The OET (Occupational English Test) in Canada: who accepts it and how it works

The OET, or Occupational English Test, is an English test for health professionals. OET says every College of Physicians and Surgeons with an English requirement, the majority of provincial nursing boards and nearly all key pharmacy regulators accept it, but each sets its own score and accepted modes. Results come by email and in your OET account, and the time depends on the mode.

OET stands for Occupational English Test. The organisation behind it also calls itself OET, and it describes the test as made for healthcare professionals. It checks your English in a work setting, across four parts: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. Searches for the OET examination or OET testing mean this test. OET says it is tailored to twelve healthcare professions, including nursing and medicine.

Listening and Reading are the same for every profession. Writing and Speaking are written for yours, so a nurse and a pharmacist get different cases. The longer breakdown of each part, with marks and timing, is on our OET test guide, which is written for Australia but describes the same test.

The OET is not for everyone. OET says that if you are not a health professional it may not be the most suitable test.

This guide is not registration or immigration advice. OET's pages and your regulator's pages decide, and they change.

OET says its test is recognised across Canadian healthcare. These are its own words.

Doctors

For medicine, OET says it is the preferred test. The federation of medical regulators, FMRAC, lists it that way, and the Medical Council of Canada recommends it as a preparation resource. OET adds that it is trusted by residency programs, Practice-Ready Assessment programs and medical regulatory authorities nationwide.

Residency applications go through the national matching service. OET's Canada page lists it with a grade B in every part, and for both the paper and the computer versions.

For licensure, OET lists nine provincial colleges whose registration you can use your OET result for.

• Alberta.
• British Columbia.
• Manitoba.
• New Brunswick.
• Newfoundland and Labrador.
• Nova Scotia.
• Ontario.
• Prince Edward Island.
• Saskatchewan.

OET says each College sets its own standards.

Practice-Ready Assessment programs are another way into licensure. OET names some that take the OET directly, and it says the rules vary by province. Always check the provincial authority's website for the English requirements and how long a result stays valid.

Nurses

For nursing, OET says the Canadian Nurse Regulators Collaborative, a group of nursing regulators from different provinces and territories, recommended the OET and gave scores. OET wrote that in an August 2024 post. It also says each nursing regulator has to adopt the test itself, so your province's own page is what counts.

OET tells you to watch the nursing regulator's website in the province or territory where you plan to apply, to see its accepted cut scores and benchmark levels.

Pharmacy and other professions

OET says nearly all key pharmacy regulators accept it. Where a body does not publish a number on OET's list, OET tells you to ask that body. The Alberta college for pharmacists and the Alberta college for speech-language pathologists are two examples.

A body's own page is the last word. OET gives the same warning.

If you came here for Express Entry language points, note the difference. The OET is for registration and training in a health profession. IRCC's list of approved English tests for Express Entry names other tests.

For English, the list names the CELPIP-General test, the IELTS General Training option and the PTE Core option. The French tests on it are TEF Canada and TCF Canada.

Our reading: the OET is not on that list, so an OET result does not earn Express Entry language points. If you need both, you may sit two tests. Our page on English tests accepted by IRCC covers the immigration side.

OET offers three delivery modes: OET Test on Paper, OET Test on Computer and OET@Home. Which one you book should depend on what the body reading your result accepts, then on what is available near you.

• Paper: printed papers at a secure, approved test centre.
• Computer: Listening, Reading and Writing at a venue on a computer. Speaking at home on an online platform, or at a venue in select countries.
• OET@Home: delivered online with full remote proctoring, for countries where a venue is not yet available.

For doctors, OET's computer-test page says the computer version is accepted by FMRAC. OET@Home is a different matter. OET says it may not be accepted by all recognising organisations in every country, so ask first.

Speaking at a venue

OET is moving Speaking to test venues for computer candidates in some places. In its post of 20 July 2026 it lists the regions, and Canada is not among them. In selected countries you can choose between home and a venue, so look at the Speaking options when you pick a date.

If your Speaking is on a different day from the other three parts, OET says that does not change your results.

Availability and professions

OET warns that not all delivery dates and testing modes are available in all countries, so you select your preferred date and mode when you book.

OET's paper page also gives two answers about which professions can sit on paper, so the dates table is the place to check yours. The list names seven professions: medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, physiotherapy, radiology and veterinary science. The FAQ on the same page says all twelve.

OET lists dates on one booking page, and you search by city and country. Each date row gives the booking window, the date results are published and the professions it serves.

Closing times are earlier than many people expect. OET says paper bookings close 24 days before the test, subject to change, and computer and OET@Home bookings close 7 days before, at 11:59PM UTC.

Computer dates, examples

OET's computer table is global and runs on most days of the week. These three rows are examples from the page when we last read it in October 2026, not a full calendar.

Paper dates, Americas list

For paper, OET shows two lists, a Global one on Saturdays and an Americas one on Fridays. OET does not say which countries sit on which list, so use the finder for your city. These are the Americas dates that were open when we read the page in October 2026. On these four rows, the second and fourth dates serve nursing and medicine only.

These rows will age. The booking page is the live source. Use ours to see how the table is laid out and to plan backwards from the result date you need.

OET shows an overview of your latest results in your online profile, and it emails you when they are published. It tells you to keep an eye on your junk folder too. The time depends on the mode.

The paper time is shown two ways on OET's own pages, 12 days on the results page and from 13 days on the paper page and the test regulations. We show both. OET says all of these times are indicative, and results may be released earlier.

What a result looks like

OET reports each part on a scale from 0 to 500 in steps of ten, with a letter grade from A to E.

When your results are released, OET issues a Statement of Results that you download from your OET account. In Listening and Reading, a grade B is a scale score of 350, and OET says that typically takes at least 30 marks, but the marks needed change from test to test.

OET's pages disagree about an overall score. The OET test page says your results include one, and the test regulations say an overall grade is not issued. The Canadian bodies listed above ask for scores by part, so plan around the part scores.

There is no single pass mark

How long a result stays valid is also decided by each authority, not by OET, so check your authority's website.

Sending your results to a regulator

OET recommends that recognising organisations accept results only when you share them digitally from your OET account, so give each organisation permission there rather than emailing a PDF, unless your regulator tells you otherwise. The steps depend on how you sat the test.

If you sat on paper at a venue:

1. Log in to your OET account.
2. Find your OET Test booking and click the drop-down arrow.
3. Click Manage Verifier Access.
4. Search for the organisation by its full name, for example Nursing and Midwifery Council.
5. Choose the organisation from the list and click Save.

If you sat on computer at a venue, or OET@Home:

1. Log in to your OET account.
2. Click the My Results tab.
3. Click Manage Verifier Access.
4. Search for and select the organisation, then click Start sharing with this organisation.

If you disagree with a result

You can ask for a re-mark of one or more parts within 72 hours of receiving your results, and it costs a fee. Re-marking can raise your score, lower it or leave it as it is.

The fee is on our OET fees page.

Start with the score your regulator wants, then work out the gap in each part. OET says how long you need depends on where you start.

OET has free guides and a short placement test, and it lists teachers on its own page. E2Language is one of the providers on that list, and we link to it with a tracking link only and have no paid arrangement with it at the moment. We have no evidence ranking providers, so look at what each one states about its level and profession.

OET lists free preparation resources. The first ones it names are an Intro to OET online course, an OET Study Guide and a Writing Guide.

The placement test is called Pulse, and OET describes it as a 30-minute test with feedback on how to prepare.

Our Writing and Speaking practice page has OET's free samples, a model letter and a role-play card. The Listening and Reading page has a short original set and OET's answer rules.

Common questions