Part C questions are built so that several options sound right. This guide gives you an evidence-led elimination method, then walks through an invented practice paragraph to show exactly why each wrong option fails.
Candidates usually ask the same thing about Part C: why do I narrow it down to two options and then choose the wrong one? The answer is in what the questions are designed to measure.
OET describes Part C as two texts of around 800 words each, similar to journal or review articles, usually presenting a range of opinions on a healthcare topic. Each text has eight multiple-choice questions with four options, and the questions follow the order of the text. Parts B and C share 45 minutes, and Part C carries 16 of the 42 Reading marks.
OET lists the skills as understanding explicit and implicit meaning, identifying main ideas and detail, recognising the attitude or opinion of the writer or people quoted, and understanding vocabulary and reference words such as “it” or “they” in context. You also need to follow how ideas relate across sentences and paragraphs.
Inference is what the text commits to without stating it directly. It is still based on the text. If you cannot point to the words that support your choice, you are guessing, not inferring. This matters for clinicians: your own medical knowledge may be correct and still not be what this writer says.
OET notes that the options often share vocabulary with the text, so it is easy to pick one simply because its words look familiar. Wrong options are usually close to the text: slightly too strong, said by a different person, or true but not an answer to this question.
Steps 2, 3 and 4 follow OET advice: questions come in order and often name the paragraph, you should answer in your mind before looking at the options, and you should look for evidence that an option is wrong as well as evidence that it is right.
Practice example only. The paragraph, the doctor quoted and the question were invented for teaching. They are not from a real OET paper and do not describe a real person or study.
Remote monitoring of patients with heart failure, in which weight, blood pressure and symptoms are sent daily from home, has attracted considerable investment. Early trials have been encouraging, although results across studies remain mixed. For cardiologist Dr Leila Okafor, the technology itself is rarely the problem. “A reading that sits unopened in an inbox helps nobody,” she says. “Where teams agree who reviews the data and how quickly they respond, we see fewer emergency admissions. Where they don’t, we simply generate more data.” Some nursing groups have warned that monitoring dashboards add to already heavy workloads, a concern Dr Okafor accepts is legitimate, though she believes it can be managed with proper staffing. She is clear, however, that monitoring should sit alongside clinic appointments rather than replace them.
What is Dr Okafor’s view of remote monitoring? A) It has been shown to reduce hospital admissions for most patients. B) Its value depends on how clinical teams respond to the data it produces. C) It places an unreasonable burden on nursing staff. D) It could allow routine outpatient clinics to be reduced.
Review your errors by type rather than by question number. These patterns appear again and again when candidates review a Part C paper honestly.
An option that repeats the text’s vocabulary is not automatically right. Ask what the sentence means, then look for the option that says the same thing in different words.
Words such as may, some, early, mixed and in some cases limit a claim. An option that drops the hedge usually overstates the text.
Part C texts often quote several people. Before answering an attitude question, underline whose opinion the stem asks about.
An option can be accurate according to the text and still not answer the question asked. Check it against the stem, not just against the paragraph.
Your experience may tell you an option is good practice. The question asks what this text says or implies.
Spending five minutes on one item costs you easier marks later. Use the two-minute guide, flag it and return if time allows.
In Part C, predict the answer before reading the options, then test all four against the text. Reject options that overstate, belong to a different speaker, contradict the text or do not answer the question. The answer is the option you can support with a specific line.
Every test-format fact in this guide was checked against these official OET pages on 27 October 2026. OET can update its guidance, so check them again before your test date.
Short answers to the questions candidates ask most about this part of the test.
There are two texts of around 800 words each, and each text has eight multiple-choice questions with four options. The questions follow the order of the text.
Parts B and C share 45 minutes. OET suggests leaving at least 35 minutes for Part C, which is roughly two minutes per question, and splitting the time evenly between the two texts.
OET advises starting with the first question and reading to find its answer, rather than reading the whole text first. Read the relevant part carefully, because skimming will not answer Part C questions.
Usually because both share words with the text. Predict the answer before reading the options, then check each one for overstatement, the wrong speaker or a contradiction.
Use our Listening and Reading practice route to apply the six-step method under time and review each wrong answer by distractor type.
