UK SELT SimulatorHow to practise speaking English for the B1 test
Published 2 October 2026
Speaking practice is hard to do alone. There is no one to talk back to you, correct you, or react to what you say. But you do not need a study partner to get better at the B1 speaking test. You need drills that are tied to the real parts of your exam — not generic chatting to yourself.
This article gives you concrete routines for both approved B1 tests: Trinity GESE Grade 5 and LanguageCert ESOL SELT B1. Each drill is built around a real part of the exam and its real timing, so when you practise, you are practising the actual task — not just speaking in general.
Know the shape of your exam first
Trinity GESE Grade 5 lasts 10 minutes in total, one-to-one with an examiner, in two phases: the Topic phase (up to 5 minutes) and the Conversation (up to 5 minutes).
LanguageCert ESOL SELT B1 lasts 11 to 13 minutes, also one-to-one, in four fixed parts: personal questions, two role-plays, a decision task, and a listening-and-speaking section.
If you are not sure which one you are sitting, check your booking confirmation before you start practising — the drills below are organised by exam, because the two formats are different.
Practising for Trinity GESE Grade 5
Drill 1 — talk to your topic form out loud (up to 5 minutes)
Before the exam, you prepare a topic form: five points about a personal topic of your choosing. In the real exam, the examiner picks points from your form in no particular order, and you need to cover at least four of the five.
Practise the same way. Write your five points on a card. Each day, shuffle the order — literally mix up which point you start with — and talk about three or four of them out loud, in full linked sentences, not single facts. Then stop and ask yourself a question about your topic, out loud, the way you would ask the examiner. This matters: you are required to ask the examiner at least one question during this phase, and it is easy to forget when you are alone.
Record yourself on your phone while you do this. Do not write a script and read it — reciting a memorised answer is specifically marked down in this exam. If what you said sounds too smooth and rehearsed when you play it back, say it again in different words next time.
Drill 2 — rehearse all six Conversation topics, two at a time (up to 5 minutes)
The Conversation phase covers two subject areas chosen by the examiner from a fixed pool of six: festivals, means of transport, special occasions, entertainment, music, and recent personal experiences. You are not told in advance which two, so you need to be ready for all six.
Pick two at random each day — write all six on slips of paper and draw two, if that helps — and talk about each one out loud for a short while. Give information, add an opinion, and finish by asking a question about that topic, just as you must in the real phase. Over a week, you will have practised every topic more than once.
Practising for LanguageCert SELT B1
Drill 3 — answer, then justify (Part 1, 1.5 to 2.5 minutes)
Part 1 is personal questions, and the examiner often follows your answer with “Why?” Practise this habit directly: ask yourself a simple personal question out loud (favourite season, a typical weekday, a place you like), answer it in a full sentence, then add a reason without being asked. Also practise spelling your own family name aloud, letter by letter — it is part of this phase, and it feels strange until you have done it a few times.
Drill 4 — say the opening line (Part 2, 1.5 to 2 minutes)
Part 2 has two short role-plays. In the second one, the examiner sets up the situation and then says “You start.” and waits. You cannot practise a real two-way role-play alone, but you can practise the part that is actually being tested: starting. Think of an everyday situation — asking a stranger for directions, asking a colleague for help, returning something to a shop — and say your opening line out loud. Just the opener. Do this for a different situation each day.
Drill 5 — ask and answer, both sides (Part 3, 2.5 minutes)
Part 3 is a decision task: you and the examiner look at a shared set of pictured options and talk towards a decision. This part is built to be two-way — you must ask questions as well as answer them. Alone, practise both halves: pick a goal (where to eat, which gift to buy) and two or three imaginary options, then say the question out loud, pause, and say a plausible answer yourself. Switching roles like this keeps you producing both the asking language and the answering language that this part actually tests.
Drill 6 — listen twice, answer three (Part 4A, 3 minutes)
In the real exam, the examiner reads a short monologue to you twice, and you answer three questions about it. Practise with any short audio you can find — a news clip, a podcast segment, a voice message. Play it twice. Take notes while you listen, the way you would be allowed to in the exam. Then, out loud, answer three questions of your own: what happened, who was involved, and why.
Drill 7 — thirty seconds of notes, then talk (Part 4B, 2.5 to 3 minutes)
Part 4B gives you 30 seconds to prepare, then you speak alone for up to 1.5 minutes on a topic linked to what you just heard. Set a timer. Give yourself exactly 30 seconds to jot two or three short notes on any topic you know well — your job, your neighbourhood, something you did recently. Then speak for 1.5 minutes without stopping, using your notes if you need them. The goal is reaching the full time without running out of things to say.
Three habits that help with both exams
Record yourself. You cannot hear your own hesitations, repeated words, or long silences while you are speaking. Play the recording back and you will.
Time yourself. Use your phone’s timer for every drill above. Both exams run to fixed timings, and most candidates have no real sense of how long 5 minutes or 1.5 minutes of talking actually feels like until they have timed it a few times.
Speak the words, not just the thoughts. Thinking through an answer in your head is not the same skill as producing it out loud, at speed, in real time. Every drill above only works if you actually say it — standing up, in an empty room, on a voice note, it does not matter where.
Before you book
We are practice software, not immigration advisers. Whether the B1 test is the right one for your application, and which providers are currently approved, is decided by the Home Office. Check the current requirements at gov.uk before you book.
Practise with feedback, not just repetition
Talking to yourself tells you whether you can produce the language. It does not tell you how you are doing. UK SELT Simulator runs spoken mock sessions in both formats — GESE Grade 5 (Topic phase, then Conversation) and LanguageCert SELT B1 (all four parts, in order) — with an AI examiner and a short report after each session. See how it works.
UK SELT Simulator is independent practice software. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by UKVI, the Home Office, Trinity College London or LanguageCert.