Negotiate & Decide

Cambridge examiners assessing Speaking Part 3 are trained to watch one moment more closely than any other: the transition from discussion to decision. Many candidates handle the first two minutes competently — they invite each other in, they react, they build — but then the final minute arrives and something goes wrong. Either nobody moves the conversation forward, and the clock runs out mid-discussion, or one candidate suddenly announces a decision alone, cutting their partner out entirely.

Both failures are avoidable with the same skill: signposting. A candidate who says, clearly and audibly, 'We've covered most of the options now — shall we start narrowing it down?' does something that costs almost no extra vocabulary but earns real credit under Interactive Communication. It shows awareness of the task's structure and actively invites the partner into the final phase, rather than assuming they'll notice the time is nearly up.

The second half of this skill is handling disagreement gracefully during the decision itself. Examiners do not expect or require identical opinions. What they reward is candidates who can concede a partner's point ('You're right that cost matters') before offering their own view ('but I still think the safety angle is more important'), and who can ultimately either agree, or agree to disagree in a structured way ('We see it differently, but if we had to pick one, I'd lean toward...'). This is a strictly different skill from simply having an opinion — it is the skill of negotiating one, live, with another person listening.

Weaker candidates often fall into one of two traps in this final phase. The first is capitulation: agreeing instantly with whatever the partner says just to avoid conflict, producing a decision with no real content behind it. The second is stalemate: repeating the same disagreement without ever attempting a compromise or a graceful concession, so the discussion simply stops when time runs out. Strong candidates avoid both by treating the decision phase as a mini-negotiation with its own moves — concede, contribute, signpost, close — rather than as an afterthought tacked onto free discussion.