OET Grammar Review: Use an Answer Key Without Copying the Model

You check a grammar exercise, see a different sentence in the answer guide and mark your response wrong. But was it actually wrong? Sometimes your wording is a valid alternative. At other times, a sentence sounds elegant but changes an important fact.

The Jobins Training Grammar answers and explanations distinguishes these situations. Its explanations accompany 120 focused questions, six paragraph edits and six speaking tasks. The useful habit is to compare your reasoning with the explanation, then show that you can make the same decision with new information.

Start with your own attempt

Write or record your answer before opening the key. If you are unsure, add a short note explaining your choice. Perhaps you selected a tense because the event happened on a finished date, or kept “may” because the source expresses uncertainty. That note makes the review more informative than a tick or cross.

Read the instruction carefully. “Rewrite in the passive and keep the actor” sets a particular task. An accurate active sentence would not satisfy that instruction, even though its grammar is correct. A free paragraph task allows more flexibility, provided your version preserves the supplied facts.

Check meaning before matching words

Compare the people, times, quantities, conditions and level of certainty in the original information. Ask what your reader would believe after reading your sentence. If the source says a visit was requested, your answer must not tell the reader that it is booked.

This is why model matching alone is unreliable. Two differently worded answers can preserve the same facts. Two similar-looking answers can disagree about whether an action is complete.

Then explain the form

Once the meaning is secure, inspect the construction. In “The forms have been checked”, the plural subject agrees with “have”, and “been checked” forms the passive after the auxiliary. In “The forms are being checked”, the checking is ongoing. Replacing “being” with “been” without reviewing the whole verb phrase can change both the grammar and the status.

Write a short reason in everyday language. “Finished date: use past simple here” is more useful than “tense error”. “The source describes a possibility, so keep a possibility word” tells you what to look for in your next paragraph.

Make the next example genuinely new

After reviewing a past-simple question, change the situation as well as the name. Instead of copying “Did she attend yesterday?”, ask about receiving a document last week. Say the question aloud, then answer it in a complete sentence. Can you use the base verb after “did” without looking back?

For a meaning error, vary the status. Practise describing a requested appointment, a confirmed appointment and a completed appointment. These are different facts, so they need different wording. The aim is to choose accurately, rather than memorise one sentence as universally correct.

Use feedback to decide what comes next

If your explanation is clear and your fresh example is accurate, move to a short paragraph or spoken exchange. If the same difficulty returns, revisit the corresponding lesson before doing another large set of questions. A small, carefully reviewed exercise can fit a break between shifts.

Explore OET Grammar — Course 1 for the course connected to this answer-and-review material. For individual feedback, request a one-to-one OET session at dates and times that suit your duty schedule. Jobins Training confirms availability with your tutor before booking.

Source: OET Grammar Answers and Review.pdf, Jobins Training. Examples labelled original or illustrative were written for this article. Independent exam preparation; no affiliation with or endorsement by the examining body. Practice does not predict an official score.