Cambridge Speaking Paper - FCE - CAE - CPE

FCE speaking test

Charline (French)
Grammar and Vocabulary 3.0
Discourse Management 3.0
Pronunciation 3.5
Interactive Communication 3.0

Alice (Italian)
Grammar and Vocabulary 3.5
Discourse Management 3.0
Pronunciation 3.5
Interactive Communication 3.5

CAE speaking test

Magali
Grammatical Resource 3.0
Lexical Resource 3.0
Discourse Management 3.5
Pronunciation 3.0
Interactive Communication 3.5

Andrea
Grammatical Resource 3.5
Lexical Resource 3.5
Discourse Management 3.5
Pronunciation 3.5
Interactive Communication 4.0

Speaking tests are conducted by trained examiners. The quality assurance of Speaking Examiners (SEs) is managed by Team Leaders (TLs) who are in turn responsible to a Professional Support Leader (PSL), who is the professional representative of Cambridge English Language Assessment for the Speaking tests in a given country or region. All of the examiners (PSLs, TLs and SEs) must prove each year, through a certification process, that they are competent to assess. In addition, they are regularly monitored during live testing sessions.

Although candidates take the test in pairs or groups of three, throughout the test they are assessed on their individual performance and not in relation to each other. They are awarded marks by two examiners: an assessor and an interlocutor.

The interlocutor awards a mark for the performance as a whole, using the Global Achievement scale.
The assessor awards marks for five individual criteria:

• Grammatical Resource
• Lexical Resource
• Discourse Management
• Pronunciation
• Interactive Communication.

You can find more information on the assessment criteria and a guide on how to use them in Assessing speaking performance.