5.1. How Part 2 Works
Read the card, name the thing, take the bullets in order, and keep talking until you are stopped.
Now I'm going to give you a topic and I'd like you to talk about it for one to two minutes. Before you talk, you'll have one minute to think about what you're going to say. You can make some notes if you wish.
Describe a bag or case you use regularly.
You should say:
- what it looks like
- how you got it
- what you usually keep in it
and explain why you keep using it.
The short version
1 minute to make notes on paper, in silence.
1 to 2 minutes of talking on your own. The examiner stops you at two.
The card has a topic line, three bullets and an and explain line. Those four lines are your running order.
The examiner cannot help you, and you cannot change the card.
What you have to do
The examiner hands you a card, a pencil and paper. The card has a topic line, three bullets after You should say:, and a last line starting and explain. You get one minute to make notes, then you talk alone for one to two minutes until you are stopped. The examiner may then ask one or two questions on it. It is marked on the same four criteria. The bullets are there to keep you talking, not to score a point each.
What the notes are for
Your notes are words to glance at, not sentences to read. Write one or two words for each bullet: grey rucksack, sister, Lisbon, laptop, keys. A full sentence in your notes tempts you to read it out, and reading out loud sounds nothing like talking. The minute is for choosing what to say, so that the two minutes look after themselves.
Step by step
- 1Read the card and list the bullets on your paper
Read the topic line twice, then find each bullet and the last line starting and explain. Those four lines are the order you will speak in. On the bag card: what it looks like, how you got it, what you keep in it, why you keep using it. Write one or two words beside each on your paper.
- 2Decide what to say first: name the thing, then one detail
Your first sentence names the thing exactly: not a bag, but a grey canvas rucksack. Your second sentence gives one detail a listener can picture. For example, the strap you sewed back on, or the pocket that fits a laptop. Write those two things at the top of your notes. The opening then takes care of itself.
- 3Use the card's own words to shape the talk, one bullet at a time
Take the bullets in order. Let each one start a section: I got it when..., What I keep in it is.... Give each bullet about 20 seconds, which is two or three sentences. The and explain line comes last and is your close. Say it as a reason: I keep using it because it fits under a bus seat.
- 4What not to say
Cut very nice, very useful and really good: they say nothing and leave you nothing to say next. Cut any memorised opening, such as Today I would like to talk about a very interesting topic. Do not read your notes out as four short answers. Tell one story about one bag.
- 5If you are stuck, buy time or change example, then keep going
If a bullet runs dry, buy time: The other thing I should say is..., I suppose the honest reason is.... If you cannot picture the thing at all, choose a different example during the minute. Once you are talking, keep going until the examiner stops you. Being stopped is a complete turn.
Describe a bag or case you use regularly. You should say: what it looks like
It is a grey canvas rucksack, about the size of a pillow, with one strap that I sewed back on myself last winter, so it hangs slightly shorter than the other. The zip on the front pocket has gone, and there is a clip for a bike light on the side that I have never once used.
The thing is named, then two details a listener can picture. Nothing here is nice or useful, and the twenty seconds has filled itself without a single opinion word.
Quiz time5 questions
Each drill gives you one line from the bag card and works on one step. Practise the judgement, not the whole talk.
Name the thing first
Three candidates begin their talk on this card. Choose the opening that names the thing.
Read thisDescribe a bag or case you use regularly.
Which opening names the thing?
Spot the empty adjective
Three sentences from a talk on this bullet. One is an empty adjective sentence that says nothing a listener can picture. Which?
Read thisYou should say: how you got it
Which sentence contains the error?
Turn a note into a spoken sentence
These are one candidate's notes for the bullet. Say them as one or two spoken sentences that name the thing and give a detail a listener can picture.
Read thisYou should say: what it looks like
brown leather satchel / buckle broken / fits laptop
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Buy time without losing the thread
The candidate has reached the last line of the card and gone blank. Choose what they should say next.
Read thisand explain why you keep using it.
Which phrase buys time and keeps the talk going?
One bullet, out loud
Speak for about 20 seconds on this one bullet, using a bag or case of your own. Name two or three things that are in it and say why each one is there.
Read thisYou should say: what you usually keep in it
Describe a bag or case you use regularly. Say what you usually keep in it.
Record your answer (30s maximum)
0:00 / 0:30
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
The full talk
Below is a different card, a change of plans, with the notes from the minute and the full talk. Read it once for the shape: one story, the bullets in order, and the explain line as the close.
Describe a time you had to change your plans. You should say: - what you had planned - why you had to change - what you did instead and explain how you felt about the change.
Notes: coast coach, Sat last spring / friend cancelled, fever / canal towpath, lock bench / annoyed then fine / walk from the door now Talk: I'd like to talk about a time I had to change a weekend trip last spring. I had booked a coach to the coast for the Saturday morning. The plan was to walk a cliff path with a friend of mine and get the last coach back that evening. I had been looking forward to it for about a month, mainly because I had not been out of the city since the winter. Then at around ten the night before, she called. Her youngest had a fever and she could not leave him. I was annoyed for about five minutes, because I had already packed a lunch and charged my camera, and then I cancelled the coach and stayed where I was. What I did instead was walk the canal towpath behind the station. It is the same route I take to work, but I had never once walked it slowly. If you go east you get past the retail park after about twenty minutes and it turns surprisingly green. I sat on a bench by the lock for half an hour and ate the lunch I had packed the night before. Nobody I knew was there, and I did not speak to anyone all afternoon, which I think was the part I actually needed. I remember it because I almost wasted the whole day at home, waiting for a better plan to appear. Now if a trip falls through I pick a walk I can start from my own front door. If I had stayed in that Saturday, I would probably still be thinking about that cliff path.
What, why, instead, and how you felt are all there, but as one account rather than four bullet sentences. Spoken at a normal pace the talk runs just past two minutes, which is what having enough to be stopped looks like. Notice the notes are fragments. If one of yours is a full sentence, shorten it: you want words you can glance at, not a script to read. The close says why the day stayed with the speaker and turns it into a present habit, without starting a second story.
Your turn to speak2 questions
Plan the change-of-plans card
Fill each field as notes, not sentences, for a change of plans of your own, not the coach trip above. You will speak from these words.
Describe a time you had to change your plans. What you planned, why it changed, what you did instead, and how you felt.
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Record the long turn
Speak from your own notes about your own change of plans, not the coach trip in the model. Keep going until about two minutes. One story, not four bullet sentences.
Describe a time you had to change your plans. Say what you had planned, why you had to change, what you did instead, and how you felt.
Record your answer (120s maximum)
0:00 / 2:00
Set up your learning path at the top of this lesson to get band-specific feedback.
Tips
- Twenty seconds a bullet is the whole sum
Four lines on the card at twenty seconds each, plus an opening, takes you well past the minute. A second detail on each bullet takes you to two, and a list of adjectives never will.
- Choose the example you can see
The best bag to describe is the one you can picture in your hands, not the most impressive one. Detail comes from seeing, and detail fills time.
- Glance, do not read
Look at your notes only at the start of each bullet. If you find yourself reading, look up and finish the sentence in your own words.
Recap
Read the card, note the bullets and the explain line on your paper, and use them as your running order.
Name the thing in the first sentence, then give one detail a listener can picture for each bullet.
Buy time with a phrase rather than stopping, and keep going until the examiner stops you.
Next: the commonest card of all: describing a person, a place or an object.