How long are the speeches?
Speeches are to be 5-7 minutes in length. Contestants have a 30 second buffer at either end of this time so they cannot be less than 4 minutes 30 seconds or longer than 7 minutes 30 seconds in length. Any speeches outside this time frame result in an automatic disqualification. TIP I always remind speakers that knowing their timing is important as you don’t want to go to all that work of preparing and practicing your speech and then be disqualified due to time. If there are any time disqualifications, that is stated to the audience, but the specific individual is not named. I suggest that contestants when practicing, write the numbers 1 through 6 vertically down a piece of paper; then add 6:30 and 7 below that e.g.
