at the materials, and you would be making sense of what's in front of you, as opposed to drawing from something you read in the textbook about diabetes.

So I think it's important for people to know that what they need to be successful is going to be there on the computer, on the paper, and to use their English language skills then to answer those things rather than thinking of it. Like the NCLEX, the National Licensing Exam, which is a test of your nursing knowledge. So what you need to be successful is going to be right there in the test.

Speaking of that NCLEX exam, Joel Ferrari is saying, I have already passed my OET with grade B good in all the subtests, but NCLEX hasn't started yet. Is it possible if I could start my application? The answer is yes. Joel. Absolutely. We actually have an NCLEX scholarship where if you qualify, if nurses qualify, Connetics will pay for you to take an NCLEX course in order to pass your NCLEX and come to the United States. You do need the NCLEX in order to be matched and start working here, as well as the English Proficiency Exams, except for in those exceptions we just spoke about. Of course, if you come from an English speaking country. So go ahead, apply now. See cusa.link/apply Go to our website too.

We have a lot of information about the NCLEX conneticsusa.com/NCLEX. We'll also have information there about the NCLEX scholarship and something else that you can also find on our site. We've done a couple of shows now about this announcement with the OET. One actually featured Gary a few weeks ago. So you can go to our website, check that out. It's also on our Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram feeds, and we have several different topics there.

And we also have a new blog that we just posted that's particularly about the OET exam. Here is the QR code if you want to scan it really quick. OET Graciously, help us write this blog for all of you at home to be able to get more information. So make sure to go to our website, take a look at that as well. And while you're there, click that application button, then apply.

We have another question now from it's kind of the same thing. Visa screening needed to be done after past the NCLEX or able to do it before that. So in order to do your Visa screen, you need to have the NCLEX exam that answers that question. And we have Mohamed, who is a medical laboratory scientist from Pakistan, saying hello. Joel, he's saying, that's good news. Thank you. You are very welcome.

Now, let's talk a little bit more about those exam misconceptions. We get this a lot. Does your age matter? No. I'm seeing nodding heads. No. All right Hafia. What about does it matter which nationality you are or the country that you take it? Yes.

Well, I think we agree that age doesn't matter. Yes. In terms of your nationality, I think also it doesn't matter, really, as long as you prepare well for the exam and you're ready for this, it doesn't really matter. And as Gary said, you don't have to go abroad to take the test. You can take it in Brazil, in the Philippines, in several different countries. So it doesn't really matter where you come from. And it seems like you all were talking about that. You can take the test on Zoom, you can walk into the center.

What are the different options to take this test and how can it be distributed to the nurses? Joy, take this one. Yeah, so there's a couple of options and really this kind of ties in with the preparation materials as well on the website. If you just think about the way that you learn  the best, if you do best with reading, with taking notes for yourself, there's ways to do that preparation wise. And then maybe you want to do the paper base test at a testing center where you would actually be writing with a pen and pencil. And then in that situation, you would be talking directly to the person in the scenario.

As for speaking the interlocutor, you would be doing that right then face to face. So that's an approach that for some people might feel the most comfortable. If you go to a testing center and you want to do the computer based test, that's going to make more sense for somebody who's more used to typing. Maybe you're used to taking notes that way when you study or doing most of your study on a computer rather than with books. So you probably want to do the computer base. And then, as Edwin mentioned, your time for the speaking test is scheduled separately. And you do that through zoom, and you're talking like we are now to an interlocutor on your computer. The time that you get to prepare is the same. Those things are all the same, but you can think about what are you most comfortable with for an approach.

Edwin, you mentioned that you did self studying as well. Do you recommend that and how did you go about it? Oh, yeah, I absolutely recommend self studying as well, but you need guidance. Looks like you're frozen again. We're having a little bit of technical difficulties with Edwin there.

How far if you want to take this one, let's figure out Edwin's technical difficulties there. What would you say about self study? Yes, I think self study is important, but guidance is very important as well, especially for the productive skills, writing and speaking. As far as listening and reading go, you can find a lot of materials online, especially from the OET websites. For writing and speaking, you may need some feedback. That's why the providers are important here, to give you good feedback from writing and speaking so you understand your mistakes and you know how to improve.

Looks like Edwin's back online. Edwin, answer the question for us as well. Self studying, how did you do it? Do you recommend it? Yeah, I would definitely recommend self studying, as what Rafael mentioned a while ago. But you need guidance. It's just like an ordinary English exam that you just go to the testing center and take it.

Now, you need guidance, you need proper preparations, you need proper preparation materials. And what I love about OET is that you can see that you can have a look on that on their website. Everything is there a massive file for review materials. You can actually look that on that website. And I would say that if you can just give yourself an hour or two to at least review about the stuff that, let's say you're having a review to a certain review center. So if you have an ample time to have a self review and have looked on that and to internalize what they're trying to say, and I think that would be great.

Gary, let's do some final words here. If you could give any piece of advice to a nurse who was preparing to come to the United States, needs to take an English proficiency exam, OET, what's the final piece of advice for them that you can give? Yeah, I mean, explore the preparation portal and just make an informed decision for yourself. Fabelle, what's going to be the most familiar content for you as you prepare, which is going to allow you to perform at the maximum to achieve the grades you need and which is going to be most useful for you when you find yourself in a professional situation in an English speaking environment. I think they are key things to consider when you decide which English proficiency test you want to take.

Joy, one piece of advice to nurses preparing to come to the United States. Well, I think I would summarize it by saying that there are pathways that lead to licensure, and there are pathways that lead to being legal to work in the US. And I think sometimes when you're looking at those things, that can get a little confusing, probably that's where it's helpful to have someone guide you through it. But as was mentioned earlier, all of the nursing board websites that I've looked at for the different states, look for that thing that says foreign trained, internationally trained, and that's probably going to be your best resource to say, here's the steps you need for our state.

Rafael, what are your final pieces of advice? Well, I'd say if you're thinking about taking the odds, make sure you're familiar with the test, and it's very easy to do this online. Make sure you understand what you have to do in the reading, writing, listening, and speaking papers. Also, make sure you understand where you are right now in terms of the level of your English, and then try to have the best preparation possible, and good luck. Edwin, final piece of advice to any nurse studying for the OET and wanting to come to the United States.

Okay, cool. You're there? Yeah. One piece of advice, especially to the Filipino nurses in the Philippines. If you want to go in the UK. Or if you want to go any part of the US. Start preparing for your OET. Don't think about any other English test. Just think about OET. I'm not going to be biased about it, but based on my experience, firsthand, I'm going to go with OET. If I'm going to repeat myself again, and if I'm going to go back and start again, I'm still going to take OET.

You guys have the most amazing person just screaming it from the rooftops right there in Edwin ultimate cheerleader. And we really enjoyed having all of you here today to join us for this discussion. It's a very important discussion, and you've given so much wonderful and useful information to all of our nurses who are watching today and that watches every Friday. This is a really big deal, so it's wonderful to know that nurses have other options now. It's not just about the IELTS anymore. If that doesn't work out, you can take all the other tests, and the OET, as we're hearing, is a very good option and route for you to take.

You can get more information about the OET exam on their website, the Occupational English Test, as well as on the Connetics nurses recruiting agency website. If you would like to live and work as a nurse in the United States conneticsusa.com/application, we really enjoyed all of you here today. I just want to go through some new initiatives with Connetics that we want to review with you, as we always do at the end of our shows.

We have our IELTS scholarship. We are actually reworking that to now include the OET, the Pte, the Cambridge. We have the NCLEX scholarship like we talked about before, that if you qualify, we'll pay for your NCLEX exam. Right now we're having a $1,000 referral bonus. It is backed by popular demand. $1,000 referral bonus.

If you refer a nurse with NCLEX, it doesn't matter who you are, you know, a nurse refer them and you can make a $1,000. Make sure to go to our website to take a look at all of the terms and conditions on that. But yes, we are accepting nurses of all specialties. And speaking of nurses in all specialties, our podcast Nursing in America every week we are there on your Spotify, Google Play, Amazon, iTunes.

We do Direct Hire, as I sent to, where we directly connect you with a US healthcare facility. Onwards and Upwards show you're right here watching it. We will be back next week and we do have a wonderful schedule coming up for you, for our new shows, for our shows coming up. So next week on Friday, Tanya will be back and we'll be talking about building credit in the USA. We have a banking expert as well as one of the directors of one of the US credit Bureaus here on the show.

So make sure you tune into that because that will be wonderful information for you for a talk show. Clinical differences in the ICU is going to be coming up on the 16th. On the 19th, immigration lawyers joining Tanya again to do a Q and A with you to answer all the questions that you may have about immigration, about the Visa screen and how all of that ties in with this OET exam that we've been talking about as well. August the 26th, cost of living in the United States, state by state.

What is the price difference? How much does it cost to rent an apartment, to go to the grocery store, to get your kids into preschool? We will be covering all of that for you on that show as well. Thank you so much for joining us. We really had a lot of fun. We hope that you have received a lot of good information. Thank you again to our panel, everybody, and as we always say, onwards and upwards. See you next week.