5 min freeFull speaking test
Sophie Lindqvist
Speaking examiner, university language center
Runs rooms pitched at basic everyday language and working fluency
American EnglishFace to face, no screen between you, from Portland, OREvery time like the first
5.0(3)
From 13 min
A session of any length
First 5 minutes free
In Sophie’s words
Sophie examines at a university language center and spends the rest of her week teaching, which shows: she is the examiner people wish they had got.
She follows the format to the second and never helps, but her face is open and her 'why do you think that?' sounds like she wants to know. Start with her if the format scares you. She is the same test with the sharp edges filed down, the same silence after you stop, the same timing, the same questions, delivered by someone who looks pleased you are there. Once you can fill two minutes with her, move to James. She grew up in Portland, spent a year in Seoul, and keeps a list of the most surprising things candidates have told her about their hometowns.
1min
They speak first, about a second after you press start. There is no press-to-talk and no waiting for your turn.
4min
Four minutes of the real thing, at the real pace, with the interruptions where a real one would put them.
1min
Your pace, your pauses and your filler words are counted within a second, and the score follows. Nobody asks for a card to hear it.
What a score from Sophie is worth
How the score is worked out here
Three things, and you can read what each one actually means. None of them turn this into an exam: talk to this person as often as you like, and the score is there only if you want it.
Run on Sophie
Cleared
Published criteria
The criteria and their weights are visible before you speak.
- Here
- Identical timing and questions to the strict version; only the examiner's manner differs. Built as the on-ramp.
- Held by
- Published in advance; changes go through review
- Method
- Before you speak you can see what is being measured and how much each thing is worth, as percentages that add up to a hundred. That is checked automatically: a set whose percentages do not add up never reaches the site.
Situations and levels
What Sophie runs, and what a fortnight of it costs
A minute costs the same whoever you talk to: the expensive part is the model, not the person. Move the sliders to match the two weeks you actually have.
Situations
- Full speaking testAll three parts, timed, with an examiner who does not help you.
- The long turnTwo minutes alone on a card you were given one minute to think about.
Difficulty
What it costs to rehearse this properly
Three runs across a week is what changes an answer. Move the sliders to your own plan. Nothing renews, and nothing is charged until you buy minutes.
- Minutes of talking in total
- 78
- What that costs here
- $34
- The same conversations with a native speaker
- $300
- You do not spend
- −$266
Ratings
What 3 people made of Sophie
Every one of them finished a conversation with Sophie before they could leave a rating. One conversation, one rating — the rule is in the database, not in a form. That is why the number under the stars means something.
5.0
3 ratings
- 53
- 40
- 30
- 20
- 10
Every one left after a session with Sophie
Sophie felt friendly without helping me. That made the speaking format much less scary while still keeping the timing strict.
After a session with Sophie
1 person has talked to Sophie, rated it and written about it. Ratings left through the product will join these, and only a finished conversation can leave one.
Compared with a live native speaker
8 conversations with Sophie for the price of one with a native speaker
Talking with a live native speaker is the best practice there is, and it is priced like it: from $50 a conversation, at a time that suits them. Here a conversation costs $5.72, starts when you press the button, and can be had again tomorrow.
A conversation with a native speaker
$50
A conversation here
$5.72
Nothing to book, and the same conversation can be had as many times as you like.
| A live native speaker | Reallang | |
|---|---|---|
| What one conversation costs | From $50 | $5.72 |
| When you can talk | When they have a slot | Now, or at six in the morning |
| Who is across the table | The same person every time | A recruiter, a doctor, a neighbour: 56 people |
| Will they interrupt you | Rarely. You are the one paying | Yes, like in real life |
| Feedback in writing | Usually none | 60 seconds later, quoting you |
| A real person across the table | Yes | No, an AI person |
The last row is the honest one: a real person is a real person, and nothing replaces that. But getting comfortable speaking takes dozens of conversations, not one a week at $50. Your teacher teaches you the language; this is the practice in between.
Start a session
Pick the meeting, and Sophie starts talking
There is no calendar, because there is nothing to wait for. Choose which conversation it is, allow the microphone, and a second later you are talking.
Which conversation are you having?
Sophie Lindqvist runs 2 meetings. They are different conversations, not easy and hard versions of one, and each has its own criteria.
What counts as going well
Speak in full turns, fill the two minutes, and give reasons and examples in Part 3 without being asked.
Sophie Lindqvist
American English · warm
Every time like the first
How they speak
- The score
- 60 seconds after
- This one
- Free
- After that
- $5.72
- The first 5 minutes cost nothing and no card is asked for.
- We ask for your microphone before the conversation starts, never after.
- Audio is not stored. The written record of the conversation is, because the score quotes from it.
Also free the first time
Who to talk to after Sophie
Ranked against Sophie on whichever line you are choosing by. Save two or three and read them side by side.
- 5 min freeFull speaking test
Full speaking test
5 min freeYour first shift
5 min freeBehind the counter