OET stories

Occupational English Test for Nurses

* Ludhiana, India
* Studied at G.T.B. Hospital then qualified    as UCOL nurse
* Bachelor of Nursing
* Worked as a staff nurse for one year
* Now working as a full-time caregiver

Rimpi came to Palmerston North in March. She had a score of 6.0 in IELTS and enrolled at ETC to improve her English. She studied full-time at ETC for five months and then got a full-time job as a caregiver and studied in her spare time. She advises students to get at least a 7.0 point score before coming to N.Z.

Rimpi has worked hard to improve her English and is sitting the OET exam in February. When asked how she has improved her English, Rimpi replied, "First I joined ETC for my English classes." She also recommends students always speak English with their friends especially at home, watch English movies, ("I watch two or three movies a week so I can increase my listening ability"), watch TV news, and join the library and read lots of books.

Being a student at ETC was great because "when I reached N.Z., I didn't know anything about N.Z., I didn't know where to go and how to use the buses, but when I joined ETC, they gave me information about using the buses and they took us out for a lot of activities here. That's how I found out where the library is, the church and various other places. I studied with different people who came from different countries so I got used to their accents. I think they helped me to improve my English….I was a little bit hesitant to speak English with other people but at ETC…actually in my class there were students from five or six countries so it helped me to reduce my hesitation….I was very shy to speak English in front of people now I have confidence. (The teachers)They are very competent…they tried to solve our problems…they are friendly and whatever problems we had….a least we could share with them…like accommodation problems. I had a problem with the food because I am vegetarian, where you can go for shopping because I didn't know anything about that."

Rimpi had a relatively easy time settling into her studies because she already had friends here to support her, but she did experience culture shock because things are different from India. "There was no temple here to go to pray, I went to the temple often in India. Now we have a Sikh temple here so we can go, it's very good for us. Actually we can go four times a month but when I arrived there was none. It was very shocking news for me. Another thing was the Kiwi women drinking and smoking because in India we are not allowed to drink and smoke." Rimpi thought there wasn't too much difference between the way people dress because many Indians wear jeans and t-shirts.

Rimpi loves Palmerston North because "it's not too rushed…it's a student city…the food is cheap…we can work here. It is easy to get work, my friends helped me, and there is a shortage of caregivers as well as registered nurses." When Rimpi passes OET, she has six weeks study at UCOL to get her Nursing Competency Certificate then she can work as a N.Z. Registered Staff Nurse.