Speaking Part 2 gives you a card, one minute to prepare and up to two minutes to talk without interruption. Most candidates stop after forty seconds or list the bullet points without ever saying anything specific. This page trains the planning minute, the shape of a two-minute answer and the language that fills it, across forty original questions.
In the minute you have, write six or seven words down the side of the paper: names, places, one feeling, one reason. Sentences take too long and are read aloud badly.
Any decision is better than a perfect one. Candidates who spend forty seconds choosing a topic have twenty seconds to plan it.
The final line, usually 'and explain why', is where most answers run out of time. Give it a note of its own.
'The book I want to talk about is...' That single sentence buys you composure and signals the start clearly.
One specific occasion with a place and a time is worth more than three general sentences. Detail is the easiest source of fluent speech.
Move through them in order, but let one run into the next rather than announcing each.
If you finish early, add what you would change about it, or how you would compare it with something similar. That is thirty more seconds of relevant speech.
Self-correct once and move on. Repeated restarts damage fluency more than the original error did.
The examiner will stop you at two minutes. Do not try to finish your sentence at length; it is a timing device, not a judgement.
Not thisSpeaking for forty seconds and stopping.
ThisContinuing to about two minutes with extra detail.
A short turn gives the examiner less evidence of your English, and fluency is assessed partly on the ability to keep going.
Not thisReading prepared sentences from the note paper.
ThisSpeaking from single-word notes.
Read-aloud sentences sound flat, lose eye contact and produce unnatural rhythm, all of which affect the fluency and pronunciation marks.
Not thisAnswering with a memorised talk on a different topic.
ThisAnswering the card in front of you.
Examiners are trained to recognise memorised answers, and an off-topic answer cannot score well for task fulfilment.
Not thisI will talk about my friend. My friend is kind. My friend is helpful.
ThisThe friend I want to describe is Ana, who I met when we were both new to the city and neither of us knew anybody.
Lists of adjectives give no scope for grammar range; a situation does.
Not thisSkipping the last bullet point.
ThisPlanning it first and leaving time for it.
The explain line usually carries the most demanding language on the card, and omitting it makes the answer incomplete.
Not thisRestarting a sentence three times to get the grammar right.
ThisFinishing it and self-correcting once if needed.
Hesitation and repetition reduce fluency; a single grammatical slip barely registers.
Not thisSpeaking as fast as possible to fill the time.
ThisSpeaking at a normal pace with pauses at clause boundaries.
Speed is not fluency, and pronunciation marks fall when speed blurs word endings.
Not thisApologising for your English during the turn.
ThisContinuing with the content.
Apologies use the time you are being assessed on and add nothing the examiner can credit.
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.
1Complete the sentence.
3Complete the sentence.
6Complete the sentence.
7Why does a specific occasion produce better English than a general description?
One good answer
Because a scene forces past tenses, time expressions and detail, which gives the examiner far more to assess than a list of adjectives, and it is also easier to keep talking about something you can actually picture.
9Complete the sentence.
11Complete the sentence.
13Complete the sentence.
15Complete the sentence.
17Complete the sentence.
19Complete the sentence.
21Complete the sentence.
23Complete the sentence.
24Write the six words you would note for the card: 'Describe a skill you learned as an adult.'
One good answer
Driving, thirty-two, instructor Maria, terrified, motorway, freedom. Each word is a hook for a sentence, and the last two cover the 'explain why it mattered' line.
26Complete the sentence.
28Complete the sentence.
31Complete the sentence.
33Complete the sentence.
34Explain how you would use the second half of your two minutes if your plan ran out at sixty seconds.
One good answer
I would move from narration to reflection: why the experience mattered at the time, what I think about it now, and how it compares with something similar, which keeps me on the topic of the card while using a different set of tenses.
36Complete the sentence.
38Complete the sentence.
40Describe the shape of a well-built two-minute answer.
One good answer
Name the subject in one sentence, give a specific scene with a time and a place, work through the middle bullets as a story rather than a list, and finish with the explain line: why it mattered then and what you think about it now.
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.
The examiner may ask a short follow-up question and then move on. Nothing is deducted directly, but a short turn gives less evidence of your English, and fluency is judged on your ability to keep going.
Yes. Nothing on the card is fact-checked, and a clear invented example beats a true one you cannot remember. What matters is that it is specific and that you can keep talking about it.
They are a suggested route rather than a rule, and following them in order is the easiest way to stay organised. What matters is that none is left out, especially the final explain line.
Yes, glance at them. That is what they are for. What harms the answer is reading full sentences aloud rather than glancing at single words.
It limits the vocabulary mark. Prepare two or three alternatives for the words your topic will need most, but do not force in rare words that you cannot use naturally.
Record yourself. Take one card a day, prepare for exactly one minute, speak for two, then listen back for the point where you started to run out and plan an extender for next time.