Speaking
Describe the best holiday you have ever had is one of the most common cue cards in the bank, and the temptation is to choose the most impressive trip you have taken. Resist it. The best answer is the one you can say the most about, and a modest holiday with one memorable afternoon in it will fill two minutes far more easily than an expensive one you can only describe in general terms.
Describe the best holiday you have ever had
You should say:
and explain why it was your best holiday.
Before you read any further, do the task properly. One minute of notes, two minutes of speaking, recorded. A model answer is far more useful once you have produced your own and can hear the difference.
Read this aloud once you have recorded your own attempt, ideally recording the model as well. Listen back to both and compare your pace and your intonation rather than your vocabulary. The gap is usually smaller than candidates expect on words and larger than they expect on delivery.
The best holiday I can remember was actually only a few months ago, not long after I arrived in New Zealand. We went camping at Mangawhai Heads, which is a couple of hours north of Auckland. It was over the Labour weekend, so it was busy, but the atmosphere more than made up for that.
The woman at the campsite told us about a beach we could get to that was not signposted — it was down a dirt track full of potholes, and we very nearly turned back. When we finally got there I could not quite believe it. The sand was a startling white and there was almost nobody on it. I have always liked beaches; I went most weekends in the summer as a child. But this one was in a different category, mostly because it was so clean and so empty.
I went with a couple of friends from my language school. We are from different countries but we are in the same class, so we speak at roughly the same level, which makes conversation easier than it is with native speakers — nobody has to slow down for anybody else.
There are several reasons I would call it the best holiday I have had. The beach is one, obviously. The other is that it was the first time I had got out of the city and seen anything of the country beyond it, and I had begun to feel I was living in one suburb rather than in New Zealand.
The other thing was the people. There was a family camping next to us who invited us over to their barbecue on the second evening, which we had not expected at all — we had brought almost nothing and they seemed to have brought everything. On top of which it was the perfect opportunity to practise, since it was three hours of unbroken conversation in English with people who had no reason to be patient with us and were anyway.
A campsite two hours away, not a continent. That choice is deliberate, and it works because the speaker can remember specific details: the dirt track, the potholes, the barbecue on the second evening.
We very nearly turned back… When we finally got there I could not quite believe it. A moment of doubt followed by a reveal gives the answer a shape, and shape is what stops a description drifting.
The aside about going to beaches as a child brings in a past habit with used to force and gives the speaker something to measure the new beach against.
The strangers with the barbecue arrive at the end, which is the right place for the strongest material. Candidates often use their best example first and then trail off.
Take the structures, not the content. An answer copied wholesale is audible within a sentence, and examiners hear memorised material constantly. These patterns can be attached to anything.
Describe a short trip you enjoyed.
and explain why you enjoyed it.
Describe a time you travelled somewhere new.
and say whether you would return.
Describe an occasion when strangers helped you.
and say how it affected you.
Describe a holiday that did not go as planned.
and say what you learned from it.
Quick question, 10 seconds
Where do you want to study or move to?
When are you planning to go?
How far along are you?
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