Cambridge Speaking Scores: Pronunciation Is Not Your Problem

Almost every learner preparing for a Cambridge Speaking test believes the same thing: my accent is holding me back.

Cambridge publishes the real scores of nine candidates alongside its examiners' commentary. We put all nine profiles in one table.

Pronunciation is the highest or joint-highest mark for every single one of them. It is never the lowest. Not once.

SpeakShark is free for the thing that actually is costing marks, three AI conversation sessions a day with no card, each capped at five minutes and four turns.

In this guide: the criteria · the five vs six split · all nine profiles · what the numbers say · what pronunciation means here · what really costs marks · what we could not verify · how we researched this · FAQ

Key takeaways

B2 First has five criteria. C1 Advanced has six.
Pronunciation is at or above every other criterion for all nine published candidates.
Grammar or vocabulary is the lowest or joint-lowest for seven of the nine.
Cambridge's pronunciation commentary is about intelligibility, not accent.
Even the lowest scorer in the set is described as intelligible.

What the criteria actually are

Cambridge names them in its published examiner commentaries, one section per criterion:

At B2 First: Grammar and Vocabulary · Discourse Management · Pronunciation · Interactive Communication · Global Achievement.

At C1 Advanced: Grammatical Resource · Lexical Resource · Discourse Management · Pronunciation · Interactive Communication · Global Achievement.

We are not reproducing the band descriptors here. Cambridge publishes its own scales and paraphrasing them is how people end up quoting a rule that does not exist. What follows is the published commentary and the published numbers.

Five criteria at B2, six at C1

The difference between the two levels is one split.

Criterion	B2 First	C1 Advanced
Grammar and Vocabulary	One combined criterion	Split in two
Grammatical Resource	Part of the above	Separate
Lexical Resource	Part of the above	Separate
Discourse Management	Yes	Yes
Pronunciation	Yes	Yes
Interactive Communication	Yes	Yes
Global Achievement	Yes	Yes
Total	5	6

That has a practical consequence people miss. At B2, weak vocabulary can be carried by strong grammar inside a single mark. At C1 the two are scored separately, so a gap in either one shows up on its own line and cannot hide.

For the format each criterion is applied to, see the C1 Advanced Speaking format and our Cambridge B2 First speaking overview.

Every published score in one table

Nine candidates, from four Cambridge documents. Pronunciation is in bold.

Candidate	Level	Gram	Lex	Disc	Pron	Inter	Global
Gio	C1	5	5	5	5	5	5
Pedro	C1	4.5	5	5	5	5	5
Isabela	C1	4	4.5	4.5	5	5	5
Antonio	C1	4.5	4.5	4	4.5	4.5	4.5
Marta	C1	4	3.5	4	4.5	4	4
Teresa	C1	3.5	4	4	4	4	4
Anna	C1	2	2	2	2.5	2.5	2
Enzo	B2	4	combined	4	4.5	4	4
Natalia	B2	3.5	combined	3.5	4	4	4

At B2 the Gram column is the single combined Grammar and Vocabulary mark, which is why the Lex column reads "combined" for those two candidates.

What the numbers actually say

Read down the Pronunciation column and compare it with each candidate's own row.

Pronunciation is never below any other criterion, for any of the nine. For Marta and Enzo it is their outright best mark. For Isabela, Anna and Natalia it is joint-best. For the rest it ties the top of an already flat profile.

Now read the Gram column:

Pedro, Isabela, Teresa: grammar is their single lowest mark.
Natalia, Enzo, Anna: grammar sits at the bottom of the profile, tied.
Marta: vocabulary is her lowest, at 3.5 against a 4.5 for pronunciation.

Seven of nine are held down by grammar or vocabulary. Zero of nine are held down by pronunciation.

This is worth sitting with, because it inverts how most people allocate preparation time. Accent work feels productive and measurable. On this evidence it is polishing the criterion you are already strongest in.

Anna is the clearest case in the set. Her pronunciation is 2.5 while her grammar, vocabulary, discourse and global marks are all 2. The examiner still calls her intelligible. Whatever is keeping Anna at that level, it is not how she sounds.

What Cambridge means by pronunciation

The commentaries make the standard concrete, and it is not native-likeness.

Of the top scorer, the examiner writes that she "is intelligible and uses a range of phonological features to effectively convey and enhance meaning", that "all stress, word and sentence, is always appropriate", and that "all sounds are clearly articulated".

Of a mid-scoring candidate: "intelligible and uses intonation appropriately, sometimes to highlight meaning", with "accurate word and sentence stress used throughout the test".

Of the lowest scorer: "intelligible and her intonation is generally appropriate", though "her speech can sound disjointed at times" and "most sounds are generally articulated clearly, but exceptions occur".

The vocabulary of these judgements is intelligibility, stress, intonation, articulation. Not accent, not nativeness, not accent reduction. Every candidate in the published set, top to bottom, is called intelligible.

The framework these exams sit on says the same. The Council of Europe describes a B2 user as able to "interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party", and a C1 user as able to express themselves "fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions". Without strain, without searching. Neither descriptor mentions accent either.

If you do want to work on clarity, work on the things the examiners actually name. How to improve English pronunciation and six pronunciation fixes in fourteen days target stress and intelligibility rather than accent, and reducing mother tongue influence covers what genuinely interferes with meaning.

What actually costs marks

Two patterns run through the commentary, and neither is phonetic.

Range. The gap between the top and bottom profiles is described in terms of what candidates can reach for. The strongest is credited with "a wide range of appropriate vocabulary" used "to give and exchange views on familiar and unfamiliar topics". The weakest "uses limited but appropriate vocabulary" and her accuracy "is compromised" when topics become unfamiliar. Range is built by talking about more things, more often, not by drilling sounds.

Development, which is a strategy problem. This line about Anna is the most useful sentence in all four documents:

The development of her long turn questions (part 2) was rather limited. Anna might have used a much wider range of language if she attempted to answer the questions more fully.

She had more language than she showed. The task did not extract it. That is not a ceiling, it is a habit, and it is fixable in a way that grammar gaps are not. The C1 Advanced long turn and the B2 First long turn both cover answering the written question rather than describing the picture, which is exactly the failure being described.

The same theme appears in Interactive Communication. The top scorer "initiates and responds well", begins a part by asking her partner a question, and links her answer to her partner's before developing it. The lowest "does not always manage to link her contributions to those of other speakers" and "sometimes needs some support to help her negotiate towards an outcome". Those are conversational moves, learnable by having conversations. C1 Advanced Part 3 and B2 First Part 3 break them down, and role play scenarios plus an online speaking partner are the practical routes.

Where this leaves a preparation plan: more speaking on more topics, pushed toward fuller answers, with somebody who responds. Twelve daily speaking drills from B1 to C1, a 30 day plan to improve speaking and speaking exercises for adult learners all fit that, a free daily session supplies the volume, and why your English speaking is not improving covers why silent study does not move these criteria. CEFR levels explained for speaking and what C2 English level means put the ladder around it.

What we could not verify

These are Cambridge's chosen exemplars, not a random sample. Nine candidates selected as teaching material may not represent the whole entry. The pattern is striking and consistent, but it is a pattern in a curated set, and we are not presenting it as a population statistic.

We have not reproduced the band descriptors or the scales. Cambridge publishes those and they are the authority on what each mark means.

We could not confirm how the criterion marks convert to a Cambridge English Scale score. Cambridge publishes its own conversion material and that is the right source.

We did not check every level. We read the published commentaries for C1 Advanced and B2 First. We did not verify the criteria names for B1 Preliminary or C2 Proficiency, so nothing here should be assumed to carry to those levels.

We are not stating pass rates or average marks. We found no attributable figure.

How we researched this guide

Every score and every quotation comes from Cambridge English's own examiner commentary PDFs, downloaded from the C1 Advanced and B2 First preparation pages and read in full: the three C1 Advanced documents covering Marta, Giovanna and Anna; Pedro and Isabela; and Teresa and Antonio, plus the B2 First document covering Natalia and Enzo.

The finding is arithmetic on Cambridge's own published numbers rather than a claim we found anywhere. Each document carries a score table at the end, and each is normally read on its own. We transcribed all four into a single table, which is the only way the pattern in the Pronunciation column becomes visible.

We checked the criteria names against the documents rather than from memory, which is how the five-against-six difference surfaced. B2 First scores a single combined Grammar and Vocabulary mark; C1 Advanced scores Grammatical Resource and Lexical Resource separately. That is a structural difference between the levels and it is easy to state wrongly.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, and it is our pick given what these scores show. The criteria that separate the profiles are range and development: how many topics you can handle, and how far you take an answer. Both are built by talking, often, about things you did not prepare, to something that answers back. 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 rather than simulating a full 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.

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Sources

Cambridge English, C1 Advanced examiner comments for Marta, Giovanna and Anna: the six C1 criteria, the pronunciation and interactive communication commentary quoted above, and three score profiles
Cambridge English, C1 Advanced examiner comments for Pedro and Isabela: two further score profiles
Cambridge English, C1 Advanced examiner comments for Teresa and Antonio: two further score profiles
Cambridge English, B2 First examiner comments for Natalia and Enzo: the five B2 criteria and two score profiles
Cambridge English, preparing for C1 Advanced and preparing for B2 First: where the commentaries and the accompanying Speaking test videos are published
Council of Europe, CEFR Table 1, common reference levels global scale: the B2 and C1 descriptors, neither of which mentions accent

FAQ

What are the Cambridge Speaking assessment criteria?

At B2 First there are five: Grammar and Vocabulary, Discourse Management, Pronunciation, Interactive Communication and Global Achievement. At C1 Advanced there are six, because Grammar and Vocabulary splits into two separate criteria, Grammatical Resource and Lexical Resource. Those names come from Cambridge's own published examiner commentaries.

How many criteria does C1 Advanced Speaking have compared with B2 First?

Six against five. The difference is the split of the combined Grammar and Vocabulary criterion at B2 into Grammatical Resource and Lexical Resource at C1. Everything else carries the same name at both levels: Discourse Management, Pronunciation, Interactive Communication and Global Achievement.

Is pronunciation the hardest part of a Cambridge Speaking test?

The published evidence points the other way. Across the nine candidates whose scores Cambridge publishes with examiner commentary, Pronunciation is the highest or joint-highest of that candidate's marks every time, and it is never the lowest. Grammar and vocabulary is far more often the criterion dragging a profile down.

What does Cambridge mean by pronunciation in a Speaking test?

Intelligibility and the use of phonological features, not a native accent. The published commentaries describe candidates as intelligible, comment on word and sentence stress, on intonation used to enhance meaning, and on whether individual sounds are clearly articulated. Even the lowest-scoring candidate in the set is described as intelligible.

What actually costs candidates marks?

In the published set, the criterion sitting at or near the bottom of a profile is usually grammatical or lexical range rather than pronunciation. The commentaries also flag strategy problems, including one candidate whose long turn was underdeveloped and who the examiner notes might have used much wider language had she answered the questions more fully.

Where can I read the examiner comments myself?

Cambridge publishes them as free PDFs on the preparation pages for each qualification, alongside videos of the Speaking tests they describe. Each document gives commentary criterion by criterion for every candidate in the test, then a score table at the end. They are the closest thing to seeing your own test marked.