The speaking test is normally built from three parts, and candidates who prepare only for "conversation" are surprised by two of them.
Part one: the guided interview. You talk about yourself — studies, work, family, plans. It is the easiest part and the one to have ready. Prepare ninety seconds on each of: who you are and what you study, why French, what you do outside study, and your plan for the next two years. Do not memorise a script; memorise the CONTENT so the sentences can come out differently each time.
Part two: the role-play or interaction. You are given a situation — exchange a purchase, arrange something with a colleague, persuade a friend. You must actually do the task, so the useful preparation is the functional language:
- asking politely — *Est-ce que vous pourriez… / Je voudrais savoir si…*
- disagreeing without rudeness — *Je comprends, mais… / Je ne suis pas tout à fait d'accord*
- proposing — *Et si on…? / On pourrait peut-être…*
- insisting — *Je me permets d'insister…*
Twenty phrases like these, automatic, carry the whole task.
Part three: the monologue from a document. You are given a short text or a stimulus, you get preparation time, and you speak about it and then discuss it with the examiner. This is the part that separates levels.
Use the preparation time for a plan, not a script: your position, two arguments, one example each. Then speak to the plan. A monologue read from notes is audibly read and is marked as such.
A structure that works: *Ce document traite de…* (what it is about), *L'auteur montre que…* (what it claims), *À mon avis…* (your position with two arguments), *Pour conclure…* (open out).
Fluency beats perfection. An examiner is marking whether you can communicate. Self-correcting every second sentence damages the impression more than the errors do. Keep going.
Learn repair phrases, because you will need them. *Comment dire… / C'est-à-dire… / Je veux dire que…* A candidate who can talk their way around a word they do not know is demonstrating exactly the skill being tested.
Practise out loud, alone if necessary. Reading French silently does not build speech. Five minutes a day talking to yourself about what you did today is worth more than an hour of grammar for this paper.