For leaders working in English as a second language. Six levels, and you can see which one you are on.
Six levelsClarity and nervesNothing leaves your device
A free level, from Session
Test how you speak English under pressure.
Two minutes. Say one thing to camera in your own words. Mara scores your English and your nerves separately, so you can see which one needs work.
Two minutes
One level of six
Nothing leaves your device
The English Performance Ladder has six levels. Each one asks you to say the same message in a harder situation. Level two is free. Your camera and microphone are only used in your browser and nothing is recorded.
Made by Session, the people who built Mara.
Before you begin
About you.
Mara uses your role, your industry and your first language to tailor your feedback. Please fill in every field.
We send your scores and notes here when you finish.
This changes the coaching you get, not how you are scored. Everyone is scored the same way.
Give as much detail as you can. Your feedback at the end is based on this.
Two minutes from here. You will speak once.
You have used your three free tries
Thanks for trying the ladder three times.
The free version is level two only, and you have now done it three times. Doing it again will not tell you much more.
The other five levels add a clock, interruptions, different audiences and a room that has stopped listening. That is where you see what happens to you under pressure. They are in Mara.
When you sign up, you go straight into the exercise with the language you gave us.
Set up
Camera and microphone.
The ladder needs both to read your voice, words and body language. It all happens in your browser. Nothing is recorded or uploaded.
Sit where you would sit for a real call. Light in front of you, camera at eye level, and speak at the volume you would actually use.
Works best in Chrome or Edge. In other browsers we cannot read your words, so the ladder will tell you instead of guessing a score.
Choose your message
What are you going to say?
On the full ladder you say the same message six times, each time under more pressure. Today you say it once, in your own words. Pick one you actually need to say soon.
Level two of six
Your brief
1
Read it. The words in front of you, no pressure at all.
Members
2
Say it naturally. No script, your own way, to camera. This is the one you are about to do.
Free
3
Say it against a clock. The same message, and the countdown is visible.
Members
4
Say it after Mara interrupts. Wait. Can you explain that differently?
Members
5
Say it five ways. To a chief executive, an investor, the board, a customer, a friend.
Members
6
Say it under real pressure. The clock, the room noise, the bored face, the phone going.
Members
Up to two minutes. Stop whenever you are finished. Say it out loud, to camera, as if you were really there.
Level two
2:00
Mara is looking at your take
Your English and your nerves, scored separately.
Reading your English
Reading your breathing
Reading your nerves
Working out which needs more work
Level two of six · done
Here is how it went.
What your first language adds
The detail behind these scores
Members only
Each score is made up of smaller scores, and there is a third score for clarity. Clarity means how easily people understand you, and it usually improves fastest.
What the other five levels are for
Level two is the easiest. Nobody interrupted you, there was no clock, and nobody looked bored. Levels three to six show what happens to your English and your nerves under real pressure.
How to get better at this
You have done one level. There are five more in Mara.
Sign up and you can do all six levels with the same message. Level three adds a clock, level four adds interruptions, level five has five different audiences in a row, and level six adds noise, a phone ringing and someone who has stopped listening. You get every score and can watch all six takes side by side.
