In IELTS Speaking Part 2 you get a cue card, 1 minute to plan and then speak for up to 2 minutes. Most cue cards fall into a few families: a person, a place, an event or experience, an object, and an activity or habit. Prepare a story for each family and you can adapt it to almost any card.
How Part 2 works
- The examiner gives you a card with a topic and three or four prompts.
- You get one minute to make notes.
- You speak for one to two minutes. The examiner stops you at two minutes.
- The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions, then moves to Part 3.
A 1-minute plan that works
Write four or five keywords, not sentences:
- Who/what/where: set the scene in one line
- Story: what happened, in order
- Detail: one vivid detail (a sound, a colour, a quote)
- Feeling: how you felt and why
- Now: why it still matters to you
This structure fills two minutes naturally and shows a range of tenses.
Common cue card families
| Family | Example cue cards |
|---|---|
| A person | A person you admire; a teacher who helped you; a friend you have known a long time |
| A place | A place you visited recently; a quiet place you like; a city you would like to live in |
| An event | A celebration you enjoyed; a time you helped someone; a journey that took longer than expected |
| An object | A gift you received; something you bought and were happy with; an old item your family keeps |
| An activity | A skill you learned; a hobby you started recently; a time you used the internet to solve a problem |
Sample answer 1: describe a person you admire
Cue card: Describe a person you admire. You should say who this person is, how you know them, what they do, and explain why you admire them.
The person I really admire is my aunt, who runs a small home-based bakery in Lahore. I have known her my whole life, but I only started to understand what she does when I helped her one summer during school holidays.
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She started baking about ten years ago with a single oven and a few orders from neighbours. Now she takes orders for weddings and birthdays, and she has trained two young women from our area who work with her. What struck me that summer was how organised she is. She plans every order on a whiteboard, she checks every cake herself, and she never misses a delivery time, even when there is a power cut.
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I admire her for two reasons. First, she built something real from very little, without anyone telling her how. Second, she shares what she knows. She could have kept her recipes and methods to herself, but she taught others, and now they earn their own income.
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I think she showed me that being successful is less about one big idea and more about doing small things carefully every day.
Why it works: a clear opening, a short story, specific details (whiteboard, power cut), two reasons explained, and a reflective ending. Vocabulary like home-based, what struck me and built something from very little is natural, not forced.
Sample answer 2: describe a place you visited recently
Cue card: Describe a place you visited recently. You should say where it was, when you went, what you did there, and explain how you felt about it.
A place I visited recently was the Margalla Hills near Islamabad. I went last month with two of my cousins, early on a Sunday morning, because we wanted to walk one of the trails before it got too hot.
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We took Trail 5, which is quite popular. The first part was steep and rocky, and honestly I was out of breath within twenty minutes. But as we climbed, the city noise disappeared and all we could hear were birds and the wind. At the top there is a viewpoint where you can see the whole city spread out below, with Faisal Mosque in the distance.
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We sat there for almost an hour, had tea from a flask and just talked. On the way down we met a family who come every weekend, and they recommended another trail, which we are planning for next month.
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I felt surprisingly calm afterwards. I spend most of my week in front of a screen, so being outdoors with no phone signal for a few hours felt like a proper break.
Common mistakes in Part 2
- Stopping after 45 seconds: use the five-step plan to keep going
- Memorised answers: examiners notice, and it can lower your score
- Listing instead of telling: a short story beats a list of facts
- Only present tense: mix past, present and future naturally
For Parts 1 and 3, read IELTS Speaking test tips.
See our IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training programmes, or book a free IELTS demo class.
Frequently asked questions
How long should I speak in IELTS Speaking Part 2?
Up to two minutes. The examiner will stop you at two minutes, so aim to keep going until then.
Can I memorise IELTS cue card answers?
Prepare stories and ideas, but do not memorise full answers. Examiners recognise memorised speech, and it can lower your score.
What are the most common IELTS cue card topics?
Most cards ask you to describe a person, a place, an event or experience, an object, or an activity. Preparing one flexible story for each family covers most cards.
Do I have to cover every point on the cue card?
It helps, because the prompts give your answer a structure, but you are not marked down for spending more time on one point.
Can I make notes in Part 2?
Yes. You get one minute and paper to make notes. Write keywords, not full sentences.
More IELTS, SAT & English guides
- IELTS Writing Task 2 sample essays (band 7+) with notes
- How to improve English speaking skills at home: 10 methods that work
- IELTS band scores explained: how your score is worked out
- IELTS Academic vs General Training: which one do you need?
- IELTS Writing Task 2: an essay structure that works
- IELTS Academic Writing Task 1: charts, graphs, maps and processes
- All IELTS, SAT & English guides →
Written by the Learning Bubble teaching team. If something here does not match your situation, ask us. We would rather give you a straight answer than have you guess.