How long can I think before answering the question in Part 3 of the Speaking test?
The examiner knows that you will probably never have come across these questions before (in fact, they are designed this way) and that you are not a robot.
Thinking before you speak does not affect your fluency score. Pausing, hesitating or speaking slowly in the middle of your answer so you can find the words you need does.
There are two ways you can buy thinking time:
- Take a deep breath before answering. This has several benefits
- it gives you thinking time
- you don't have to worry about producing "time-buying expressions"
- it helps combat stress
- it's very natural
- Use time-buying expressions like hmm...that's an interesting question or I've never thought about that before...
- be careful: if you can't produce these expressions with ZERO effort/attention, then you're not buying time - you're just saying something that isn't the answer, and there's no point in doing this
