Understanding your PET speaking scores

Understanding your assessment

Spoken Production

PET

Level B1

Understanding the speaking rubric is what gives you feedback on how to improve. This is the Cambridge B1 rubric for intermediate spoken English production. Click on the slides to better understand the grading criteria.

Grammar and Vocabulary

What does this mean?

Your rubric combines grammar and vocabulary as one criteria. To get higher scores, you need to be consistent in both. For vocabulary, we look for appropriate words for the context. For example, saying you felt unsafe instead of insecure when talking about dangerous areas. We also look for less common vocabulary. Replace basic words like good, bad, big. Use synonyms and avoid repetition. For grammar, we don't look for perfection! We look for using a mix or range of tenses, both simple and complex. Making mistakes when using passive structures, past modals, perfect continuous tenses, inversion, etc., is ok! As long as your meaning is clear. Using perfect grammar, but only using simple tenses will not give you a high score.

Your rubric has a scale of 1-5. To help you understand what your score means, click on the icon to the right.

Discourse Management

What does this mean?

Discourse Management is about your ability to have a conversation with someone. For high scores, you need to be able to speak without help from your peers or teachers. Similar to organisation in writing, you should use connectors, linking words, and organizational phrases in speaking. This means using a variety of sequence words, expressions to link your ideas, and words and expressions to move from one idea to the next. In general, the more you express an idea and justify an idea, describe your thought process and your opinions, the higher your score in discourse management.

Your rubric has a scale of 1-5. To help you understand what your score means, click on the icon to the right.

Pronunciation

What does this mean?

Pronunciation is more than just saying words correctly—though that’s part of it. You need to speak clearly and understandably so others can follow you easily. Practice difficult sounds in English (like /th/, final -s, or -ed endings). Use correct word and sentence stress to help listeners know which words are important. Change your voice when asking questions or showing feelings, this is called intonation. Your speaking should sound natural and expressive, not robotic or memorized. To get a high score, your pronunciation should help your meaning, not make it confusing.

Your rubric has a scale of 1-5. To help you understand what your score means, click on the icon to the right.

Interactive Communication

What does this mean?

Interactive communication refers to how well you speak with someone else. It measures how well you keep the conversation going. Engaging with your partner, responding to their ideas, asking them questions, and acknowledging their ideas are ways to increase your score in this area. It is important NOT TO DOMINATE the conversation. You should give your partner an opportunity to speak. How well you start ideas, respond, and stop is part of your assessment. Natural turn-taking is important in this part of the rubric. You don't just want to wait your turn to start speaking. In general, show interest, cooperate, and speak with your partner in a natural way. Good scores in this area mean you aren't just speaking, you are communicating.

Your rubric has a scale of 1-5. To help you understand what your score means, click on the icon to the right.