C2 Proficiency (CPE) Speaking Practice Tests
10 C2 Proficiency (CPE) Speaking practice tests in the real format, timed like the exam, with answers when you finish. About 16 minutes: interview, a collaborative task and a long turn with discussion.
C2 Proficiency (CPE) Speaking Practice Test 1 with Answers
A free, interactive C2 Proficiency (CPE) Speaking practice test with answers, about 16 minutes.
TopicsLanguage & the mindArt & aestheticsScience & society
This C2 Proficiency (CPE) Practice Test 1 has 1 paper — Speaking. Choose a paper below to start; your browser will load the interactive version automatically.
Speaking
Speaking Part 1 — Interview
The examiner asks each candidate questions in turn. Answer fully, expressing and justifying your opinions.
- What first brought you to this city, and what keeps you here? Example: I originally came here for work, having been offered a post I couldn't really turn down, but if I'm honest it was the sheer energy of the place that persuaded me to stay. What keeps me is the feeling that there's always something new around the corner, whether it's a gallery I've never noticed or a neighbourhood I've yet to explore.
- Some people say we increasingly live our lives online. To what extent is that true for you? Example: To a degree that's certainly true of me, in that I shop, bank and keep up with friends almost entirely online. That said, I make a conscious effort to draw a line: I'd hate to reach the point where a screen mediates every single interaction, so I deliberately protect time for things that happen offline, like cooking with friends or simply going for a walk.
- How important do you think it is to keep learning throughout life? Why? Example: I'd say it's absolutely vital, partly because the world changes so quickly that the skills which served us a decade ago can become obsolete almost overnight, and partly because learning keeps the mind supple and curious. There's also something deeply satisfying about it: the sense that you're still growing, rather than coasting on what you happened to learn at twenty.
- If you could master one skill instantly, what would it be, and why? Example: Without hesitation I'd choose fluency in another language, largely because it opens a door not just to communication but to an entire way of seeing the world. So much of a culture is locked inside its idioms and its humour, and to grasp those instantly, rather than after years of grinding effort, would feel like being handed a second pair of eyes.
Speaking Part 2 — Collaborative task
Look at the pictures, which show four cultural projects a city might fund. First talk together about pictures A and D for about a minute. Then look at all the pictures, discuss the situation the examiner describes and try to reach a decision together (about three minutes).
- Now, in this part of the test you're going to do something together. Here are some pictures of different cultural activities. First, I'd like you to look at pictures A and D and talk together about what the people seem to be getting out of the experience. You have about a minute for this. Example: Well, in picture A the audience in the concert hall seem utterly absorbed — they're sitting very still, and you get the sense that the pleasure comes from concentration, from giving the music their full attention for a couple of hours. Picture D couldn't be more different. The crowd at the street festival are almost part of the performance themselves: people are dancing, there's a child on her father's shoulders, and nobody seems to mind that they can barely hear the drummers over the noise. I'd say what they're getting is a sense of belonging, of the whole neighbourhood being out together, whereas the concert-goers are having something more private, even though they're in a crowd as well.
- Now look at all the pictures. I'd like you to imagine that a city has money to spend on ONE cultural project: a new concert hall, a free public library, a museum of local history or a programme of street festivals. Talk together about how each project might benefit the city, and then decide which ONE should be funded. You have about three minutes to talk about this. Example: Shall we go through them in turn? For me the library in picture B has the strongest case, because it serves practically everyone — the teenager doing homework, the pensioner with the newspaper, the parents with toddlers — and nobody has to pay to walk in. The concert hall would certainly raise the city's profile, but I suspect it would mainly benefit people who already go to concerts. The museum interests me more than I expected: the family in picture C are clearly enjoying themselves, and a museum of local history could give newcomers some sense of where they've arrived. The festivals are wonderful, but they're over in a weekend and leave nothing behind. So if we really have to choose one, I'd go for the library, largely because its benefits last and reach the people who have the fewest alternatives — although I'd be open to a case for the museum.
Speaking Part 3 — Long turn and discussion
Each candidate is given a card with a question and some ideas. Speak on your own for about two minutes on the question; you may use the ideas on the card if you wish. Then answer the examiner's follow-up questions and discuss them with your partner.
- Now, in this part of the test you're each going to talk on your own for about two minutes. Here is your card. Question: Has technology improved the way we communicate? Ideas: the speed and reach of communication; the depth of our relationships; misunderstanding and tone. Remember you have about two minutes. Would you like to begin now? Example: It's hard to deny that technology has transformed the way we communicate, but 'improved' is a bigger claim, and I think the honest answer depends on which aspect you look at.If we start with speed and reach, the case is overwhelming. My grandmother emigrated in the sixties and heard from her sister perhaps three times a year, by letter; I can talk to a cousin in Melbourne on a video call while I'm waiting for a bus. For people who are housebound, or who belong to small communities scattered across the world, that isn't a luxury — it's a lifeline.Where I'm less convinced is the depth of what we communicate. Because contact costs almost nothing, we tend to spread ourselves thinly: a stream of short messages, a thumbs-up here, a photo there, and very few conversations that go on long enough for anyone to say something they hadn't planned to say. I sometimes think we've traded a small number of deep exchanges for a very large number of shallow ones.And then there's the problem of tone. So much of what we mean is carried by the voice and the face that when you strip them away, misunderstandings multiply. A message dashed off in a hurry can read as curt or even hostile, and I suspect a surprising number of friendships have cooled over a badly judged text that the sender never gave a second thought to.So, on balance, I'd say technology has enormously improved the convenience and range of our communication, but not necessarily its quality. That part is still up to us — whether we use the tools to have better conversations or simply more of them.
- Do you think face-to-face conversation will ever disappear? Example: I very much doubt it, because there's something in face-to-face contact that no technology has managed to replicate. Although screens are convenient, they cannot fully replace the subtle cues we read in a person's expression, the pauses, the warmth of physical presence. If anything, the more time we spend communicating remotely, the more we seem to crave the real thing, which is why people still cross cities, and continents, simply to be in the same room.
- How might communication change in the next fifty years? Example: I'd speculate that the interface itself will fade into the background, with voice, gesture and perhaps even direct neural links replacing the keyboards and screens we fumble with today. Translation may become so seamless that language ceases to be a barrier at all. Yet I suspect the fundamental human need for genuine connection, for being heard and understood, will remain entirely unchanged, however dazzling the technology that carries it.
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C2 Proficiency (CPE) Speaking Practice Test 2 with Answers
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History & progressFilm & mediaEconomics & work
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Start Test 4 →C2 Proficiency (CPE) Speaking Practice Test 5 with Answers
Philosophy & happinessTravel & cultureEducation & learning
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The psychology of habitFood & societyInnovation & invention
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Start Test 6 →C2 Proficiency (CPE) Speaking Practice Test 7 with Answers
Creativity & geniusThe animal worldGlobalisation
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Start Test 7 →C2 Proficiency (CPE) Speaking Practice Test 8 with Answers
Time & perceptionFashion & identityHealth & medicine
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Start Test 8 →C2 Proficiency (CPE) Speaking Practice Test 9 with Answers
Humour & societySport & the bodyThe politics of language
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Start Test 9 →C2 Proficiency (CPE) Speaking Practice Test 10 with Answers
Dreams & sleepPhotography & truthThe future of work
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Start Test 10 →
About the C2 Prof Speaking paper
About 16 minutes: interview, a collaborative task and a long turn with discussion.
How C2 Prof is scored
The real C2 Proficiency (CPE) is reported on the Cambridge English Scale, and a grade of A, B or C is a pass. On 7ESL each auto-marked paper gives an instant practice score in shields and XP; writing and speaking show model answers so you can self-assess.
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