6.3Part 2: the long turn
- 1 reading text
You are given a card with a topic and three or four prompts. You have one minute to prepare and then you must speak for one to two minutes without interruption.
How to use the one minute
- Do not write sentences. Write single words only, four or five of them.
- Write one word for each prompt on the card, plus one extra idea.
- Decide the tense before you start: most cards are about a past experience, so plan to use the past simple.
- Decide your ending sentence now, so you never stop awkwardly.
- If you have no real experience of the topic, invent one. It costs nothing and no one checks.
Structure of the long turn
Follow the prompts on the card in order. They are a plan, and using them guarantees you cover enough. Then add one extra sentence beyond the last prompt, because that is where the card usually asks you to explain, and that explanation is where the higher marks live.
Sample cue card
Describe a skill you learned that has been useful to you.
You should say:
• what the skill is
• when and how you learned it
• how difficult it was to learn
and explain why it has been useful to you.
The skill I want to talk about is touch typing, which basically means typing without looking at the keyboard.
I learned it when I was about sixteen, and I taught myself using a free website that gave you exercises and timed you. I did about twenty minutes every evening for maybe two months. Nobody told me to do it; I just got frustrated with how slow I was when I had to write an assignment.
At the beginning it was genuinely difficult, and honestly it made me slower for the first few weeks because I was forcing myself not to look down. That stage was quite discouraging and I nearly gave up. After about three weeks something clicked and my hands started going to the right place on their own.
It has turned out to be one of the most useful things I have ever learned, mostly because of how much time it saves. I can write an email or take notes while I am still thinking, instead of my typing slowing my thinking down. If I had to pick one small skill that has paid for itself many times over, it would be this one.
Buying time without silence
- That's an interesting question, let me think for a second.
- I have never really thought about that before, but I suppose ...
- There are probably several reasons, but the main one that comes to mind is ...
- It's hard to say exactly, although what I would guess is ...
Two of these in a whole test is natural. Six is a habit the examiner will notice. Use them to think, not to fill time.