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A2 Key speaking: personal questions practice

A2Listening & Speaking40 questionsUpdated

The first part of the A2 Key speaking test asks you simple questions about yourself: where you live, what you study, what you do at the weekend. One-word answers are the main reason candidates score below their real level here. This page gives you a shape for every answer and forty questions to practise with.

What this task tests

  • Understanding straightforward questions about your own life.
  • Answering with a full sentence rather than a single word.
  • Adding a reason, a detail or an example without being asked.
  • Using present simple for routines and past simple for last weekend.
  • Spelling your name and address when asked.
  • Speaking clearly and at a steady speed.
  • Asking for repetition politely if you do not understand.
  • Sounding natural and interested rather than reciting a memorised text.

How to do it

  1. Step 1:

    Use the answer-plus-one rule

    Answer the question, then add one more piece of information: a reason, a time, an example. ‘I live in Turin. It’s a big city in the north of Italy.’

  2. Step 2:

    Repeat part of the question

    Turning the question into your sentence gives you a second to think and makes your answer a full sentence: ‘What do you study?’ — ‘I study maths and history.’

  3. Step 3:

    Listen for the tense in the question

    ‘What did you do yesterday?’ needs past. ‘What do you do at the weekend?’ needs present. Copy the tense you hear.

  4. Step 4:

    Prepare four topics, not four scripts

    Family, home, studies or work, free time. Know five words for each; do not memorise sentences, because a memorised answer stops fitting as soon as the question changes.

  5. Step 5:

    Ask politely if you did not hear

    ‘Sorry, could you repeat that, please?’ is normal and costs you nothing. Guessing and answering a different question costs a lot.

  6. Step 6:

    Speak up and slow down

    Nerves make candidates quiet and fast. A clear, slightly slow answer sounds more confident and contains fewer mistakes.

  7. Step 7:

    Spell clearly when asked

    Practise your own surname letter by letter, with ‘double’ where a letter repeats. It is the one answer you can prepare exactly.

  8. Step 8:

    Keep going after a mistake

    Correct yourself in three words and continue. Stopping to repair a sentence is what turns a small slip into silence.

Mistakes that cost marks

  • Not thisQ: Do you like sport? A: Yes.

    ThisYes, I play basketball twice a week with my cousins.

    A one-word answer gives the examiner no language to assess, so it cannot score well however correct it is.

  • Not thisI have 15 years.

    ThisI’m 15 years old.

    English uses be with age. This is a direct translation from several languages and appears in almost every A2 speaking test.

  • Not thisI live in Spain since 2020.

    ThisI have lived in Spain since 2020.

    Since with a starting point needs the present perfect when the situation continues now.

  • Not thisReciting a memorised paragraph about your town.

    ThisAnswering the question that was actually asked.

    Examiners hear memorised answers immediately, and they usually answer a slightly different question, which loses content.

  • Not thisStaying silent because you did not understand.

    This‘Sorry, could you say that again, please?’

    Asking for repetition is normal communication and is not penalised; silence is.

  • Not thisI am agree with sport.

    ThisI like sport.

    Agree is not used with be, and at this level the simple verb is the safer choice.

Language this task keeps reusing

I’m from
used to say where you were born or grew up
I live in
used to say where your home is
at the moment
now, these days
in my free time
when I am not working or studying
usually
most of the time
twice a week
two times every week
I’d like to
polite way to say what you want in the future
because
introduces the reason that makes your answer longer
for example
introduces an example
quite
fairly: quite big, quite often
spell
say the letters of a word one by one
surname
your family name

Practice: personal information exchange

40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.

Q: Do you like cooking? Which answer is best?

2Complete the sentence.

Answer the question and then add one more piece of.

3Complete the sentence.

I’m fifteen years.
Which sentence is correct?

5Complete the sentence.

In my freeI play the guitar and see my friends.
Decide if each statement about this part of the test is true.
  • One-word answers score badly even when they are correct.
  • Asking the examiner to repeat a question is a problem.
  • Adding a reason makes an answer stronger.
3 to go
Q: What did you do last weekend? Which answer uses the right tense?

8Complete the sentence.

Sorry, could youthat, please?

9Answer this question in two sentences: ‘Where do you live?’

Q: How do you come to school? Which answer is best?

Keep going

30 more questions on this page

Leave your email and the rest of the set opens straight away — on this page and every other exam page on the site. We read every address by hand and write back with practice suited to what you are preparing for. No list, no drip sequence.

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Note

Pick Two Activity is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Cambridge University Press & Assessment, the British Council, IDP, ETS, Duolingo or any other exam board. Exam names are trademarks of their owners and are used here only to describe the exam you are preparing for. Every question on this page is original practice written by us: we do not provide, copy or reproduce official exam papers.

Frequently asked questions

How long should my answers be?

One or two sentences. Long enough to show your English, short enough that the examiner can ask you everything on the list.

Is it a problem if I make grammar mistakes?

No, at A2 mistakes are expected. Communicating clearly and keeping going matters far more than perfect accuracy.

What if my partner talks too much?

This part of the test is questions to each candidate in turn, so you will get your own questions. Answer them fully when your turn comes.

Can I ask the examiner to repeat a question?

Yes, politely and once per question. It is normal, and it is much better than answering something different.

Should I learn answers by heart?

Learn vocabulary for four topics — family, home, studies, free time — but not whole sentences. Memorised answers rarely fit the question asked.