Speaking — Collaborative Discussion (Parts 3 & 4) for the CAE Exam

Common failure modes

These are the patterns that cause most candidates to lose marks on this topic. Recognising them in advance is half the work.

• !Responding to partner statements with simple agreement or disagreement without elaboration
• !Running out of content because they exhausted their ideas too quickly
• !Part 4: Giving short factual answers instead of extended C1-level discussion

Study tips

• 1Practice the PEEL technique for Part 4 responses: Point (state view), Evidence (example), Explanation (why), Link (back to the broader topic).
• 2Build abstract discussion vocabulary by topic: society, education, environment, technology, culture, health.
• 3Practise "thinking out loud" — examiners reward the process of reasoning, not just conclusions.

Sample CAE Speaking — Collaborative Discussion (Parts 3 & 4) questions

These sample items mirror the format and difficulty of real CAE questions. Practice with thousands more on the free Koydo question bank.

1. 1

   Examiner (Part 4): "To what extent do you think social media has changed the nature of friendship?" A C1 response begins:

   • A"Yes, it has changed friendship a lot."
   • B"I think social media has both benefits and drawbacks."
   • C"That's a fascinating question. I think the nature of friendship has been fundamentally altered in that the concept of maintaining a large network has become normalised, yet at the cost of deeper, more meaningful individual connections."Correct
   • D"Social media is good but also bad for friendships."
   Why this answer?

   Option C demonstrates C1 discourse management (extended, structured response), lexical resource (fundamentally altered, normalised, meaningful connections), and critical thinking (acknowledges a change and evaluates its implications). It directly answers "to what extent" by implying a significant transformation with caveats.