If you trained as a nurse or a doctor outside the UK, your qualifications alone won’t get you registered with the NMC or the GMC — you also have to prove your English. Two tests do that job: OET, built specifically for healthcare, and IELTS, the general academic test millions sit every year. Both are accepted, and both are hard. But they test you in very different ways, and picking the right one can save you months of preparation and a re-sit fee. Here’s how they actually compare for medical professionals.
What OET and IELTS actually test
IELTS Academic is a general English exam. Your reading passages might be about climate science or urban planning; your writing task could ask you to describe a bar chart. Nothing in it is medical. OET — the Occupational English Test — flips that completely: every section sits inside a healthcare context. You read case notes and clinical guidelines, you listen to patient consultations, and in the speaking test you role-play a real scenario such as reassuring a patient or explaining a treatment. Same four skills, listening, reading, writing and speaking, but OET dresses them in the medical English you already use on every shift.
The scores you actually need
This is where almost everyone starts, so let’s be exact. For nurses and midwives, the NMC wants IELTS Academic at an overall 7.0 — with 7.0 in listening, reading and speaking, and at least 6.5 in writing. On OET you need a grade B in reading, listening and speaking, and a C+ in writing. For doctors, the GMC sets the bar higher: IELTS Academic at an overall 7.5 with no single paper below 7.0, or a grade B across all four OET papers. In both cases your scores normally have to come from one sitting taken within the last two years, though each regulator will let you combine two attempts under specific conditions. Always confirm the current requirement on the NMC or GMC website before you book — thresholds do get updated.
Where OET pulls ahead for healthcare workers
For most nurses and doctors, OET is the more natural fit — and often the easier pass — precisely because it speaks your language. Writing a referral letter about a patient is a task you’ve done a hundred times; describing a pie chart about coffee consumption is not. The listening test uses the rhythm of a real consultation rather than an academic lecture, and the speaking role-plays mirror conversations you have every day. If your clinical English is strong but your general academic vocabulary feels rusty, OET lets your professional experience carry some of the weight for you.
When IELTS still makes sense
IELTS isn’t the wrong choice, though. It’s cheaper in many countries, offered on far more dates and at many more test centres, and accepted for almost everything else you might need — a visa, a university place, a second career route. If you’re applying through a student visa alongside registration, or you simply can’t find an OET date near you, IELTS keeps your options open. And if your English is genuinely strong across the board, the general format won’t hold you back. Our online IELTS preparation course is built around the exact bands the NMC and GMC ask for, with the writing and speaking feedback that moves those scores.
Which one should you take?
Start from three questions: which test your regulator and employer accept (nearly always both), which one you can actually book in time, and which plays to your strengths. If you’re a confident clinical communicator who freezes on abstract academic topics, OET will probably feel kinder. If you need flexibility, more test dates, or a score you can reuse elsewhere, IELTS earns its place. Whichever you choose, the skills that lift your result are the same: structured writing and fluent, accurate speaking under time pressure — the two areas you can’t really mark yourself.
At Kensington English we coach nurses and doctors through both tests with native UK teachers who know exactly what the examiners reward. If you’d like a plan built around your target score and your deadline, take a look at our courses — and bring the parts of English you can’t judge alone to someone who can.
