Describe a person who made you laugh.
A strong long turn names the subject in the first sentence, spends most of the two minutes on the last bullet — the why — and arrives at a prepared final line rather than trailing off.
The question, as the examiner gives it
Describe a person who made you laugh.
You should say
- who the person is
- when this happened
- what they said or did
- and explain why it was so funny
60 seconds to prepare, up to 2 minutes to speak
A band 7 to 8 answer
About 181 words at a natural pace — roughly what 120 seconds holds.
Answer it yourself first
Record your own answer first. A model you have read three times comes out with a flattened rhythm, and examiners are trained to hear exactly that. Read it afterwards for the vocabulary and the shape, not to memorise the sentences.I want to talk about a colleague of mine called Ravi, and one particular afternoon about two years ago. We were in a long meeting about a project that everybody privately knew was going to fail, and a senior manager had been talking for something like forty minutes without saying anything at all. Ravi has a completely straight face, which is the important part. At the end of it he asked, entirely seriously, whether he should start the presentation again from the beginning, since he was not sure he had made his point clearly. Nobody was certain whether he meant it. The manager thanked him for his diligence. Two people had to leave the room. What made it funny was not the joke, because on paper it is barely a joke at all. It was the precision of it, and the fact that he risked being taken seriously, and the twenty minutes of held-in laughter afterwards. I still cannot sit next to him in a meeting. He does not do it often, which is exactly why it works when he does.
The words that earn marks
Each one links to how it is pronounced.
- colleague
the right noun for someone at work
- privately
adverb that sets up the shared secret
- presentation
four syllables with the stress on the third
- diligence
an unexpected, formal noun that lands the joke
- precision
abstract noun naming why it was funny
- risked
a hard final cluster worth keeping clean
- laughter
a spelling and vowel worth practising
How a strong answer is built
- 1Set the scene before the joke arrives.
- 2Give the detail that makes the joke possible.
- 3Tell what happened, briefly and in order.
- 4Explain why it was funny, which is the real question.
Sounds to watch
The ones this answer leans on most.
Straight answers
How long should my answer to “Describe a person who made you laugh.” be?
You get 60 seconds to make notes and then speak for up to two minutes without interruption. Aim to still be talking at ninety seconds: finishing at forty is the commonest way to lose marks on this part.
Should I memorise the model answer?
No. Record your own version first, then read the model for the shape and the vocabulary. A memorised answer changes rhythm and pace noticeably, and examiners are trained to hear it — it usually costs more than the better wording gains.
Does sayit score this answer?
It scores what a microphone can observe: an estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.
What the band on your result means
An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.One question a day until your test
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