Describing Symptoms: Onset, Duration & Severity for OET & IELTS

Mr. Davies is back at the GP clinic — this time to describe how he's really feeling, in detail.
Nadia and Tom cover the vocabulary of a symptom-focused consultation: symptoms, onset, duration, severity, pain scale, associated symptoms, aggravating factors, relieving factors, diagnosis, and follow-up consultation. Each term is defined with a natural example, then demonstrated in a full doctor-patient exchange, followed by a slower repeat and a short comprehension quiz.
Describing symptoms accurately and being understood in return is one of the most heavily tested skills in OET Speaking, and a core vocabulary cluster for IELTS healthcare contexts.
📄 Free transcript PDF (vocabulary table, full script, language notes): medicalvoices.health/en/episodes/3
Watch on YouTube (youtu.be/g3tm_ETbncY).
Episode 3 of Medical Voices.
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Study the words: our GP Clinic Vocabulary Masterpack has 75 clinic terms from Episodes 1–10 (each term comes with its pronunciation, a plain definition, clinical context, a register note and a real line from the episode), with printable flashcards and an Anki deck. It's our own product → medicalvoices.health/mp/pod
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