Links to the other sections of the exam are at the bottom of the page.
The speaking test is a test of communication. You don’t have to speak quickly, you don’t have to hurry your answers, and you don’t have to worry about your accent. To get a good mark on the speaking test you need to produce relevant, informative answers to the examiner’s questions. It is very important that you listen carefully to the examiner and read any material you are given carefully as well.
Test format and marking: two candidates take the speaking test together, in most cases the candidates do not know each other. There are also two Cambridge representatives in the exam, the interlocutor and the assessor. The interlocutor will ask questions and interact with the candidates while the assessor will not interact or say anything, he or she will be giving marks in the following categories:
- Grammatical Resource: measures the range and accuracy of simple and complex grammatical structures
- Lexical Resource: measures the range and appropriacy of vocabulary
- Discourse Management: measures the ability to logically connect phrases to form coherent and relevant answers to the tasks
- Pronunciation: measures the ability to form intelligible speech, includes stress and intonation as well as individual sounds
- Interactive Communication: measures the ability to take an active role in the development of discussions by taking time to speak and also inviting others to speak
One final mark will be given by the interlocutor:
- Global Achievement: measures the overall effectiveness in responding to the tasks in the different sections of the speaking test
Download the practice test and look at the script for the speaking test. You can clearly see the important instructions because they are written in bold in the script. Pay careful attention and follow the instructions and you will get a better mark!
Parts of the speaking test:
Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) Speaking Part 1
(2 minutes) Candidates will each be asked questions about themselves. Topics will be home, work, school, hobbies, habits, interests and future plans.
- Be relaxed and natural. Smile. Be the kind of person who is nice to have a conversation with!
- Give honest answers even if you think they are “not good”. Your opinions and lifestyle are not part of the marking criteria.
- Don’t give one-word answers! The examiner will not ask you follow-up questions.
- Give complete answers. “Because” should be your favourite word in this part of the test.
- Listen to your partner, you may be asked the same question and you don’t want to repeat their answer.
Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) Speaking Part 2
(4 minutes) Candidates will be shown three pictures and they will have to speak for one minute about two of the images. They are asked to compare the pictures and answer two questions about each one within the time limit. Candidates will also have to answer a short question about their partner’s pictures.
- Time management is very important for this task. One minute is not a long time!
- Look at the script for the practice speaking test, the time begins after the interlocutor says “All right?” and they will indicate the time is finished by saying “Thank you.”
- You want to begin your answer as quickly as possible, but often the pictures are not really easy to talk about and you don’t know what to say. A good, easy, and reliable way to begin is to repeat part of the interlocutor’s words. He or she will say (check the speaking test script and you’ll see this is written in bold), “Here are your pictures. They show XYZ. Blah blah blah, blah blah blah. All right?” Now you can say, “All right. These pictures show XYZ and I’d like to talk about this one and this one.” You can point to the pictures, it’s not necessary to describe them.
- Just above, I wrote that the interlocutor will say “Blah blah blah, blah blah blah. All right?” If you look at the speaking test script from the practice test download page, you’ll notice that all of the blah blah information is written on the page with the pictures, but the XYZ summary is not. So you can concentrate on the summary statement because the other questions are written down for you.
- Please do NOT simply describe the pictures! No part of the instructions asks you to say what you see in the picture. This is the biggest and most common mistake that candidates make on this part of the speaking paper.
- The key part of the instructions is the word “compare”. You want to be speaking about both of the pictures when you are answering the questions at the top of the page.
- Here are some good answers: “In the picture where the people are ___, they seem ___. But in the other picture, where they are ___, I don’t think they are as ___ as in the first picture. They’re probably ___ because they are ___ but in the first picture they don’t have to worry about ___. But in general, I think they people in both of the pictures are ____.” Each sentence makes a very clear comparison between the images.
- These answers don’t make comparisons: “In the first picture, the people are doing ___. They probably feel ___. In the second picture, the people are doing ____. They probably feel ___ because of ___.” While the information about the pictures can be different, there are no explicit comparisons made and so the score in this section will not be as high as it could be.
- Here are some other simple comparative words or phrases you can use: and, but, while, whereas, although, on the other hand, compared to, just like, contrary to, on the other hand.
- Pay attention as your partner completes their task and listen carefully to the question you are asked about their pictures so you are able to give an original, informative and relevant answer.
Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) Speaking Part 3
(4 minutes) Candidates have a task to complete together without any input from the interlocutor. A written topic with a number of ideas will be provided (see the practice test for examples) and candidates will have to discuss them, give their opinion, and make a decision.
- Turn your chair to face your partner. This will provide a physical reminder of what is important in this task, which is to interact with your partner.
- Start the task with a question about one of the ideas to your partner, you should be trying to involve your partner and respond to what he or she is saying during this task.
- Discuss all of the ideas until the interlocutor asks you to make a decision. You will have about two minutes to discuss the ideas and then about one minute to decide which is the best/most important/etc. You are not required to actually agree about the decision, but you should say why you have made your choice. In fact, if you reach agreement before the time limit, it makes it difficult to continue the discussion, you can always “change your mind” if your partner agrees with you too quickly.
- If your partner talks too much: you can still receive a good mark if you use appropriate phrases to interrupt them. “Can I make a point?” “I’d just like to say…” “Excuse me, but I have to disagree…”
- If your partner doesn’t talk at all: you can still receive a good mark if you encourage them to speak and give them time to answer.
- Remember, this is an interactive task and you must demonstrate your awareness of how to participate in a discussion
Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) Speaking Part 4
(5 minutes) The interlocutor will collect the paper with the ideas and join in the discussion on the general theme from part 3. The interlocutor will ask questions and the candidates should share their opinions about the questions and each others’ answers.
- This part of the test is like a normal conversation with the people sitting at the table with you. In part 1, each candidate had their own questions. Now, the questions are to both of you, and you will have to take turns answering.
- Don’t dominate the conversation, the other candidate deserves a turn to speak as well.
- Give your honest opinion and don’t hesitate to react to what the other candidate says.
The end of the test
The interlocutor will say, “Thank you. That is the end of the test.”
- Thank the interlocutor and the assessor and leave.
- Don’t ask your score.
- Don’t say, “Oh my god, I’m so glad that’s over!”
- Behave like you are at a job interview, go outside before you stop “taking the test”.
Now check my tips for the other Cambridge English: Advanced sections
