PET Speaking Exam – How to Do Part One of the Cambridge PET Speaking Test


Hello, I’m Michael. Welcome to Oxford Online
English! In this lesson, you’ll learn about part one of the Cambridge PET speaking exam.
Do you know the basic information about the speaking exam and how it works? Do you know
how to act in the exam? Do you know how to impress the examiners?
In this video you’ll see the answers to these questions. You can also see some advice
on how to get a higher score in part one of the PET speaking test.
Let’s start with some basic information. In part one of the speaking test, you’ll
be with a partner, but you won’t talk to them. You speak only to the examiner.
This part lasts between two and three minutes. Now, let’s look at the questions you could
be asked and how to answer them. The main topics the examiners could ask you
about are: home town, family and home, work/study, leisure
and future plans. The examiner will ask you questions on two
or three of these topics. Before we talk about these topics, let’s
start at the beginning. The examiner will ask you: “What’s your
name?” Remember to speak in full sentences. When the examiner asks you for your name,
don’t just say “Michael.” Say: “My name is Michael.”
This shows that you know how to make simple sentences.
When asked for your surname do the same. Don’t just say “Jones.” Say:
“My surname is Jones.” After you have given your surname, the examiner
will ask you to spell it. Practise, practise and practise some more spelling your surname.
You might think this is easy, but a lot of students confuse letters on the exam day.
The examiner will usually ask: “Where are you from?” Remember to speak in full sentences
and try and add extra information. You want to show the examiners that you can add details
to your answer. So when the examiner asks “Where are you
from?” Don’t just say “I’m from London.” Give more information about your town or city.
Say: “I’m from London, the capital of the UK,
which is in the south of my country.” Or:
“I’m from Seville, a beautiful town in the province of Andalucía.”
This shows that you are a confident English speaker who can form sentences and give extra
information. The examiners might ask you to talk in more
detail about your town. Remember to speak clearly and confidently. You want the examiners
to be able to hear and understand you. If the examiner asks you to tell them something
interesting about your town. Don’t start muttering, “My town is interesting because
it has lots of museums and parks….” Be clear. Be confident.
“My town is interesting because it has lots of fantastic museums and beautiful parks.”
This sounds better and easier to understand, right?
Also remember to try and sound natural. You don’t want to sound like a robot who has
memorised all the answers. You should sound like you are talking to a friend.
In PET, the examiners want to see that you can communicate naturally. Listen to the difference
between these two answers to the question: “What is the most interesting part of your
town?” “The most interesting part of my town is the
zoo because you can see lots of different animals such as lions, elephants and zebras.
Lots of people like visiting the zoo.” Now let’s compare this with a more natural
way to answer this question. “Um. The most interesting part of my town
is … the zoo because you can see lots of different animals. Such as lions, elephants
and … zebras. Lots of people like visiting the zoo.”
The second answer sounds a lot more natural. Try not to sound like a robot when answering.
Use intonation. Maybe you didn’t hear the examiner or didn’t
understand the question. What should you do? Ask them politely to repeat the question.
Don’t try and answer the question if you aren’t sure what you are answering. Maybe
they asked you where you are from. You don’t want to say “I love playing basketball.
It’s my favourite sport.” It’s better to ask the examiner to repeat
the question. Say: “I’m sorry, could you repeat that, please?”
Or: “Can you say that again, please?”
Don’t worry about having to ask this. It’s normal, and it won’t affect your score.
Just make sure you’re polite. On the topic of family and home you might
be asked to talk more about your family and where you live. Remember to use adjectives
to show off your abilities. If they ask you to describe where you live,
don’t just say “I live in a flat which has three bedrooms.” Use some adjectives.
Show off. Give them more information. Say:
“I live in a gorgeous flat in the city centre which has three bedrooms; there’s also a
huge living room and a tiny kitchen.” Can you see the difference? Which sounded
better? The second one, right? Using the adjectives ‘gorgeous’, ‘huge’ and ‘tiny’ makes this answer
more detailed and interesting. If you are asked to tell them about your family,
don’t just say “I have a brother and a sister.” Use some adjectives. Say:
“I have an older brother and a younger sister.” By using just these two adjectives your answer
sounds better. If you want to get even higher marks, try
to use different adjectives and not just the regular boring ones.
We can all use ‘good’, ‘interesting’, ‘nice’ or ‘boring’. But you should try and use some
different adjectives like ‘excellent’, ‘fascinating’, ‘wonderful’ or ‘dull’.
The examiner asks: “Which do you think is better: living in the
countryside or in the city?” Let’s compare two answers:
“I think living in the countryside is a good choice. I find nature very interesting and
the views are nice. The only negative is that it is sometimes boring.”
This is a good answer. Now let’s change the adjectives:
“I think living in the countryside is an excellent choice. I find nature fascinating and the
views are wonderful. The only negative is that it is sometimes dull.”
This sounds much better, right? Using the adjectives ‘excellent’, ‘fascinating’, ‘wonderful’
and ‘dull’ makes the answer more interesting and shows that you have a higher level of
English. Next, let’s look at using verb forms correctly.
It’s a good idea to show that you can use different verb forms. This will show the examiner
your grammatical knowledge. On the topic of leisure, you will have to
talk about your hobbies: what you enjoy doing, what sports you do, what music or films you
like, and so on. This is the perfect opportunity to show that you can use different verb forms.
If the examiners ask what kinds of sport you like doing, don’t just use the present tense.
Don’t just say “I like tennis. Tennis is my favourite sport.” You could say:
I like playing tennis. In the past I loved football but today I prefer tennis. Next weekend
I’m going to play it with my friend. Using a range of past, present and future
verb forms shows your ability to use English grammar to express different ideas.
Maybe they will ask about what music you enjoy listening to. Don’t just say, “I like
pop music. I listen to it every day.” This is a good answer, but you want to give more
information and use different verb forms. Say:
“I used to like dance music, but at the moment I like listening to pop music. I love listening
to it every day. This summer I am going to a concert to listen to my favourite band.”
This sounds much better, right? On the topic of future plans, you may be asked
to talk about what you want to do in the future or how English will help you in the future.
My next piece of advice is to make your answers interesting. You don’t want to sound boring.
Remember that the information you give doesn’t have to be true.
In general, you should try and give an honest answer because it will sound more natural.
But if you can’t think of anything to talk about, you can invent an answer.
Imagine that the examiner asks: “What do you want to be in the future?” But you don’t
know what you want to be in the future—what can you do?
You could invent an idea to make your answer more interesting.
Don’t say “I don’t know what I want to be in the future.” Say:
“I’m not sure what I want to do, but I’m considering becoming a scientist because I
think science is fascinating.” This is a much more interesting answer.
Of course, you don’t get a higher score for being more interesting, but making your
answers interesting will make you use a wider range of language. You’ll naturally add
more details and use more of your English, and this will help your score.
Maybe you will be asked about whether you enjoy studying English. Don’t just say “I
like studying English because I like languages.” Try to make it more interesting. Say:
“I like studying English because I think it will help me in the future and I really enjoy
listening to English music and it helps me understand my favourite songs.”
This is a better answer. It’s longer, more detailed, and it uses a wider range of language.
In conclusion, in part one of your PET speaking exam, you should:
speak in full sentences, try to add extra information,
speak clearly and confidently, try to sound natural,
ask the examiner to repeat the question if you don’t understand something,
use a range of adjectives and verb forms in your answers
Make your answers interesting. Now that you’ve seen some sample questions
and have listened to some advice on how to do part one of your Cambridge PET speaking
exam, my final advice would be to practise, practise and practise some more. Try to use
some of the ideas we’ve looked at in this lesson!
Thanks very much for watching! I hope that you have found this advice on how to do Part
one of the Cambridge PET exam useful. You can see more of our free lessons on our website:
oxfordonlineenglish.com. See you next time!

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Dennis Veasley

100 thoughts on “PET Speaking Exam – How to Do Part One of the Cambridge PET Speaking Test”

  17. Thank you very much, Mr Michael 💞💞 next week I will have PET speaking exam and your video help me a lot. I hope all the best for your channel

    Reply

  19. Hello everyone 😉 Michael thank you very much for to share this useful information for my future exam of Cambridge. One question: the link of the description doesn't work and free material page of your website doesn't work either. What's happen? Please check it. Thanks for all

    Reply

  20. Hey guys! I'm having my PET exam in two weeks.Does anyone know how I should pronounce the letter "ș" in my surname.I'm romanina btw.Also,should I simply spell it as I pronounce "s".

    Reply

  33. That video is really helpful and very interesting! And you are a smart person ! Thank you very very much ! 🙂👍

    Reply

  45. Hai 🙋. I'm from Jakarta, Indonesia. I have difficult to learn about PET. I'm a teacher and a employee. My office give me free learn about PET with my expat teachers . Thank you for your sharing.

    Reply

  64. I usually dont like these type of videos. But this is absolutely SO interesting. Im really into it. MY TEST IS TOMORROW!! WISH ME LUCK~!

    Reply

  70. I will have the PET speaking exam now
    Thank you for this clip
    It's so useful

    Reply

  74. Tomorrow i have the last PET exam, im a little bit nervous…
    my father told me to study, so im working on that.

    PD: why does this video have dislikes?
    i don't understand.

    Reply

  75. Please I need you to answer to my question I have passed with 147 score In pet which certificate I will receive ? And if I will the b1 certificate I will have to study for b2 next year please I need explanation and thanks

    Reply

  80. Let's see if tomorrow I can apply your whole lesson in my pet test. I promise I will try my best to be confident.

    Reply

  83. Helpful video now days am learning Cambridge English…. Raymond Murphy….. Thankqqq
    And your sound very clear 💟

    Reply

  88. I missed A1 with 1 points, if i watched this advice video before the exam my score would be better but i am going to have a collage exam soon i hope this will help

    Reply

  91. I'm gonna take my PET test next year.
    But i already wanna study for it.
    So thanks for your advice it defintley helped me.

    Reply

  100. First of all I'd like to say a big, "thank you", for all your videos. I have been wondering when you are going to make more, reflecting the changes coming into force in January. As we're already in the new academic year, they would be very welcome indeed! Keep up the good work!

    Reply

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