Speaking Part 2: how to use the preparation minute

You get a card, a pencil, and one minute. What you do with that minute decides most of the score, and the commonest mistake is spending forty of the sixty seconds deciding what to talk about.

Choose in ten seconds, and choose ordinary

The subject does not have to be impressive. It has to be describable for two minutes. An ordinary thing you know well — a specific relative, a bakery you worked in, a car you struggled to drive — will always beat an admirable thing you know from a distance.

If nothing true comes to mind, invent something. The examiner is not verifying your life; they are marking your English. A fluent invention scores better than a halting truth.

Plan the last bullet first

Every card ends with "and explain why / how". That final bullet is where the extended speech happens and where the band is decided. Plan it first, while you still have attention to spend, and let the earlier bullets fall into place around it.

Write four or five words per bullet, not sentences. You will not have time to read sentences while speaking, and reading aloud from notes is obvious and penalised under Fluency.

Watch for the limiting phrase

Cards frequently narrow the topic: "a skill that was difficult at first", "a place you visit regularly", "a decision you later regretted". Ignoring that phrase turns a specific answer into a generic one, and the examiner hears it immediately.

Underline it on the card. It is the single most common way a good answer gets marked down.

Do not memorise

Prepared answers bent to fit a card are recognisable, and examiners are trained to spot them. A memorised chunk that does not quite fit scores worse than plain language that does. Prepare ideas for common topics; never prepare sentences.

If you run out before the examiner stops you

Do not stop — extend. Say what you would change, how it compares to something else, or whether you would do it again. Running short is worse than any error you might make while continuing.