Vocabulary to Know

Advanced OET Vocabulary and Abbreviations

Nov 03 2023

If you are looking to improve your understanding of texts in OET and your score in the exam, and if you are looking at a scoring an A, these are some of the sentence structures and words you need to be familiar with.

"The patient went from the ER to the OR and then to the ICU."

It is an irrefutable fact that doctors' speech is full of abbreviations. Health-care professionals from English-speaking worlds use more abbreviations than professionals from other places. This high prevalence suggests that medical abbreviations can become challenging for anyone new. This means that if you are planning to take the OET test, understanding the abbreviations might mean the difference between qualifying and retaking the test.

Some Easy Abbreviations

Let us begin with straightforward abbreviations. These are the ones that you probably know and are already familiar with. Some of these are also probably routinely used even where you work.

HRT - Hormone Replacement therapy
LVOT - Left ventricle outflow tract
ASD - Atrial septal defect
VSD - Ventricular septal defect
TEE - Transoesophageal echocardiography
LDA - Left anterior descending artery
ACE - Angiotensin converting enzyme

Double Meaning Abbreviations

There another kind of abbreviations which we call the double-meaning abbreviations. This is when one abbreviation can refer to two different terms. The context helps to understand the real meaning, but it is worth keeping an eye open for these because, if misinterpreted, these abbreviations might get you into an embarrassing situation or completely misunderstand the question or the situation or the context.

Here are 4 commonly used double meaning abbreviations

PCR
— Polymerase chain reaction
— Plasma clearance tests
HEV
— Human enteric virus
— Hepatitis E virus
PID
— Pelvic inflammatory disease
— Prolapsed intervertebral disc
CSF
— Colony-stimulating factor
— Cerebrospinal fluid

Common Sentences Structures Containing Abbreviations

The following sections present sets of common sentences containing abbreviations. This is followed by a quiz that will test you on those abbreviations. Get ready for some abbreviation fun!

Do you know these 40 common OET abbreviations?

Take a look at the sentences below, and you will then have a chance to take a quiz on these abbreviations, and you will also get a chance to attend the best OET session absolutely free!.

— A 40-year-old man visited our hospital, and was diagnosed as having Felty's syndrome because of splenomegaly and pancytopenia as well as definite RA.

— MCV, MCHC, LDH, ANA and RF values are normal.

— The platelet and WBC counts exceeded their normal ranges. He was diagnosed as suffering from ... (ITP, CMML, AML, CML). Two months after, he received a BMT.

— Foreign bodies display a variable signal intensity on both Tl and T2 weighted images. MR shows an inflammatory response while CT can show the retained foreign body. US evaluation could be useful in selected patients.

— COPD is a risk factor in the development of TB.

— Cholera can be diagnosed by the presence of CTX in stools.

— A 16-year-old female suffering from fever, chills, rash and presenting multiple nodular opacities in CXR was diagnosed as having (RMSF, BPF, DGI).

— An ECG was obtained, and showed ... (RBBB, LBBB, APCs, VPCs, AF, VF).

— He is actually under treatment with ACEI. Ten years ago he was treated with P TCA because of the three AMI he had suffered.

— RA and SSC are more common in females.

— PCP and PML are two of the complications that can be suffered by AIDS patients.

— Cutaneous manifestations of SLE can be divided into SCLE (acute) and DEL (chronic).

Before you go to the quiz...

The OET Abbreviations Quiz

The quiz is long, and might take quite a bit of scrolling, especially if you are reading this on a mobile screen.

If you want to have access to the quiz for future reference and want to look at the answers and the right spellings, you could take the quiz directly, where you will have access to answers, questions, and your performance metrics along with access to other great quizzes, see the box below.

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