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Tips, guides, and insights for English learners.
B1 Preliminary Speaking Part 4: The General Conversation
Three minutes on likes, dislikes, experiences, opinions and habits. It is the first place in the test where Cambridge names opinions as part of the task.
B2 First Speaking Part 1: Three Time Frames, Two Minutes
Cambridge says Part 1 covers past experiences, present circumstances and future plans. Three tenses in two minutes, inside what feels like small talk.
B2 First Speaking Part 2: Answer the Question, Not the Photos
Cambridge prints the questions at the top of the page for a reason. Candidates who describe the two photographs and never answer them run out in thirty seconds.
B2 First Speaking Part 3: Do Not Decide Too Early
The decision instruction arrives after the two minute discussion, not during it. Deciding in the first minute leaves you with nothing to say for the rest.
B2 First Speaking Part 4: Half the Test Is One Topic
Part 3 and Part 4 cover the same subject and run seven minutes between them. That is half a fourteen minute test spent on one topic you did not choose.
B2 First vs B2 First for Schools: What Actually Differs
Cambridge answers this in two sentences: same CEFR level, same format, different topics. Here is what that means for how you prepare and which one to sit.
B2 First vs C1 Advanced Speaking: Every Difference
One minute longer, one extra picture, one extra skill and a different job for your partner. The two Cambridge speaking tests laid side by side from source.
C2 Proficiency Speaking Format: Three Parts, 16 Minutes
The highest Cambridge exam drops a speaking part and gets longer. One part takes ten of the sixteen minutes, which changes where preparation should go.
C2 Proficiency Speaking Part 1: Two Minutes, Split in Turns
The examiner addresses a question to each candidate in turn, so your share of a two minute part arrives in pieces. And speculating enters the interview here.
C2 Proficiency Speaking Part 2: Your Reaction, Not the Picture
At C2 the pictures move into the collaborative task and the question asks for your reaction to them. Describing what you see answers the wrong question.