Why did I get C+ in OET Writing? The five usual reasons and how to fix them

The most common C+ pattern: the letter reproduces most of the case notes in prose, in the same order, at two or three times the needed length. Every fact is there, so Content holds up, but Conciseness and Clarity drops hard, and Organisation often follows because the case-note order is not the reader's order.

The fix: before writing, mark each line of the case notes as needed or not needed for this reader, then plan three body paragraphs and place only the needed facts into them. Practise summarising a full case-note set in under 200 words without losing anything the reader must know.

Assessors read as the recipient. If the community nurse cannot tell what dressing schedule you are asking for, or the consultant cannot see what question you are referring, the letter fails at its job even when the English is clean. This shows up as low Purpose and Content scores together.

The fix: after drafting, read only your first and last paragraphs and ask whether they answer two questions: why is this letter arriving, and what exactly must I do? If either answer is vague, rewrite those two paragraphs first.

Letters that chat, judge, or use clinical shorthand with a lay reader lose Genre and Style marks throughout, because register is assessed across the whole letter rather than in one place. A single informal sentence costs little; a consistently casual voice costs a band or more.

The fix: before writing, note who the reader is and choose the level of terminology they can carry. Keep the tone formal and neutral even when the case notes record frustrating patient behaviour.

The mirror image of over-copying: the letter reads beautifully but omits an allergy, a medication change, or the one abnormal result the reader needed, or it reports a fact differently from the notes. Content drops sharply because accuracy and completeness for the reader are its whole job.

The fix: build a personal checklist of high-stakes categories, typically diagnosis, current treatment, allergies, what changed, and what you are asking for, and check your draft against the case notes category by category before the time runs out.

An unfinished or unproofread letter concentrates errors in the second half, where assessors also look for your requests and closing conventions. The damage spreads across several criteria at once.

The fix: rehearse a fixed time budget across reading, planning, writing, and checking within the 45 minutes, and hold the final 5 minutes for proofreading, whatever state the letter is in. A complete, checked, slightly plainer letter outscores an ambitious unfinished one.

You cannot fix what you cannot see. Get a recent practice letter marked against the six criteria and look for the pattern: one or two criteria sitting clearly below the others is normal for C+ scripts, and that gap is your study plan.

Then practise deliberately: choose tasks that stress your weak criterion, and after each letter, check whether that criterion moved. Ten focused letters typically teach more than thirty unfocused ones.