CAE Speaking Test Format: All Four Parts in One Place

The C1 Advanced Speaking test is four parts in fifteen minutes, taken with another candidate, in front of two examiners.

Most guides describe those four parts. Fewer put the durations side by side, which is where the useful decision lives: the part that gets the most preparation is not the part that takes the most time.

This is the whole format in one place, with the timings laid out so you can see where your practice should actually go. SpeakShark is free for that practice, three AI conversation sessions a day and no card, each capped at five minutes and four turns.

In this guide: the format at a glance · the clock · Part 1 · Part 2 · Part 3 · Part 4 · what stays the same · where to spend practice time · what we could not verify · how we researched this · FAQ

Key takeaways

• 15 minutes per pair, 23 minutes per group of three.
• Four parts, three of which involve the other candidate.
• Two examiners: one conducts, one listens and takes notes. One may be remote.
• Part 4 is the longest at five minutes, and the least prepared for.
• Digital and paper versions have the same format.

The format at a glance

Cambridge's own summary of the part: "You have to talk: with the examiner, with the other candidate, on your own." All three modes appear, and only the first one is what most people mean when they say they have practised speaking.

The clock and what it tells you

Add the published durations and the four parts come to roughly 13 of the 15 minutes. The remainder goes on the examiner's instructions and the moves between tasks.

Now look at where those thirteen minutes sit:

• Part 4 alone: 5 minutes
• Part 3: 3 minutes
• Part 2: about 3 minutes across both candidates
• Part 1: 2 minutes

Part 4 is bigger than Part 1 and Part 3 together. Part 1, which attracts the longest rehearsed answers, is the smallest slice of the test and is shared with another person.

That imbalance is the single most useful thing this page can tell you, and it only becomes visible when the four numbers are in one table. Preparation naturally flows toward the parts with visible artefacts, a picture card or a prompt sheet, and away from the one that is just a conversation.

Part 1, Interview

Conversation between the candidates and the interlocutor. The examiner asks questions and you may have to give information about your interests, studies, careers, etc.

Two minutes, shared. Cambridge lists two things to practise: "giving information about yourself and expressing your opinion about various topics". The second clause is the one that catches people, because a biographical script has nowhere to go when the question turns from what you do to what you think.

Full breakdown: CAE Speaking Part 1 and why a rehearsed answer is too long.

Part 2, Long turn

The interlocutor gives you three pictures and asks you to talk about two of them. You have to speak for 1 minute without interruption and the interlocutor then asks the other candidate to comment on what you have said for about 30 seconds. The other candidate receives a different set of photographs and you have to listen and comment when they have finished speaking.

Two separate pieces of speech, not one. Your own minute, and then a comment on photographs you have never seen. The questions you have to answer about your own pictures are written at the top of the page, so the prompt stays visible while you speak.

Cambridge's skills list: comparing, describing, expressing opinions, speculating. Description runs out fastest and speculation runs out last.

Full breakdown: CAE Speaking Part 2, the half nobody prepares.

Part 3, Collaborative task

Conversation with the other candidate. The examiner gives you spoken instructions with written prompts which are used in a discussion. You have to talk with the other candidate for about 2 minutes (3 minutes for groups of three) about the written prompts. After the discussion time, the examiner will ask you another question which requires you to make a decision. You have 1 minute to talk together and make the decision (2 minutes for groups of three).

Two stages with different goals: an open discussion, then a decision under a one minute clock. Cambridge's skills list here is almost entirely interactive, including "agreeing and / or disagreeing" and "reaching a decision through negotiation".

This is also the only part where Cambridge publishes separate group-of-three timings.

Full breakdown: CAE Speaking Part 3, the task you cannot do alone.

Part 4, Discussion

Further discussion with the other candidate based on the topics or issues raised in the task in Part 3. The interlocutor asks each of you some questions and you discuss them with the other candidate.

Five minutes. The longest part, with no card, no picture and no written prompt. Cambridge's skills list is short: "expressing and justifying opinions, agreeing and / or disagreeing."

It cannot be revised from a question bank, because its questions are generated from your own Part 3. What it can be trained for is the move it always makes: outward, from the specific task to the general issue behind it.

Full breakdown: CAE Speaking Part 4, the longest part of the test.

What stays the same across all four

Two examiners. Cambridge says one of them "talks to you" and the other "listens to what you say and takes notes". One of the examiners could be online, examining remotely.

Another candidate. Cambridge describes the test as conducted usually face to face with one or two other candidates. You do not sit it alone.

The same format on digital and paper. Cambridge states that "the formats below are the same for both the digital and paper-based exams", so choosing one version does not change what the Speaking test asks of you.

The level. C1 is defined by the Council of Europe as a user who "can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions" and can "use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes". Every part above is a different way of putting that one descriptor under observation. CEFR levels explained for speaking covers what separates it from the level below.

Where to spend your practice time

Ranked by minutes at stake against preparation typically given:

1. Part 4. Five minutes, least prepared. Practise widening from a specific topic to the issue behind it, with reasons attached.
2. Part 3. Three minutes, and it feeds Part 4 directly. Practise reacting, disagreeing politely and closing under a clock.
3. Part 2. Three minutes across both candidates, and half of it is the unrehearsable comment on the other candidate's pictures.
4. Part 1. Two minutes, shared. Practise short answers and the switch from fact to opinion, not a monologue.

Notice that three of those four are about responding to something you did not choose. That is the through-line of the whole test, and it is the one thing a worksheet cannot give you.

The practical routes: role play scenarios for speaking practice, finding an online speaking partner, and a free daily session to keep the volume up between them. For structure, twelve daily speaking drills from B1 to C1 and a 30 day plan to improve speaking both fit around a job, as do speaking exercises for adult learners.

If clarity is your weak point rather than content, how to improve English pronunciation and six pronunciation fixes in fourteen days are more useful than more format study. If the block is confidence, online methods to build confidence in English and why your English speaking is not improving address the real obstacle. Coming up from the level below, what Cambridge B2 First speaking involves shows how much the discussion demand grows.

What we could not verify

We have not reproduced the assessment criteria. Cambridge publishes its own scales and we are not paraphrasing band descriptors.

We could not find published per-part timings for a group of three beyond Part 3, where Cambridge gives three minutes and two minutes explicitly, and the 23 minute total.

We have not published sample papers, picture sets or prompt cards. Cambridge publishes its own, and those are the versions to work from.

We are not stating pass rates or average scores by part. We found no attributable figure.

How we researched this guide

Every quoted description, every timing, the number of examiners and their roles, the 15 and 23 minute totals, the note about a remote examiner and the statement that digital and paper formats match come from Cambridge English's C1 Advanced exam format page, read directly in a browser.

The one thing here that is ours rather than Cambridge's is the arithmetic. Adding the four published durations and comparing them against the fifteen minute total is not a claim we found in any preparation material, and it is what produces the recommendation at the end. We have kept the underlying numbers quoted so you can check the addition yourself rather than take it on trust.

The C1 descriptor comes from the Council of Europe's global scale rather than a summary of it, because the exact wording is what all four parts are testing against.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, and it is our pick for this test because of what three of the four parts have in common. They put you in front of something you did not script and ask you to respond. That is a conversation, and a conversation is the one thing a format guide cannot give you. You talk, the AI answers what you actually said, and you get speaking feedback while the conversation is still going. The free tier gives basic feedback; the detailed pronunciation and grammar breakdown is on Premium.

Being straight about the limits: a free session runs five minutes with four turns, which suits daily practice of the component skills rather than simulating a full 15 minute paired exam.

Start free with three sessions a day and no card. Paid sessions run ten minutes with unlimited turns. Limits are on the pricing page, and how it works walks through a full session.

We are a speaking improvement tool. We are not an exam preparation provider, and we are not affiliated with Cambridge English, the IELTS partners, Pearson or any exam board. For test format, booking and official practice material, go to the exam body directly. Use SpeakShark to make your spoken English stronger, and use official material to learn the test.

• Site: speakshark.com
• Support: speaksharksupport@gmail.com
• Free tier: 3 AI conversation sessions per day, no card

Sources

• Cambridge English, C1 Advanced exam format: all four part descriptions and skills lists, every timing, the 15 and 23 minute totals, the two examiner setup, the remote examiner note and the statement that digital and paper formats match
• Council of Europe, CEFR Table 1, common reference levels global scale: the C1 descriptor, including "fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions"

FAQ