FIRST SPEAKING EXAM (15 min.

)
For many students, the FCE Speaking Test is the most stressful part of Cambridge B2
First. You do the Speaking exam in pairs (or in a group of three if there are too
many students). In some parts of the test you speak alone or with the examiner
and in other parts you talk to the other student (or your group). There are two
examiners in the room with you – one is the person who asks the questions and the
other one takes a lot of notes and helps the first examiner.

PART 1 : PERSONAL INFORMATION (2-3 minutes.

Individually)
Questions are normally on these topics: Your hobbies, your work or education,
things you like and things you don't like, friends and family,
holidays, sports, future plans

SOME USEFUL LANGUAGE:

Use idioms, phrasal verbs, rich vocabulary...There are a lot of useful expressions.
KEEN ON : I’m keen on travelling
I’m actually NOT TO KEEN ON flying, I prefer cruises.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

PLENTY OF: The city centre is PLENTY OF skyscrapers.

HAVING SAID THAT...
LET ME SEE..
IT DEPENDS ON..
THE BEST EXAMPLE THAT COMES TO MIND IS...

ADD EXTRA INFORMATION OR GIVE REASONS WHY. PRACTISE

TALKING IN SMALL GROUPS, ASKING AND ANSWERING
QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL LIFE AND INTERESTS.
PART 2: THE ‘LONG TURN’ PHOTO ( 1 min each candidate
individually + 30 seconds)

You and student B take turns to give long speeches. You get two colour
photos. You have to talk about them on your own for a minute. When you
finish, the examiner asks the other student (student B) a question about your
photos - student B should talk for about 30 seconds.

Then student B gets two photos and has to talk about them for one minute.
When that is over, the examiner asks you a question, and now you have
about 30 seconds to answer.

The examiner will ask you to COMPARE the photos AND SAY
something about them.
The first thing you should learn is how to compare things, and make sure you
answer the second part of the question.

USEFUL SENTENCES
The top picture shows...
The bottom picture shows...
.........................................................................
In one photo there are...
In the other photo there are...
........................................................................
In the picture above it looks as if...
In the one below it looks like...
.......................................................................
Both pictures show...
In both pictures there are...
They’re both quite similar because they both show...
........................................................................
There are .........in both photographs
.......................................................................
This picture shows....but that one....
One difference between the pictures is that...
The biggest difference between them is that this one...but the other one...
This one looks more ...than that
Something else that’s different is...
They are alike in another way too

SPECULATE
• In my opinion / I’d say that ...
• It seems to me/ My view is that...
• Maybe / Probably…
The Follow-up question.

The examiner would ask you a question about the photos. Something simple
like:

Which of these holidays would you prefer?

You should talk for about 30 seconds. You could say something like this:

Well, that's a very difficult question because I like both types of holiday. It's very
interesting going somewhere outside of the city because I like to get some fresh air
and see some dramatic things. But probably my first choice would be to go to a city,
because there are also nice things to see but then I can get an ice cream whenever
I want.

PART 3: Collaborative Task

In part 3 you are given a spider web with five keywords linking to a
question. It looks like this:
 You get about 15 seconds to read everything, then you have to discuss it with
your partner for 2 minutes and talk about 5 topics ( you don’t have to talk
about all of them). When the 2 minutes are over, you have one minute to
decide which topic is the best or the most important one.
Treat your partner like an equal, give them an equal chance to speak and be
prepared to agree and disagree with them in a respectful way.

1. USEFUL PHRASES
Getting started: Which one shall we start with?/ What’s your opinion on this topic?
Moving to the next item: So what about ( topic) ? / What do you think about this idea?/ How
do you feel about that one? / We still need to discuss (topic) / We’re running out of time, so
let’s move on.
Ending your turn: What do you think? Did I forget anything?
Reaching a decision: So then, what do you think is the best one? Are we both in favour of...?

2. INTERRUPTING, AGREEING & DISAGREEING

Sorry to interrupt but... Just a second...

Good point I fully agree

I was just thinking that! I couldn’t agree more

I think it would be better to... I’m not so keen on that

I don’t really agree with you there.

 PART 4: GENERAL CONVERSATION (4 minutes. In pairs)
In PART 4 you have about 4 minutes to talk about the topics from part 3 in
more detail. You are tested on your ability to give opinions, give reasons for
your opinions, and your ability to politely discuss things with your partner.

SOME USEFUL LANGUAGE

BUYING TIME
● Well, that’s a good question
● Oh, Let me think! Well...
● That’s an interesting question .....

GIVING YOUR OPINION

• In my opinion...

• I’m no expert but...

• How do you feel about going on a cruise?
ADDING REASONS
• Apart from that, ...
• Another thing is...