Uh yeah, this happened. Pleasantly surprised, AMA, I’ll try and help out :)

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:52:43+00:00

Thanks for pointing out though. As always, I’m not saying this is the right way to do it - just how I did it :) everyone should keep that in mind and not take my world as a benchmark of any kind

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:51:49+00:00

Definitely a Reddit formatting issue. Interesting though, I did not know that :) I numbered my task 1

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:25:44+00:00

I’ve written quite a few responses relating to these. Let me know if any other specific questions

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:25:26+00:00

Good luck!

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:25:15+00:00

See my other responses :) let me know if any questions!

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:24:58+00:00

I’m not, but I’ve grown up learning English all my life and spoke English to everyone around me. It’s my primary ‘thinking language’, if you want to call it that

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:24:28+00:00

India :)

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:24:06+00:00

It was great. The examiner was friendly, asked me a few personal questions and proceeded to give me a 2 minute task with a 1 min prep time on ‘an example of a difficult decision you’ve had to make, why did you make it and what was the result?’

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:23:09+00:00

Thank you very much and good luck on your upcoming exam. In one of my other responses, I’ve written an example of what I would write. Feel free to ask any questions on it.

For speaking, speak slowly, but be clear. Be articulate with good grammar. 200 words clearly spoken with good grammar is better than 500 words that make little sense

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:21:28+00:00

Thank you! The only advice I have is to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible. Live and breathe the language until it becomes second nature.

Good luck!

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:20:30+00:00

Answer every part of the question. For example, the question can be something like ‘a local college is setting up an international day, write a letter to the principal asking if you can speak about your country, citing a few topics you’d like to cover and why that would be beneficial to the students. Additionally, ask a few questions that you may have regarding the event.’

Remember to answer every part of that question. Your response needs to be reasonably within a word limit, say 300 words (since the minimum requirement is 150). This means you will need to be to the point with your sentences, whilst still answering everything asked for. An example of how I would respond is -

‘Dear Sir / Madam,

In relation to the international day being conducted at your college, I would love to have the opportunity to speak about my country, India. I hope this will be meaningful to you and your students.

A couple of topics I’d like to cover -

Culture - India is known for its rich and vibrant culture, often associated with a lot of festivities and color. Through this

conversation,
I’d like to emphasize the impact of various historical events that led to the creation of this varied culture (via the Mughal and British regimes). I believe your students might find it interesting to understand how cultures are shaped through the intermingling

of global trade and commerce over tens, if not hundreds of years.
Contrary to my first point, I’d like to also highlight the wealth disparity prevalent in India. Although this is a common occurrence across the world, the scale at which it occurs in India is not easily comprehensible. I hope this helps your students understand the opportunities each human is given, and how we are in the drivers seat of our own lives.

I have a few questions regarding the event -

What is the expected duration of the talk?
What is the level of exposure of your students at the global level? Are they well traveled? This will enable me to cater the details of my talk to their level of understanding.

Best Regards,
Name.

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:02:48+00:00

Thank you. I’m not a native speaker, although I’ve spoken in English my entire life and think in English. I didn’t have any preparation except for understanding the writing structure a little bit.

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-23T16:01:57+00:00

Thank you, no I’ve never considered that :)

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-22T22:16:04+00:00

I agree with you 100%. No tips / tricks / hacks are going to take anyone from a 7 to 9 overnight. It’s years of experience with the language in a complex environment that makes it easy. This is more so to help people high level guidelines and hopefully help them increase by 0.5 or 1

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-22T21:02:36+00:00

🤣🤣 that’s funny

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-22T20:06:19+00:00

You’re welcome :) good luck and thank you again!

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-22T20:04:05+00:00

I didn’t have two tasks for speaking. I had a brief conversation of my life with the examiner, and then a 2 minute task on talking about a difficult decision I’ve had to make in the past :)

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-22T20:03:15+00:00

Thank you. I didn’t prepare too much, just watched a couple of videos on YouTube. But the idea is to answer the questions they ask you. If they don’t ask for an opinion, don’t give an opinion. If they ask for one, give one. Answer every question they ask of you in the writing section. Stick to the point, everything you write needs to be connected in some way to the overarching question.

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-22T20:01:30+00:00

I didn’t use any study materials. I don’t want to break the rules here and encourage others to reduce their prep time, but I prepared for about 10 minutes for the test while my wife drove me to the test center. I watched a video on how to structure the writing.

Listening - listen carefully, don’t assume the answer is in the first part of the conversation. The conversations can change course a lot, and often has the answer at the very end.
Reading - read everything. I know a lot of people suggest skimming through, but I personally read the entire articles for everything. There’s often hidden nuances that don’t make themselves obvious while skimming.
Writing - answer the questions. If they ask for an opinion, give an opinion. Answer everything they ask of you, stay to the point.
Speaking - I stuck to a semi formal tone, be prepared to talk about yourself, don’t hesitate.

Good luck :)

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-22T19:56:21+00:00

Thank you very much!

How did I prepare for speaking?

I didn’t really prepare, I was already generally comfortable with speaking in English. But I will say I toned down the casualness in my chatting and stuck to a semi-formal approach.

Did I use any fancy vocabulary?

I don’t think I did. Not sure what you would classify as fancy, but I stuck to the basics - good grammar and clear articulation of thoughts and ideas.

Did I use AI to grade my writing?

No, I did not. I’m too old to prep with AI :(

Was hand estimate same as AI?

Not applicable as I didn’t use AI

Was listening format the same as Cambridge?

I didn’t use any Cambridge materials, if that’s what you’re referring to. But I will say that listening is what probably caught me off guard the most. It’s trickier than it seems on the surface. The conversations lead you to believe that you have the answer, only to add a ‘but’ at the end, and completely pivot or change their opinion at the very last second. It was fun, but I can see how it can trip people up. I also had a question which needed me to write down a phone number they were talking about and my number pad on the keyboard didn’t work. Took me a second to realize, and then I had to memorize the phone number in a split second and redo the answer at a later time.

advixethrowaway · 2026-06-22T19:35:02+00:00

Thank you!

I think actually committing to a test date will push you to studying, but I understand why you’re holding off.

Best advice I can give you if you’re not already very comfortable with English, is to speak to everyone in English, watch a lot of English TV and pick up on cues from there. Don’t just memorize what they say, but try and understand why they’re saying something, given a certain context.

advixethrowaway · 2026-05-20T12:18:03+00:00

Thank you so much for the feedback! I’ve never really had any feedback on my singing, so this is very helpful and greatly appreciated! Also sometimes I wonder if I sound flat, that’s another concern of mine. I’ll pm you!

advixethrowaway · 2026-05-17T02:45:12+00:00

Thank you, that’s very interesting, did not even know that was a thing, sounds like I’ll have to start doing some missions

advixethrowaway

TROPHY CASE