Extend Your Answer

Speaking Part 4 looks, on the surface, like a simple conversation: the examiner asks broader questions related to the Part 3 topic, and candidates answer. Many candidates treat it exactly like a normal chat, offering short, honest opinions — 'I think so, yes' or 'not really, no' — and waiting for the next question. This produces accurate English, but it produces almost nothing for an examiner to assess, because short answers give little evidence of range, organisation, or the ability to sustain an argument.

The candidates who score well in Part 4 treat every question as an invitation to build a small, structured argument, not just state a preference. The reliable shape for this is opinion, reason, example, consequence: state a view, explain why, illustrate with something concrete and specific, then say what follows from it. The example stage matters more than candidates realise. A generic reason ('because it's bad for people') is far weaker than a specific illustration ('a friend of mine stopped sleeping properly because he checked his phone every hour through the night'), because specific examples are much harder to produce without actually engaging with the idea, and examiners can hear that difference immediately.

The second skill Part 4 tests, distinct from developed answers, is genuine interaction. Because Part 4 sometimes becomes a three-way exchange between both candidates and the examiner, strong candidates listen to what a partner has just said and respond to it directly — agreeing, politely disagreeing, or building on it — rather than delivering an unrelated pre-prepared opinion regardless of what was actually asked or said. A candidate who ignores their partner's contribution and states an unconnected opinion sounds disengaged, however fluent their grammar.

There is a useful discipline for practice: whenever you notice yourself about to say 'I think so' and stop, force yourself to continue with 'because...', then 'for example...', then 'so...'. Within a few weeks this becomes close to automatic, and the difference in perceived fluency and organisation is often larger than any amount of extra vocabulary study.