Speaking is now around 11 items in about 8 minutes, built on two task types. The four-task section with 15 or 30 seconds of preparation and 45 or 60 seconds of response is gone, and so is every template written for it.
Listen and Repeat. You hear a sentence and say it back.
- Listen for meaning, not for sounds. Trying to store a sentence as a string of noises fails at about seven words. Understanding it lets you rebuild it, because the grammar carries the rest.
- Start immediately. A long silence ends the item.
- Never restart. Fluency is what is being measured. A partial repetition said smoothly beats a complete one delivered in pieces.
- Say the content words even where you cannot say all of them. Nouns, verbs and numbers carry the meaning.
- Copy the rhythm you heard — where the stress fell, where the speaker paused. It improves both how you sound and how much you remember.
Take an Interview. A structured exchange rather than a set of prepared monologues. What helps is having *content* about yourself ready — your studies, your work, why this subject, what you do outside it — not scripts. A memorised answer is audible, and an interview format exposes it faster than a monologue did.
- Answer the question that was asked, then add one supporting detail. That shape fits almost any interview question.
- Keep going. Self-correcting every second sentence damages the impression more than the errors do.
- Pronunciation, not accent. Intelligibility is marked; where you are from is not.
Eight minutes is short. There is very little time to settle in, so the first item matters more than it used to. Warm up before you sit down — speak English aloud for five minutes on the way to the centre, or before you open the Home Edition.