General Exam Speaking Tips

Preparing to Speak

General Tips

Both the B2 First and C1 Advanced exam speaking papers consist of 4 sections and will take around 15 minutes to complete. During this time, you will be speaking with both an examiner and another student.

A lot of people dread this part of the exam because it can be very intimidating to talk. They also make things more complicated than they need to be by pretending it's a formal conversation.

In reality, the speaking portion is not a formal conversation. Instead, you should relax and think of the examiner and your fellow student as friends, or like friendly strangers who you just met on the street.

Here's what you should keep in mind:

Talk to a Friend

Think of this part of the exam as a normal conversation between friends.

Don’t try to be formal. Think of the examiner and your partner as friends.

Use informal language. Use contractions. Speak naturally.

Pretend to be interested in the questions and be friendly and confident.

You can ask for clarification

If you don’t understand a word you can ask the examiner to explain what it means. Simply say ‘I’m sorry, could you explain what _______ means?’

You can also ask the examiner to repeat the question.

However, you can’t ask the examiner to explain the whole sentence.

Show off your English

Always give full answers. You can’t simply say “Yes” or “No”. 

Expand on your answers to demonstrate your English skills. 

Do this instead:

You can make up answers

This is an English test, not a test of your knowledge. No one will check your answers.

Be Heard

Don’t speak too quietly. You can’t get a high score if the examiners and your partners can’t hear you.

Don't be a Perfectionist

Even C1 level speakers make mistakes. B2 level speakers make quite a few. It’s fine.

Fluency and pronunciation are an important part of your final score. There's no point in trying to use perfect grammar and vocabulary if you are losing a lot of marks in the process.

Correct Yourself

If you know you’ve made a mistake, you can correct yourself when it seems natural to do so, like you would in any normal conversation. 

This is good, in fact, because it shows that you understand English and can recognize your mistakes. 

However, don't completely stop if you make an error. Either forget it, or make a quick correction, and just keep speaking.

Always Answer the Question

Unfortunately, you can never ask for a different question. You must always respond, even if you personally don't have much experience with the topic. 

While a lot of people dread the Speaking Exam for this reason, there are actually strategies for dealing with such scenarios. 

Check out my section on how to deal with Unfamiliar Topics and prepare yourself.