Cambridge BEC (Business English Certificate) Speaking Test Part 2 Sample Questions & Answers
Talk about the meetings you have to attend in your company.
You should say:
- how often you go to the meetings
- what sort of meetings you have to attend
- how effective the meetings are
BEC Speaking Test Part 2 Sample Answers (Advanced)
BEC Speaking Sample Answer 1
I have only two different kinds of meeting on a regular basis. The most important one is a weekly progress meeting with other team members which we have every Wednesday in the morning. There are about eight of us who attend it, and we sit and discuss the progress on current projects, any problems that have arisen and suggest possible solutions to help each other. It’s usually an informal affair and lasts a maximum of an hour and a half.
The meeting is organized by my boss so that she can keep up to date with everything which is going on and be aware of any potential problems as they arise. It also helps motivate us because we know that we will have to give a short progress report each week on the things we are working on, so everybody wants to show that they are completing their individual projects or their contribution to a bigger project.
The other type of meeting I have to do is normally a teleconference to discuss a particular aspect or problem related to a project. This could be with a consultant or engineer offsite in a different location and can be quite short.
In terms of using the time for meetings efficiently, I suppose our weekly team progress meetings might seem like they need more organization at first glance, as I said, they’re quite informal and sometimes seem just like a conversation between friends. However, they’re normally very creative in terms of ideas exactly because people are relaxed and aren’t afraid to suggest new ideas and we have no tome restraints. I really don’t think they would benefit from having a more rigid structure applied to them.
The teleconference meetings can be anything from ten minutes to maybe thirty or thirty-five minutes long normally, just as long as it takes to clarify or resolve a problem, so in general they don’t waste any time and especially since I don’t even have to leave my desk to do them.
BEC Speaking Sample Answer 2
The main meeting I have to attend along with my boss is the inter-departmental meeting, which is held once a month and involves all the different departments in the company. At these meeting we discuss more general business topics and things which affect the company in general such as sales, marketing, human resources and the like. I like these meeting because they make me feel part of something bigger than just the individual projects I work on. It’s also good sometimes to hear what other people are working on and problems that they have.
Another interesting aspect is the longer term view which is expressed during these meetings. We in the IT department tend to think about finishing the project we’re working on and then starting the next one, but in the inter-departmental meetings they often talk about aspects of the business and plans and proposals which deal with the next 12-24 months or even longer in some cases.
In terms of efficiency and use of time, I think the inter-departmental meeting is very good. It’s only one hour and a half and it’s obvious that a lot of preparation is done by people before they attend. The chair of the meeting is normally the vice president of the company and we seem to get through a lot of business in that time, he’s very organized and everyone respects the fact that we’re all very busy and have a lot of things to do.
Because there are so many attendees and some of the topics discussed are quite serious for the company, I don’t really think trying to do the meeting in less time would work very well, especially since it’s only once a month that everyone gets together for it.
I’m lucky I think, because the company where I work don’t have a lot of useless meetings that waste time.
