Getting to know the new MUET Speaking test format is important to get you ready for the exam. This article will show you what you can expect to see in the paper and other relevant information regarding the test.
The MUET Speaking paper has undergone a change of format starting from the year 2021. Let’s now look at what the speaking test is all about to prepare you better for the exams.
Let’s now dive into this paper.
Test Structure
First of all, let’s look at the MUET speaking test structure. The speaking test is made up of two parts – part 1 and Part 2. What you basically need to know is Part one is the individual presentation and Part 2 is the group discussion.
Part 1 of the speaking paper is based on one prompt. All candidates will be given two minutes for you to prepare. Then two minutes after that for you to present your task individually.
Part 2 of the paper is the group discussion. This group discussion will be based on one mind map with five prompts. I will be talking more about this later on in this article. The time allocated for you to prepare for Part 2 is 3 minutes long. This is a little bit longer than the preparation time for Part 1.
After this 3-minute preparation time, all candidates will have 8 to 12 minutes to have the discussion. This discussion will be based on a mind map with the 5 prompts [prompts: something like a word that helps and suggests].
MUET Speaking General Information
This here is the general information that you would need to know about the speaking test. The overall marks for the MUET speaking paper is 90 marks. The weighting of the paper is 25% of the whole of the MUET exam. This is the same percentage allocated for the other three papers namely the listening, reading and writing paper. The allocated time for this test is 30 minutes.
Examination Days
Some students are quite new to this test so I think I should take this chance to talk a little bit more about how the speaking paper is conducted.
As we know there are four papers in the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) . The speaking paper which is MUET Paper 2 is going to be conducted before the other three papers. It will be held on a weekday between Monday till Thursday about a few days or a few weeks in advance. The other three papers which are the reading, writing and the listening paper will be held on one chosen Saturday.
Candidates will be put in an exam like sitting condition. That will be in a school hall or in a classroom where you will be sitting for all these three papers. The papers will come one after the other with a short break time in between. Every candidate who is sitting for that particular MUET session will be having the exam on the same day throughout the country. Note: MUET is held three times in a year.
Get these items ready for the test
On the day of the speaking test, I need to remind you of a few things. I often see that sometimes some candidates tend to forget these. First of all is for you to bring your identification card. Next is your MUET examination slip. This examination slip could be downloaded from the Malaysia Examination Council (MEC) portal and then printed out.
Once it is printed out you will need to take note of the MUET examination center, the date and the time slot of your speaking test. This is because all this information about the test might be different from where and when your friends are having their speaking tests. Also do remember to bring a pen for you to write with.
MUET Examination Layout
These are the two rooms that will be used for MUET Speaking. They are the Quarantine Room and the MUET Examination Room.
When you first arrive at your examination centers you will be heading straight to the MUET quarantine room. Here you will meet with an examination personnel who is going to register you for the day. He or she will then put you into groups of four and will let you know whether you are candidate A, B, C or D.
When the time comes you and your group members will be called into the MUET examination room. You will then be sitting in the designated [designated: appointed and made ready] place as candidate A, B, C or D.
You will see in front of you that there are one piece of question paper and a piece of writing paper. The question paper will be printed on both sides as on one side, you will have Part 1 of the MUET speaking test question and on the other side of the paper is the question for Part 2. The writing paper is for you to write all your notes when you are doing your brain storming for Part 1 and Part 2.
MUET Speaking Part 1 Sample Question
Part one of the speaking test will look like this. All four candidates will be receiving different questions and each candidate will not know what the other candidates’ questions are.
So, you can see here that there are two segments of the question. First is the situation given and then there’s the task allocated for the different candidates.
Part 1 Question for Each Candidate
The situation that you will get will be the same for all candidates. The tasks given for each candidate on the other hand will all be different. The topic for this question as you can see here is on ways to spend our free time.
This is the task for candidate A. If you are candidate A you will need to talk about activities that are fun to do to spend your free time. Let’s look at the tasks given to the other candidates next.
This is the question given to candidate B. So, if you are candidate B your task is for you to talk about activities that will bring you closer to your family.
This is the task for candidate C. So, if you are candidate C your task is for you to talk about activities that will benefit your school as a way of spending your free time.
This is the question given to candidate D. If you are candidate D your task is for you to talk about activities that will benefit your home environment.
So, all these tasks given are for the same topic which are the ways to spend your free time. And the task is for you to talk about activities that will benefit certain aspects of our lives.
Like I said before all four candidates will not have a clue of what the other candidates’ questions are going to be like. But as you can see all the tasks are related. I will have an article related to how to answer Part 1 and another article on how to answer Part 2 of the speaking paper soon.
MUET Speaking Part 2 Sample Question
Let’s talk about the situation given here in Part 2. So, as you can see the situation for Part 2 of the speaking paper will be different but connected with the question given in part one.
As you have seen just now the topic for part 1 was on the ways to spend our free time. For Part 2, is for you to discuss about the different ways for you to relax after a long day – as you can see it is interrelated.
This is the mind map with five different prompts for Part 2 for you to base your discussion on. For speaking Part 2 anybody can start the discussion and you can talk about any part of the prompts first, as you like.
So that means that there are no prompts allocated to any one candidate specifically. So, all candidates can use all the prompts given.
On a final note, I would like to remind all candidates that to do well for MUET speaking is for you to put in a lot of practice. You need to get used to answering the two parts of this paper. Put in a lot of hours to do the practice and you will see the improvement both in your answer and your confidence as well. Work hard!
