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Describing the picture

The second half of the speaking test — about five of its ten minutes — is describing a visual medium, chosen from three offered. It is the half candidates prepare for least, and the one whose vocabulary is narrow enough to actually finish learning.

Last verified against official sources on 18 August 2026. Exam fees, dates and regulations change — always confirm on inll.lu before you register.

What is the picture task?

After the interview half, you describe a visual medium, choosing from three options. It runs for roughly five minutes, which is the same weight as the interview — so half of the assessed speaking time rests on it.

Source: INL

Having a choice of three helps less than it sounds. You are choosing under time pressure, in a language you are being assessed in, so the useful preparation is being able to describe anything competently rather than hoping for a favourable option.

What is it really testing?

The same criteria as the rest of the speaking test — the INL lists repertoire, fluency, clarity, use of grammatical structures, coherence, ability to be understood, and interactivity — but the task pulls on a different part of your vocabulary than conversation does.

Source: INL

What is there
People, objects, places, weather, clothing. Concrete nouns, and enough of them not to stall on the obvious.
What is happening
Present-tense verbs describing action. At A2 this is the backbone: someone is doing something, somewhere.
Where things are
On, under, next to, behind, in front of, in the middle, on the left. This is the vocabulary ordinary conversation practice almost never exercises, and the one this task depends on.
What you make of it
A short opinion or guess — what the people might be doing, whether it looks pleasant — with a reason. It is where structure shows, and it fills time that would otherwise be silence.

What goes wrong on this task?

  • Naming objects and stopping. A list of nouns demonstrates vocabulary and almost nothing else the criteria mention.
  • Running out after thirty seconds. Five minutes is longer than it feels; without a habit of moving from what is there, to what is happening, to what you think of it, the silence arrives early.
  • Trying to describe every detail. Coherence is assessed; an exhaustive inventory is not.
  • Skipping preparation because the picture is unknowable. The picture is unknowable; the language it needs is not.
  • Treating the choice as the strategy. Spending a minute choosing is a minute of your five gone.

A structure that fills five minutes

The task has no prescribed shape, which is why people run dry. Having one you always use turns an unpredictable picture into a predictable performance.

Open with the whole
One sentence saying what kind of scene it is and where it seems to be. It buys thinking time and demonstrates a complete sentence immediately.
Then the people
Who is there, roughly how many, what they look like, what they are wearing. Concrete and easy to keep going with.
Then the action
What each person is doing, in the present tense. This is the A2 backbone and the part being assessed most directly.
Then the arrangement
Where things are in relation to each other. This is where the position vocabulary earns its keep, and where a description stops sounding like a list.
Close with a view
What you think is happening, or how it seems — with a reason. Opinions with reasons are where grammar shows at this level.

Five parts, roughly a minute each. That is the whole task, and it is rehearsable on any photograph you have to hand.

How do you practise for it?

  • Describe any photograph out loud for a timed five minutes, in the same order every time: what is there, what is happening, where things are, what you think of it. The routine is what stops the silence.
  • Learn the position words deliberately and finish them. There are not many, and they are the difference between a description and a list.
  • Use ordinary photographs — a street, a kitchen, a queue — rather than anything staged for learners.
  • Record yourself and play it back. Five minutes of your own speech is uncomfortable to listen to and unusually informative.

Where these facts come from

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