Examiners talking about Speaking Tests

What makes a good Speaking test candidate? In this video three examiners give their advice and tips for the Cambridge English: First and Cambridge English: Advanced Speaking tests. We think you'll find it useful, no matter which exam you teach.

[TeoJardon]

1. Listen carefully
2. Keep the conversation going
3. Interact with partner and examiner
4. Move the conversation forward
5. Use eye contact
6. Body language to encourage partner
7. Resourceful in their use of language
8. Find a way of expressing themselves
9. Balance fluency and accuracy
10. Ask questions if they don’t understand
11. Help their partner
12. Put preparation into good use
13. Can overcome nerves
14. Can maintain the flow for a full minute
15. Know how long their answers should be
16. Know they have to extend some answers
17. Are not put off when examiner interrupts
18. PREPARATION IS KEY


You are welcome ;)

[annahernandez]

I've done quite a few of these exams myself and the advice that my teachers always gave me was to be as natural and spontaneous as possible! I was once in the middle of the speaking test and my partner was asked something on the lines of "What would you bring with you to a desert island to survive?" and the guy said "Well it wouldn't matter because I'd die anyway" so we all cracked up and it was nice to continue the exam after that :')

[Belloccioklint]

If only all examiners were like the ones in the video!!!

[RaindeadHiro]

Long story short: Don't undermine your partner but help each other. Lead a natural conversation. Don't overstep your boundaries. Making a mistake is not the end, not admitting to it is.

[gust]

These examiners inspire me to become a better english speaker.

[robertogrigolatto]

OMG! I took the test an hour ago (I'm Argentinian ), and it couldn't have gone better! I'm proud of myself!

[nzifraaaaa]

These speaking skillls are absolutely useful . Try to avoid stress there and be relax . Good luck to everyone ! MIND YOUR LANGUAGE

[richmck]

Angela, you hit the nail on the head. Listen carefully to the examiner's instructions. Pay attention to what your partner says and above all, be as natural as possible.

[egorbendus]

Feels like these women created the world. They're sooo perfectly educated... I'm absolutely amazed

[itsmethira]

- don't say too much or too less
- don't me me me
- correct your mistake
- answer the question
- think of good ways to extend the sentence
- say umm, well, so... To delay the answer
- relax
- don't be nervous
- be happy
- communicate normally

[joanmunoz]

I really agree with what they stated about keeping a good preparation and overcome the nerves. If you train yourself well for this part of the test, there's no reason why you should be nervous, and you'll have the chance of performing better that day.

[Rexodiak]

The way this was shot reminds me of a scene from the Office, also, wish me luck! Taking the speaking CPE in an hour!

[SOUNDsculptures]

The speaking is nice, but without doubt what makes it so audibly delicious is the recording itself. There is a way to make voices pop like this, in fact you could pretty much make any voice sound like this through post edit. Lovely.

[aidosargioi]

I'm an oral examiner and I definitely agree with them.

[haroldothecat]

I tend to think about these tests as if I were in a conversation with people I don't know well but I still have to show my ideas. For example, a business meeting. I have to listen to another people and try to make things easy for both sides. It's not a very comfortable situation, you are stressed and so the other person. I also try to avoid explaining to much, as I have seen in the videos here. Let me be more specific: it's common that the person, trying to extend the answer, doesn't stop using "because": "I like flowers because they are beautiful and they bring happiness for our houses because a house without colors is so boring because it seems like a hospital because hospitals are cold and weird because there are a lot of people sick there." That's so annoying! And it's even something we do when we are speaking our mother language in discomfortable situations, it's just natural.

[Erizou]

When I did the exam, we were a group of three, which was a little awkward, because it's easier for the person speaking last to run out of things to say, after the other two have already spoken. But our interlocutor seemed quite mindful about that and switched it up, but it still felt like we were being a bit clumsy. After some point the three of us really bonded and were just talking between each other and to the interlocutor and so I feel like it went well all in all

[Noelito]

Excellent video this, great advice, which I am happy to pass on to my students. I would add one other piece of advice though (which interestingly enough is demonstrated by the three examiners here) and that is, don't monopolise the conversation. In Part 3 for example, short bursts of language (10-15 seconds) is what makes a good dialogue. Focus more on "passing the ball" over to your partner, and less so on getting out the wonderful third conditionals and anecdotes that you have prepared. Focus on the back and forth of the interaction, less is more!

[LANBeauty.]

It's really hard but they're so good

[englishtoo]

There are some great suggestions in these comments and we'd like to offer some of our own thoughts.

Know what you are doing
Sometimes in exams candidates have no clear idea of what's going on in each part so make sure you are familiar with what you have to do in each of the parts. There are lots of videos and other resources which explain the different exams.

Don't panic
The examiners are there to help candidates and to make sure that they get the best possible score. It's perfectly natural to be a little bit nervous at the beginning but normally people relax by the time they get to Part 3.

Listen and respond
It's a speaking test for 2-3 people so it is important to respect the other candidate or candidates and to give your own opinion at the same time.

Be accurate
It's not always a case of how many different types of grammar forms you can use but of how well you can use what you say. For Cambridge First this means using basic grammar well, with few errors. For Cambridge Advanced candidates should not have any errors except perhaps in some more complex grammar structures.

Learn vocabulary
The level of vocabulary that candidates have is often what decides if they get a high score. The best approach to this is to have a good range of vocabulary for topics. While phrasal verbs and idioms can be terrific, if you can use them properly, an ability to use a lot of different words and expressions in a topic is much more useful.

Join your ideas together
Try to learn a range of linking expressions and devices and consider how you can join your opinions together in different ways. You should practice this as much as you can before you do your speaking test. One simple way to do this is ask yourself why your opinion might be true.
So if you say “Cars should be banned in cities”, explain why - “because it will reduce the pollution and it is much safer for pedestrians”.

Work on your pronunciation
In both of these exams your pronunciation needs to be clear. Take some time while you prepare for the exam to look at some online pronunciation videos or websites.

Be natural
In a speaking exam the examiners are looking at what a candidate can do. This usually means the types of things they can do naturally. Unfortunately, on the day of an exam, sometimes people forget some of the very good expressions they have just learnt. Trust what you can do and try to do it well!

[miguelQR]

They are giving me all the tips to beat this test. Gotcha