O-Level Planned Response: How Part 1 Works
Paper 4 is worth 30 marks and 20% of the grade. It has two parts, and this page is about the first.
What the syllabus says
Candidates plan and deliver a response of up to 2 minutes to a video clip and accompanying prompt presented on a computer screen. Candidates are assessed on their ability to present their ideas and opinions fluently and effectively to engage the listener.
Three things in that sentence decide how you prepare.
A video clip and a prompt. Both are on the screen. The clip sets a situation; the prompt is the question you actually answer.
Up to 2 minutes. That is a ceiling, not a target, but a response that stops at forty seconds has not given the examiner enough to mark. Two minutes of ordinary speech is roughly 250 to 300 words.
To engage the listener. This is not a reading test. You are being marked on whether someone would want to keep listening.
The clip is not a listening test
This is the most useful fact about Paper 4, and it is stated plainly in the syllabus, about Part 2:
They will not be asked any questions about what people say in the video clip.
So you are never going to be quizzed on a detail you might have missed. The clip gives you a situation to think about. If you did not catch a line of dialogue, it does not matter. Watch for what the situation is and what is at stake in it, not for facts to memorise.
How the 15 marks split
The syllabus publishes both scales.
Response, 10 marks. Judged on development and organisation of ideas and expression of ideas. The top band, 9 to 10, is "a well-considered response which is well-developed and organised" that "uses a wide range of well-chosen vocabulary and structures".
Delivery, 5 marks. Judged on pronunciation, fluency and intonation. One descriptor per mark. Band 5 is "delivery is fluent with clear pronunciation, and intonation varied to good effect".
Two things follow. Two thirds of the marks are for what you say, so a beautifully spoken answer with one thin idea cannot go far. And intonation is named explicitly, so a flat, careful monotone costs marks even when every word is correct.
Your ten minutes
The twenty minutes for the whole paper includes ten minutes of preparation. That is a lot of time, and most of it should go on thinking rather than writing. A workable split:
- Watch, and name the situation in one sentence to yourself. What is happening, and who has something to lose?
- Read the prompt twice. Answer the question asked, not the topic it sits in. A prompt about whether your school should do something is not a prompt about the world.
- Decide your position in one line. You cannot organise an answer you have not committed to. A clear ordinary view beats a subtle undecided one.
- Find two reasons and one concrete example each. Two developed reasons beat five listed ones. "Well-developed" in the top band means exactly this.
- Decide how you will open and how you will finish. These are the two moments the examiner remembers, and they are the two you can prepare word for word.
- Say it through once, quietly, and time it. If you run short, the missing thing is almost always the example.
Do not write a script. You cannot read 300 words aloud in two minutes and sound like you are talking to someone, and the delivery marks are for sounding like you are talking to someone.
What a Band 5 response does that a Band 3 does not
| Band 3 (5 to 6) | Band 5 (9 to 10) | |
|---|---|---|
| Ideas | Some development and organisation | Well-considered, well-developed and organised |
| Language | Some attempt at a range of vocabulary and structures | A wide range of well-chosen vocabulary and structures |
The practical difference is usually development. A Band 3 answer names three reasons and leaves them. A Band 5 answer takes two and pushes each one until something specific appears: an example, a consequence, a case where it would not hold.
A shape that fits two minutes
- Position, in one sentence. Say what you think before you explain it.
- First reason, with an example. About forty seconds.
- Second reason, with an example. About forty seconds.
- The other side, briefly, and why it does not change your mind. This is what "well-considered" looks like out loud.
- A one-sentence close that answers the prompt again, in different words.
Where to practise
Each practice describes a clip in words, gives you the prompt, and shows a model response with the marks marked on it.
Then read Part 2: Spoken Interaction, which follows straight on from the same clip.
One honest note about these practices
The real paper plays you a video. We describe the clip in words instead, which is not the same thing: you lose the tone of voice and the faces, and those carry a lot of a situation. Read the description, then take a moment to picture it before you start your ten minutes. Everything after that point, the prompt, the preparation and the marking, works exactly as it does in the exam.
More in this section
The published band descriptors for the O-Level planned response, 10 marks for the response and 5 for delivery, and what each band asks for.