Describe an advertisement you remember.
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 an advertisement you remember.
You should say
- what it was advertising
- where you saw it
- what happened in it
- and explain why you remember it
60 seconds to prepare, up to 2 minutes to speak
A band 7 to 8 answer
About 211 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.There was a television advertisement when I was a child, for a brand of tea, that ran for years and which I can still describe in detail although I have not seen it for two decades. It was on the national channel, in the evening, which at that time meant essentially everybody saw it. What happened in it was almost nothing. A man arrives at a small railway station at night, clearly at the end of a long journey, and somebody hands him a cup of tea through a window, and there is about four seconds of silence before the brand name appears. No dialogue at all. Why I remember it is partly repetition, obviously, but mainly that it was not trying to be funny or clever. It understood one thing exactly, which is that tea in this country is what you give somebody who has arrived. The product barely appeared. I have seen a great many advertisements since and I could not tell you what any of them were for. I do not drink that brand of tea and never have, which I think is the only genuine criticism anybody could make of it. It made me remember it for twenty years and it did not make me buy anything.
The words that earn marks
Each one links to how it is pronounced.
- advertisement
four syllables, with British stress on the second
- decades
plural time noun with first-syllable stress
- channel
concrete broadcasting noun
- dialogue
three syllables, and a British spelling
- repetition
four syllables with the stress on the third
- barely
adverb that sharpens the observation
- arrives
the verb the whole advertisement is built on
How a strong answer is built
- 1Name the product and the timescale of the memory.
- 2Say where you saw it and why that mattered.
- 3Describe what happened, shot by shot, briefly.
- 4Explain the memory with what the advertisement understood.
Sounds to watch
The ones this answer leans on most.
Straight answers
How long should my answer to “Describe an advertisement you remember.” 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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