Success

C2 Proficiency · Speaking Long Turn · Cambridge Ready original exercise

Speak on your own for about two minutes in answer to the question on your card, using the ideas if they help. Then answer a short question about what your partner said.

You've got about two minutes to speak, and then the rest of us will join in.

Let's start with you. Here is your card. There's a question on it for you to answer, along with a few ideas you might like to use, though you're free to bring in your own.

Success

personal fulfilment

recognition from others

financial security

Is success something we define for ourselves, or something other people define for us?

What do you think?

Do you agree?

How about you?

Do you think people judge success too much by appearances? (Why? / Why not?)

Can someone feel successful without anyone else noticing? (Why? / Why not?)

Does success mean different things at different ages? (In what way?)

Again, you have about two minutes before we join the conversation.

Now it's your turn. Here's your card, with a different question and some ideas you can draw on if they're helpful.

Success

learning from mistakes

resilience

public attitudes to failure

How important is failure on the way to success?

What do you think?

Do you agree?

How about you?

Are people today less willing to accept failure than before? (Why? / Why not?)

Should young people be protected from failing? (Why? / Why not?)

Is it easier to learn from your own failures or from other people's? (Why?)

In this last part, each of you will speak alone for about two minutes on a question I'll give you. While your partner is talking, please listen carefully, because afterwards I'll ask you to respond to what they've said.

Answer this Speaking task out loud and an AI examiner marks it on the official Cambridge Speaking criteria, with what you did well and what to fix next.

Practise this Speaking task free online: solo with exam timers and a self-recorder, as a live mock Speaking test with a partner over a video call, or as a full three-person mock exam — a real examiner reads the official examiner script to Candidates A and B. Rooms are invite-by-link; partners can join without an account.

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