The Speaking test is more realistic than it looks. Picture yourself arriving at a party.
That is easy to say, and on its own it does not help much. So this time I have written a whole party down, from the front door to the point where two people are properly talking. Then I will read the same conversation back with an examiner's eyes.
The cast: Linh, at a small party at a friend of a friend's house. Sam, someone she has never met, standing near the food.
Part 1Scene 1 of the partyAt the door
Sam Hi, I don't think we've met. I'm Sam.
Linh Hi Sam, I'm Linh. I came with Hoa, we work together.
Sam Oh nice. So where are you from originally?
Linh Da Nang, on the coast. It's a lot quieter than here, to be honest. Have you been?
Sam Not yet, it's on my list. What do you do at work?
Linh I'm in accounts, mostly month-end reporting. Not very glamorous, but I like the numbers.
Sam Fair enough. Do you cook much? This is amazing, by the way.
Linh Not as much as I'd like. Weekends, maybe. Weekdays it's whatever is fastest.
Part 2Scene 2 of the partyThe story
A little later the group is talking about travel. Someone mentions Japan.
Sam Linh, you said you'd been to Japan. What was that like?
Linh It was two years ago, in late November, and I went on my own, which I'd never done before. I picked Kyoto because a friend said the autumn colours were worth it, and she was right. The first two days I did the obvious things, the temples, the bamboo forest, and they were beautiful but very crowded. What I actually remember most is the third day. I got lost on the way to a small shrine and ended up in a residential street where an older woman was sweeping leaves outside her house. She didn't speak English and my Japanese is about ten words, but she walked me two blocks to the right turning and waved until I was out of sight. I think that was the moment the trip stopped feeling like a holiday and started feeling like I'd actually been somewhere. I came back much more relaxed about travelling alone. I'd go again in a heartbeat, but in a quieter season.
Part 3Scene 3 of the partyThe real conversation
Sam That's a lovely story. Do you think travelling actually changes people, though? Or do we just tell ourselves it does?
Linh Honestly, I think it depends how you travel. If you're in a resort for a week you come back with a tan, not a new personality. But when you have to manage on your own, even small things like buying a train ticket, I think that does shift something.
Sam I'd push back a bit. I know people who've lived abroad for years and haven't changed at all.
Linh That's fair. Maybe the place doesn't matter as much as whether you're paying attention. You can be curious in your own city and closed off in Paris.
Sam So should schools make students travel? Some countries do exchange years.
Linh I like the idea, but it's expensive, and if it's compulsory the students who resent it will get nothing out of it. I'd rather it was available and encouraged than forced.
By this point Sam and Linh are no longer strangers.
Now read it back as the exam
Those three scenes are the Speaking test, almost word for word. Let me take the lines out one at a time.
Scene 1 is Part 1
Four to five minutes. The examiner asks about two or three familiar topics: where you live, your work or studies, then something everyday like cooking, weather or music. Three or four short questions on each.
Sam So where are you from originally?Linh Da Nang, on the coast. It's a lot quieter than here, to be honest.
This is the template for the whole of Part 1: a direct answer, one detail, one reaction. Da Nang is the answer. On the coast is the detail. A lot quieter than here, to be honest is the reaction. Three beats and stop. At the party Linh also asks Have you been?, which is natural in real life, but drop that beat in the exam room: the examiner will not answer your questions.
Sam What do you do at work?Linh I'm in accounts, mostly month-end reporting. Not very glamorous, but I like the numbers.
Same shape. Notice the vocabulary: month-end reporting, glamorous. Not rare words, but the right words for that job, and the examiner marks vocabulary on precision, not rarity. The second sentence shows an attitude, which is what makes an answer sound like a person rather than a model answer.
Sam Do you cook much?Linh Not as much as I'd like. Weekends, maybe. Weekdays it's whatever is fastest.
A yes/no question answered without the word yes or no. Not as much as I'd like is the answer; the rest is the reason. This is how native speakers handle yes/no questions, and it is the way out of the textbook-sounding Yes, I do. I like cooking.
The common mistake is treating Part 1 as the place to impress, and delivering a thirty-second speech in reply to what do you do. At a real party the other person would go and find a drink. In the exam the examiner will cut you off. The opposite mistake, Da Nang followed by silence, kills the conversation just as surely.
Scene 2 is Part 2
The examiner hands you a card: Describe a trip you remember well. You should say where you went, who you went with, what you did there, and explain why you remember it. You get a minute to make notes and then speak for one to two minutes.
Linh It was two years ago, in late November, and I went on my own, which I'd never done before.
One sentence, and three of the card's bullet points are done: when, with whom, and a detail that sets up the whole story (which I'd never done before). No I am going to talk about a trip to Japan. Nobody opens like that at a party, and the examiner does not need it.
Linh The first two days I did the obvious things, the temples, the bamboo forest, and they were beautiful but very crowded. What I actually remember most is the third day.
Two days packed into one sentence, on purpose. Then What I actually remember most is the third day is the hinge: it tells the listener the good part starts here. Candidates tend to do the opposite, day one, day two, day three at equal length, and run out of time before reaching anything worth hearing.
Linh She didn't speak English and my Japanese is about ten words, but she walked me two blocks to the right turning and waved until I was out of sight.
This is the moment. One specific person, one specific action, one closing image (waved until I was out of sight). Nearly half the talk is spent on something that took under a minute of the trip. That is what makes the story worth listening to, and it is also where the grammar score climbs on its own, because describing a real scene forces past tenses, linked clauses and comparisons out of you.
Linh I think that was the moment the trip stopped feeling like a holiday and started feeling like I'd actually been somewhere. I'd go again in a heartbeat, but in a quieter season.
Close on what it meant (the card's last bullet, why you remember it) and then one line looking forward. The final sentence is a conditional with an everyday idiom in it (in a heartbeat). End like this and the examiner knows you are done, with no that's all or thank you needed.
If you struggle to fill two minutes, it is usually because you are listing instead of telling. Pick one moment, slow down on it, say how it felt. Two minutes disappears.
Scene 3 is Part 3
Four to five minutes. The questions stop being about you and become about society, and they follow on from the Part 2 topic. Your trip becomes does travel change people, then should schools make students travel.
Sam Do you think travelling actually changes people, though? Or do we just tell ourselves it does?Linh Honestly, I think it depends how you travel. If you're in a resort for a week you come back with a tan, not a new personality. But when you have to manage on your own, even small things like buying a train ticket, I think that does shift something.
Three moves in one answer: a conditional position (it depends how you travel), an example on one side (a week in a resort), an example on the other (buying your own train ticket). No flat yes or no, because Part 3 questions rarely have a flat answer. And notice even small things like, a phrase that drops an example down to the concrete immediately.
Sam I'd push back a bit. I know people who've lived abroad for years and haven't changed at all.Linh That's fair. Maybe the place doesn't matter as much as whether you're paying attention. You can be curious in your own city and closed off in Paris.
This is where many candidates fall. The examiner challenges them, and they either switch sides at once to be agreeable or repeat their original point louder. Linh does the third thing: concedes what is fair (that's fair) and then refines the idea into a sharper one (the place matters less than attention). The last sentence is a matched pair (curious in your own city, closed off in Paris) that makes the point stick. This skill is a large part of the gap between band 6 and band 7 and above.
Sam So should schools make students travel?Linh I like the idea, but it's expensive, and if it's compulsory the students who resent it will get nothing out of it. I'd rather it was available and encouraged than forced.
A policy question, the should X do Y type. Linh weighs both sides in one sentence (likes the idea, but it is costly and backfires if forced), then lands on a position in the next. I'd rather ... than ... is a structure worth owning for closing this kind of question.
Sam pushes back and Linh does not panic. She does not cave to be agreeable, and she does not dig in to win. She adjusts her position. That is exactly what the examiner wants to see in Part 3, and exactly what turns two strangers into friends.
Why this framing helps
Once you see the test as a party rather than an exam, those three parts stop being three question types to memorise. They are the three natural stages of getting to know anyone: greet, tell a story, then really talk.
It also gives you a way to practise without a question bank. Next time you are out with a group, notice which stage you are in. Someone asks a short question: answer directly and add one detail. Someone opens up a topic: tell a story with one specific moment in it. Someone gives an opinion: acknowledge what is right in it before you say your own.
Get those three habits and you are practising exactly what you need in the exam room, and exactly what you need at every party after it.