The Monologue That Runs Long
You have prepared a monologue of about 420 words on the theme of exile in your prescribed text. In practice you speak at roughly 110 words per minute when nervous, and the task allows 3 minutes with a 30-second grace period before examiners signal you to stop. Your teacher's feedback says your opening two sentences are strong but your conclusion trails off. You notice that your middle section contains a 60-word digression about a minor character that you added because it felt impressive. You have ten minutes before the recording. You must decide what to cut, whether to slow down or speed up, and how to guarantee a landing.
1. Calculate your speaking time and decide whether the monologue as written fits the task.
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At 110 words per minute, 420 words takes about 3 minutes 49 seconds. That exceeds the 3-minute target by roughly 49 seconds and even exceeds the 3:30 hard grace period by about 19 seconds. So the monologue as written does not fit, and the risk is being cut off mid-sentence, which damages coherence and the conclusion. The fix is arithmetic, not intuition: to land inside 3:00 you need roughly 330 words at this pace, meaning you must cut about 90 words. Cutting the 60-word digression gets you to 360 words (about 3:16), still inside the grace period but past target. You need one further cut of about 30 words, ideally from a repeated example rather than the conclusion.
2. Explain how you would restructure the ending so the monologue lands even if you are running late.
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Build a short, self-contained final unit of about 25-30 words that can be delivered from anywhere in the last 40 seconds. Practise entering that unit from two different points: after the main argument and after the digression, if you keep any of it. This is a contingency plan, not improvisation: the words are rehearsed, only the entry point varies. Also front-load your strongest analytical sentence in the first 30 seconds, because examiners form judgements early and a cut-off ending matters less if the opening already demonstrated range. Rehearse with a timer three times and note the actual finish time each run; if you consistently finish after 3:10, cut another 20 words rather than speaking faster, since accelerated delivery flattens the intonation and articulation that the monologue criterion rewards.