GESE Grade 3 Times and dates: questions and sample answers

What the examiner wants at Grade 3

Grade 3 is CEFR A2 and has one phase, a conversation with the examiner of up to 7 minutes. You talk about daily routines and times, give dates, say what you can and cannot do, give very simple directions, and say what people are doing now or were doing. You should link short groups of words with "and" and "then". You must ask the examiner at least one simple question about everyday life.

Useful grammar: the present continuous, "can" and "can't", "was" and "were", and place, time and movement words such as "near", "opposite", "along", "at" and "on".

Trinity's specification does not give a list of conversation subjects for Grade 3. It lists vocabulary areas instead, and the examiner builds the chat from them. We use those areas as our subjects. Source: Trinity specifications.

10 example questions on times and dates

An examiner could ask questions like these. They are our own practice questions. Answer each one out loud.

1. What time is it now?
2. What is the date today?
3. When is your birthday?
4. What time does your English class start?
5. What day is it tomorrow?
6. What time do you have lunch?
7. When is your next appointment?
8. What was the date yesterday?
9. When does the shop open?
10. What time do you go home?

3 short sample answers

These answers are written at the level of the grade. Do not learn them by heart. Use them to see the size and shape of a good answer, then say your own.

When is your birthday?
“My birthday is on the twenty-first of May.”

What time does your English class start?
“It starts at half past nine. It finishes at twelve o'clock.”

When is your next appointment?
“It is on the third of December at ten past two.”

Useful words

• o'clock
• half past
• quarter to
• first
• second
• third
• twentieth
• thirty-first
• morning
• afternoon
• date
• appointment

Say each word aloud three times. Then use two or three of them in one sentence about your own life.

Common mistakes

• Saying "on twenty-one May". Say "on the twenty-first of May".
• Mixing "in", "on" and "at": "at six", "on Friday", "in July".
• Saying numbers too fast. Say dates slowly.

Ask the examiner a question

Trinity says you must ask the examiner at least one question at Grade 3. Ask it when the talk feels easy and listen to the answer. A question for this subject: “What time do you start work?”

Practise this subject

Reading is not enough. Say your answers out loud, then listen to yourself.

• Practise the Grade 3 conversation with the AI examiner. It asks questions out loud and you answer out loud.
• Trinity GESE Grade 3 (A2): test format
• All Grade 3 subjects
• Free level check (no sign-up)

This page is general information, not immigration advice. Check GOV.UK for your situation before you book.