Speaking Exam Review

The Speaking exam is one of the four exams that you will do when you take the Cambridge First Certificate in English (FCE) exam. Below you’ll learn some essential information about the Speaking exam and the different parts of it.

How many parts in the exam

There are different 4 parts in the speaking exam. When you do the speaking exam, you’ll do them all together, one after the other.

How long the Speaking exam takes

It takes up to 15 minutes to do the speaking exam.

When you do the exam

Normally you will do the Speaking part of the exam on a different day to when you do the rest of the FCE exam (you will do the Reading/Use of English, Writing and the Listening parts of the exam together on a different day). Normally, you will do the Speaking exam one or two days before you do the other parts of the exam, but you can also do it one or two days after doing the others.

The format of the exam

You will do the exam with another candidate (with either somebody you know or a stranger). Occasionally, you may have to do the exam with another two candidates (this only happens if there is an odd number (e.g. 13, 15, 17 etc…) of people doing the speaking exam on the day you do it).

When you arrive to do the exam, you can tell the Cambridge supervisors who you would like to do the exam with. If you don’t know any of the other people doing the exam, the Cambridge supervisors will select the person you will do the exam with for you.

The parts

As I said above, there are 4 parts in the exam. Depending on the part, you’ll have to speak alone (individually), you’ll have to speak with the other candidate or both.

Part 1

In the first part of the exam (which takes 2 minutes) both you and the other candidate will be asked both your name and to answer a few simple questions about yourself (where you are from?, what do you do? etc…). You answer these individually.

Part 2

In the second part, you are each given a task to do individually in a minute. You are given a sheet with two photos on it. You have to describe/compare them and then answer a question about them (which is written on the top of the sheet). After you do this, the candidate who isn’t doing the task is asked a question by the examiner about the photos and expected to talk for about 30 seconds on it.

Part 3

In the third part, you have to speak together. In this part you and your partner are given a sheet with a question (e.g. ‘What things are important for having a happy life?’) in the middle and five different things that can be used to answer the question (e.g. ‘friends’, ‘a good job’, ‘children’, ‘a big family’, ‘money’). You have to talk together for 2 minutes and answer the question talking about some (but not all) of these five things. Normally, you should talk about three of them.

After the 2 minutes has finished, you are then asked a question where you have to together select one or two of the things you have just looked at on the sheet. They could ask you which two are the best or which two are the worst, or which one is the least or the most important. This part lasts only 1 minute.

Part 4

After this, you will then do the last part of the exam. This part lasts 4 minutes and you will speak both individually and together at times (depending on the speaking examiner). You will be asked questions connected to the topic of what you have talked about in part 3.

Although you will mainly be asked questions individually, it is no problem (and I recommend you do this) after your partner in the exam has finished speaking to comment on their answer or the question, or to ask your partner why they think what they have said . But, if they are directly asked a question, don’t interrupt them while they are answering it.

After this, the Speaking exam is over.

You can ask the the examiner questions

If you are confused about or didn’t hear a question, you can ask the interlocutor (the examiner who you speak to and asks the questions) to repeat a question they asked. But don’t do this too many times, because it may be seen as an inability to understand instructions and you will lose points.

How your score is evaluated

When you are speaking in the exam there are two people evaluating you. There is an interlocutor (the person who you speak to and asks the questions) and an assessor (who will be sat behind the interlocutor). They will both evaluate how you do the exam (your fluency, range of vocabulary, doing the tasks etc…) and each will give you a mark at the end of the exam. Which is then combined and this is your mark for the Speaking exam.

You don’t receive a mark for each part of the Speaking exam, only one mark for the whole exam.

What am I marked on?

In the speaking exam, the examiner is looking for many things.

• A variety of grammar structures, correct grammar
• Fluency, not a lot of hesitation
• Pronunciation (but it’s ok to have an accent)
• Being able to speak for a long time
• Using linking words to connect ideas
• Ability to have a conversation with your partner or the examiner
• A range of vocabulary words
• Answering the questions in a logical way

The percentage of the final mark it gives

This Speaking exam contributes 20% to your final score for the FCE exam.

What score you need to pass

For you to pass the FCE Speaking exam, your combined score from the examiners needs to be 60% or over of the possible points they could give you.

Remember, you can still fail this part of the exam (get less than 60% (equivalent to 160 points on Cambridge’s ‘Cambridge English Scale Score’ marking system which you’ll see on your results)) and still pass the FCE exam (as long as you do well on the other parts of the exam and your average score for all of the exams is 160 points or over).

10 Tips for the B2 First Speaking Exam

1 – The most important thing is to get comfortable with the exam. Know what each part is and what you have to do.

2 – Listen carefully to the instructions. Every examiner is different, so it’s important to listen. You can always ask them to repeat by asking: “Could you please repeat the question?”

3 – Use a wide range of grammar and vocabulary. This means that you shouldn’t always use past simple or basic vocabulary. You will get points for trying to use a conditional or a phrasal verb, even if it isn’t perfect.

4 – Record yourself using your phone so you can see what grammar and vocabulary you are using and catch any common mistakes. This is also good for tracking progress.

5 – Don’t repeat yourself. Use another structure or a synonym instead of the same word. This shows that you have a better range of vocabulary and grammar.

6 – Speak clearly. You don’t get more points for speaking really quickly. Take your time and speak with confidence!

7 – If you need time to think, use expressions like: “Hmm, let me think about that” or “I haven’t thought about that before.” Just don’t use them TOO MUCH.

8 – If you cannot think of a specific word, describe it. For example, if you don’t remember the word “broom,” you could say “the thing you use to clean/sweep the floor.”

9 – When speaking with a partner, try to speak naturally and for the same amount of time. Encourage your partner to speak by asking them for their opinion or asking them a question.

10 – If you don’t know much about a topic, just invent! You can always create information as long as it is logical.