Speak Up! (Impromptu Speech) Competition: What It Is, Where It’s Run and How It’s Judged

A Grades 11-12 English impromptu speech contest of up to three minutes, marked out of 100 for message and content, delivery and performance, originality and over-all impact.

Speak Up! is the festival’s name for its senior impromptu speech: a learner is given a topic with little or no time to prepare and then makes a short, persuasive talk with a clear message. Because nothing can be scripted in advance, the contest rewards a speaker who can find a point, organise it quickly and say it with conviction.

In the template it is a Grades 11-12 item. Each learner enters alone, boys and girls together, and speaks in English. The round is capped at three minutes and the template prints no separate warning bell. It does not say how the topic is drawn or how much preparation time is allowed, so confirm both in the organiser brief before the day.

The 100 marks split four ways. Message and content carries 50, for relevance, the basis of the arguments, unity, coherence and a powerful message. Delivery and performance carries 30, for expression, gestures, pronunciation and authentic emotion. Originality and over-all impact carry 10 each.

Organisers run it because it is the quickest way to see who can think on their feet. Half the marks go to what is said and how it hangs together, so a speaker with a plain voice and a sound argument can outscore a polished one who wanders.

Where Speak Up! (Impromptu Speech) is run

In the data this item belongs to one template, a Philippine government-run learner festival held at division, regional and national levels. Impromptu and extempore speaking is also a regular strand of school debate, public speaking and youth-festival programmes in many countries, though preparation time, topic style and time limits differ from event to event.

• Philippines

Key facts

• Individual entry, open to boys and girls alike.
• Grades 11-12; the template maps this to roughly ages 17 to 18, but entry is by grade level, not age.
• Delivered in English.
• Marked out of 100: message and content 50, delivery and performance 30, originality 10, over-all impact 10.
• Three-minute limit; the template prints no separate warning bell.
• Ideas (not rules) for practice topics: a rule you would change at school, a skill everyone should learn, what a good neighbour does, one habit that would help your town, or why a small act can matter.

On eTalenter, Speak Up! (Impromptu Speech) is filed under Literary and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.

Across the templates that use it, Speak Up! (Impromptu Speech) is most often entered as an Individual competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 3 minutes where a limit is set.

What judges look at in Speak Up! (Impromptu Speech)

What a Speak Up! (Impromptu Speech) panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:

• Message and content, 50 marks: a relevant, unified and coherent talk with arguments that are actually backed up; drifting off the topic or stacking unsupported claims loses most of the marks here.
• Delivery and performance, 30 marks: expression, gestures, clear pronunciation and authentic emotion; a flat or rushed delivery wastes a good message.
• Originality, 10 marks: a fresh angle or example rather than the stock answer every other speaker gives.
• Over-all impact, 10 marks: whether the panel remembers the speech and its point after the next speaker begins.
• Since half the score rests on message and content, settle your one main point in the first few seconds and build everything around it.
• Ending cleanly inside three minutes protects every criterion, because a speech cut off mid-sentence loses its conclusion and its impact.

Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Speak Up! (Impromptu Speech) under Scoring Setup, or start from the judge scoring and tabulation guide.

How to prepare for Speak Up! (Impromptu Speech)

How entrants and their teachers usually get Speak Up! (Impromptu Speech) right on the day:

• Practise a fixed frame you can fill in seconds: your point, two reasons with an example each, and a closing line that returns to the point.
• Use the first moments after the topic is given to choose a single position, not to list everything you know.
• Collect a stock of short personal and local examples in advance so you can reach for one under pressure.
• Drill with random topics against a timer, aiming to finish at about two and three-quarter minutes.
• Work on pronunciation and pace separately from content: record yourself and listen for rushed or swallowed words.
• Use gestures and eye contact deliberately, and let real feeling show where the topic allows.
• If you go blank, pause, take a breath and restate your point; a calm pause reads better than filler words.
• After a lost round, ask which block let you down, the structure, the voice or the ideas, and drill that one only.

Frequently asked questions

Is Speak Up! (Impromptu Speech) judged individually or as a team?

Across eTalenter’s templates it’s most often run as an Individual entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.

What is Speak Up! (Impromptu Speech)?

It is a Grades 11-12 English impromptu speech contest in this festival template: the learner speaks on a topic given at short notice, for up to three minutes.

Is it the same as extempore?

The idea is the same, a speech on a topic revealed only shortly before, but this item has its own printed rules and scoring, so follow the festival brief rather than another event’s.

Can I use notes?

The template does not say. Because the topic is not known beforehand, prepared notes would have little use, but check the organiser brief for what is allowed on stage.

Is it judged individually or as a team?

Individually. Each learner speaks on their own and is marked out of 100.

Want the full judging picture? Read the judge scoring and tabulation guide, or browse every literary competition item.