GESE Grade 5 Recent personal experiences: questions and sample answers

What the examiner wants at Grade 5

Grade 5 is CEFR B1 and has two phases of up to 5 minutes each: a talk on a topic you prepare, and a conversation on two subject areas that the examiner chooses from a list of six. This page is about the conversation phase. You must be ready for all six subjects, because you will not know which two you get.

The examiner wants reasons ("because"), preferences ("I prefer", "I'd rather"), the future with "will", the present perfect ("I have never...", "I have lived here for..."), and amounts ("a lot of", "not many"). You also have to ask the examiner at least one question about the subject.

These are the six conversation subjects in Trinity's Grade 5 specification. Source: Trinity specifications.

10 example questions on recent personal experiences

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

1. What did you do last weekend?
2. Have you done anything interesting this week?
3. What have you just finished doing?
4. What was the best thing that happened to you this month?
5. Have you tried any new food recently?
6. Where did you go last holiday?
7. What have you learned in the past month?
8. Have you met someone new recently?
9. What are you going to do tomorrow?
10. What was the last problem you had, and how did you solve it?

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.

What did you do last weekend?
“I visited my friend in Leeds. We cooked a big meal and then we walked by the canal. I've just sent her some photos.”

Have you tried any new food recently?
“Yes, I have. I tried a Scottish pie last week. I thought it was a bit heavy, but I'd eat it again.”

What have you learned in the past month?
“I've learned how to use the bus app, and I've started to read the news in English. It's slow, but it helps.”

Useful words

• recently
• just
• last week
• yesterday
• already
• yet
• experience
• trip
• surprise
• problem
• lucky
• proud

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

Common mistakes

• Using the present perfect with a finished time. Say "I went yesterday", not "I have gone yesterday".
• Leaving out "have/has" in "I have just".
• Stopping after one fact. Say how you felt.

Ask the examiner a question

Trinity says you must ask the examiner at least one question at Grade 5. Ask it when the talk feels easy and listen to the answer. A question for this subject: “What did you do last weekend?”

Practise this subject

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

• Practise the Grade 5 conversation with the AI examiner. It asks questions out loud and you answer out loud.
• Trinity GESE Grade 5 (B1): test format
• All Grade 5 subjects
• All six Grade 5 conversation subjects
• Grade 5 topic form examples
• Free level check (no sign-up)

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