How Priya Sharma Scored 85/90 in NAATI CCL
Priya Sharma migrated to Sydney on a student visa, working as an allied health assistant while preparing her Skilled Nominated (subclass 190) application. She needed the NAATI CCL 5-point boost to reach 70 points. Here’s how she moved from a shaky first mock exam to a confident 85/90 result in nine weeks.
Profile at a Glance
- Background: Hindi native speaker, Bachelor of Physiotherapy, working 38 hours per week.
- Visa goal: NSW 190 nomination for the occupation “Physiotherapist”.
- Starting point: Initial PassNAATI diagnostic score 55/90 (accuracy challenges around healthcare terminology).
The 9-Week Study Sprint
Priya planned around a demanding roster by carving out focused sessions before work. She alternated between listening drills, live coach feedback, and self-review using AI transcripts.
Study schedule snapshot
- Monday & Wednesday (6–7am): Vocabulary drills and shadowing short healthcare segments.
- Friday evening (1 hour): Full dialogue with AI scoring, tagging segments for coach review.
- Weekend: 90-minute mock exam every second Saturday, plus 30-minute coach debrief on Sunday.
By Week 5 she introduced bilingual flashcards for medical diagnoses, cutting her omission rate in half. Week 7 added community-law scenarios to ensure both dialogues sat above 30 marks.
Mock Exam Progress
| Week | Dialogue 1 | Dialogue 2 | Total | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | 26 | 29 | 55 | Baseline; major omissions in medical history segments. |
| Week 5 | 30 | 32 | 62 | Introduced structured note-taking and terminology flashcards. |
| Week 8 | 42 | 43 | 85 | Final mock exam mirrored actual test; only minor hesitation deductions. |
What Worked
- Segment tagging: After every mock exam, Priya tagged problem segments in the PassNAATI dashboard. Coaches could jump straight to those timestamps.
- Role-play rehearsals: She scheduled two live bilingual role plays with a fellow student to simulate examiner interruptions and clarifications.
- Mindset rituals: 3-minute breathing exercise plus a success statement before each practice built confidence—particularly useful for Dialogue 2 where her nerves usually peaked.
Visa Outcome
Four weeks after receiving her NAATI Result Advice, Priya updated her SkillSelect EOI and NSW nomination application. The additional five points lifted her total to 75. She received an invitation to apply for subclass 190 within seven weeks and lodged her visa the same month.
Priya’s takeaway: “Practise like every segment is worth five marks. Once I understood the pass marks and focused on consistency, the 5 PR points almost felt like a bonus.”