Making Predictions

Overview

Making Predictions is the second half of the picture pair. The image does not change; the question does. Instead of saying what is happening, you say what is about to happen - to the people, to the situation, in the next few minutes.

There is no correct prediction, because the picture has no real future. What matters is that each prediction is anchored in something visible and expressed in accurate future and modal forms.

Structure

• Thirty seconds of preparation, separate from Task 3.
• Sixty seconds of recorded speech.
• The same picture as Task 3, with a new question.
• One take, recorded immediately after Task 3.

What to expect

Because you have already described the scene, the material is familiar and the difficulty moves to grammar. Expect to need a range of future forms inside a single minute.

• Confident predictions for whatever the picture makes obvious.
• Hedged possibilities for what it only hints at.
• A visible reason behind each prediction.
• A short overall outcome to close on, rather than a list that simply stops.

Suggested steps and timing

Spend the first 10 seconds of preparation picking two or three people or elements you already described, and the next 20 attaching one next step and one visible reason to each - the dark sky, the packed bags, the queue that is not moving.

Open the 60 seconds with a pivot sentence that moves the answer into the future - "In a few minutes, I think…" - which takes about 8 seconds. Give each prediction roughly 15 seconds, evidence first and prediction second, and use the last 10 to say how the scene ends up overall.

Key strategies

• Vary the future forms: "will" for confidence, "is going to" where the picture shows evidence, "might" and "could" for possibilities, and one conditional if you can reach it.
• Anchor every prediction to something visible. "The sky is dark, so they will pack up" is a full sentence of value; "they will pack up" is half of one.
• Reuse the people, not the description. Naming them again is efficient; describing them again is off-task.
• Keep the predictions plausible. The scene is ordinary, so the next few minutes should be ordinary too.

Common pitfalls

• Repeating the Task 3 description with the verbs changed, which reads as having nothing new to say.
• Using "will" for the entire minute and showing no range of forms.
• Predicting events with no visible reason behind them.
• Inventing a dramatic ending the picture cannot support.

Final advice

Practise Tasks 3 and 4 as a pair on the same image, back to back, exactly as the test presents them. The transition is the skill: 60 seconds of present-tense description followed by 30 seconds of preparation and 60 more seconds in which you must not describe anything again. Rehearsing one pivot sentence you trust makes that turn almost automatic.