C1 Advanced · Speaking · Part 3
Weigh up abstract prompts with a live AI partner and reach a decision together.
A collaborative task with your partner: a set of prompts to discuss, then a decision to reach together. This is the part where interactive communication is assessed most directly, and it is the reason a rehearsed speech is actively harmful here.
You are marked on how you work with your partner — inviting them in, responding to what they actually said, disagreeing without ending the conversation, building on their point rather than waiting for your turn. Do not rush to the decision either: the discussion is the task, and the decision only comes at the end. A pair who agree on everything in thirty seconds have both given the examiner very little to assess.
At C1 the discussion phase is longer and the second instruction is narrower: after talking the options over, you are typically asked to agree on just one or two of them. That makes the negotiation itself the assessed part. Conceding a point with a reason, or holding one against pressure, shows more than politely splitting the difference does.
Interrupt politely — "can I just say", "that's true, but". You are assessed on your own performance, and finding a way into the conversation is itself part of interactive communication, so a passive turn costs you rather than protecting you.
No. You have to discuss it properly and reach the point of deciding; agreeing to differ, with reasons, is a perfectly good outcome. What is marked is the discussion, not the conclusion.
