Common Grammar Mistakes Nurses Make
in the OET Writing Sub-test (and How to Fix Them)
Published by LanguageTest.in | Updated June 2026 | Reading time: 6 minutes
You know your clinical content cold. You've documented patient care, written progress notes, and communicated with multidisciplinary teams. Yet when it comes to the OET Writing sub-test, something goes wrong — and it often isn't the nursing knowledge. It's the grammar.
OET Writing is marked on four criteria: Purpose, Content, Conciseness & Clarity, Genre & Style, and Language. That last criterion — Language — specifically targets grammatical accuracy, vocabulary range, and sentence structure. A single repeated error pattern can drop your grade from B to C+. Here are the most common mistakes, and exactly how to fix them.
Mistake 1: Mixing Up Active and Passive Voice Incorrectly
Clinical writing in English predominantly uses passive voice to maintain objectivity: 'The patient was administered 500mg of amoxicillin.' Nurses trained in Indian nursing programmes sometimes over-apply passive voice in places where active voice is more natural — or use passive constructions with incorrect auxiliary verbs.
*Wrong: 'The dressing was changed by the nurse and then patient was observed.' | Right: 'The nurse changed the dressing and observed the patient for signs of infection.'*
In OET letters (typically referral or discharge), use active voice for actions performed by healthcare professionals in narrative sections, and passive voice for clinical findings and test results.
Mistake 2: Incorrect Use of Articles (a, an, the)
Article errors are among the most frequently penalised grammar mistakes in OET Writing for South Asian candidates. English article rules are complex — many Indian languages have no equivalent structure, which creates persistent blind spots.
Rule of thumb: do not use an article before the name of a disease or condition (hypertension, diabetes, asthma) unless specifying a particular instance ('the hypertension she developed during pregnancy').
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Mistake 3: Tense Inconsistency in Clinical Narratives
OET referral and discharge letters follow a conventional structure: past tense for history and events, present tense for current status, and future tense for plans and recommendations. Many candidates switch tenses mid-paragraph, which disrupts the logical flow and loses marks under Language.
- History: 'Mrs Sharma was admitted on 3 June with acute chest pain.' (past)
- Current status: 'She is currently stable and ambulatory.' (present)
- Plan: 'She will require follow-up echocardiography in four weeks.' (future)
Mixing these — for example, writing 'She was currently stable' — signals poor control of tense, which directly affects your Language score.
Practise your OET Writing with real exam-format tests at — written by healthcare professionals, with detailed feedback on grammar, tone, and task completion.
Mistake 4: Faulty Subject-Verb Agreement
This error most often appears when the subject is a collective noun or a long noun phrase that separates the subject from its verb.
*Wrong: 'The results of the blood panel was abnormal.' | Right: 'The results of the blood panel were abnormal.' The subject is 'results' (plural), not 'panel.'*
Watch for: collective nouns (team, staff, family), indefinite pronouns (each, every, none), and long phrases where the true subject is buried.
Mistake 5: Overusing Abbreviations
Clinical practice is full of abbreviations — BP, RR, O2 sat, IV, PRN. OET markers expect you to write in full for a non-specialist reader (such as a GP or community nurse unfamiliar with your ward's conventions). Over-abbreviating is penalised under Genre & Style and Conciseness & Clarity.
Mistake 6: Preposition Errors in Clinical Contexts
Preposition use in English is largely idiomatic, which makes it one of the hardest things to learn and one of the most commonly penalised in OET Writing. Common nursing preposition errors include:
- 'Admitted in hospital' → 'Admitted to hospital'
- 'Complaining from pain' → 'Complaining of pain'
- 'Referred for cardiologist' → 'Referred to a cardiologist'
- 'Discharged on 14 June' → 'Discharged on 14 June' ✓ (this one is correct!)
Create a personal error log of preposition mistakes and review it before every practice test. Pattern recognition is the fastest way to eliminate preposition errors.
How to Systematically Eliminate Grammar Errors
Awareness alone isn't enough — you need a system. Here is a proven three-step approach used by high-scoring OET candidates:
- Step 1 — Write, don't self-censor: Complete the full task without stopping to correct. Interrupting your flow to fix grammar in real-time slows you down and creates new errors.
- Step 2 — Structured review (3 minutes): After writing, scan specifically for the six error types above — in order. Do not read for general sense; read for grammar only.
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- Step 3 — Score and log: After each practice test, record every error by type. If article errors appear in three consecutive tests, they need focused drilling before the next one.
*Target time allocation: 35 minutes writing + 5 minutes structured grammar review. Most nurses who score B allocate at least 4 minutes to post-writing review.*
Quick Reference: Grammar Checklist for OET Writing
Start Fixing Your Writing Today
The good news: grammar mistakes are the most fixable category of OET Writing errors. Unlike content knowledge or clinical reasoning, grammar follows learnable rules. With focused practice — and the right feedback — most nurses eliminate their core error patterns within 3 to 4 weeks.
LanguageTest.in provides OET Writing mock tests with examiner-quality feedback covering all four marking criteria, including Language. Each test is reviewed against the official OET Writing Assessment Criteria so you know exactly where your marks are going.
Practise your OET Writing with real exam-format tests at — written by healthcare professionals, with detailed feedback on grammar, tone, and task completion.
References & Further Reading
- 1OET. (2026). OET Writing Assessment Criteria — Candidate Guide. occupationalenglishtest.com
- 1Swan, M. (2005). Practical English Usage (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
- 1Glendinning, E.H. & Holmstrom, B. (2005). English in Medicine (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- 1NMC UK. (2026). Standards for pre-registration nursing education. nmc.org.uk