Speaking
IELTS speaking Part 2 is the long turn: the examiner hands you a cue card, gives you one minute to prepare and then you speak on your own for up to two minutes. It is the part candidates fear most, because for two minutes nobody is going to help you. It is also the easiest part to prepare for, because the format never changes and the skill it tests, keeping going, can be practised anywhere.
The examiner gives you a card with a topic on it, along with a pencil and a sheet of paper. You have exactly one minute to prepare. The examiner will tell you when the minute is up and will then ask you to begin. You speak until the examiner stops you, which will be at two minutes, and they may then ask one short follow-up question before moving to Part 3.
A cue card looks like this.
Describe a childhood friend.
You should say:
and explain why you liked this person.
The examiner will say one to two minutes. Do not hear that as permission to stop at one. The examiner stops you at two minutes, so nothing is gained by trying to run longer and a great deal is lost by finishing early. The target is to still be talking when you are interrupted.
They cannot explain a word on the card, change the card, or discuss the topic with you during your preparation minute. If a word on the card is unfamiliar, you have to work around it, which is one reason the tips further down this page matter.
Sixty seconds is enough if you use it properly and nowhere near enough if you do not. These are the six things that go wrong most often.
Never do this. The examiner will tell you when the minute is up. Candidates who volunteer that they are ready after twenty seconds are throwing away forty seconds of thinking time, and they are the candidates most likely to run dry after a minute of speaking.
In sixty seconds you can write perhaps two full sentences, which will cover about eight seconds of your talk. Write single words and short phrases, names, dates, adjectives. Notes are prompts, not a script.
Reading the card and thinking hard feels productive, but the ideas evaporate the moment you start speaking and your pulse rises. Written notes are what you fall back on when your mind empties, and it will.
The card above has four elements: three bullets and a final instruction. Two minutes divided by four is thirty seconds each. Put something next to every element, and do not move on to the next one until you have said thirty seconds worth or genuinely have nothing left.
Reading aloud and speaking are different physical acts, and the examiner can hear the difference immediately. It flattens your intonation and damages your pronunciation score. Keep your head up and glance down only to scan.
If a better idea arrives halfway through, take it. This is a communication test, not a memory test. If you cannot recall a detail, say so in English: I am not really sure when I started doing that, but I must have been very young demonstrates just as much language as a date would.
Sooner or later a candidate is handed a card about something they have never thought about in any language. Suppose you have no interest whatsoever in art and you are given this.
Describe a piece of art that you like.
You should say:
and say whether you would recommend it to someone else.
You have sixty seconds. Spend five of them reading the card again, looking for any single word you can build on. There usually is one.
You cannot ask for a different card and you cannot say you have nothing to say. You can, however, tell the examiner where you stand, in good English: The card is asking about a piece of art I like, and to be completely honest, art is not something I have ever really engaged with. What I can talk about is…
The second bullet asks where you saw it. Have you ever been in a gallery? If not, why not? Is there anywhere in your town? Did your family ever take you anywhere like that as a child? You can speak for a minute on why art has never featured in your life without ever describing a painting, and you lose nothing for it.
Think of one person you know who does care about the subject and answer as them. What does your cousin get out of galleries? What has she said about it? Borrowing someone else's enthusiasm is far easier than manufacturing your own.
If you truly cannot fill two minutes, signal the shift clearly: I cannot say much about art, but I am quite interested in museums, and I would argue they matter more, because our history tells us more about who we are than a painting does. Keep the substitute related to the original. Switching to your favourite food will read as avoidance.
You are not assessed on how accurately your answer matches the card. You are assessed on how well you communicate. An indirect answer delivered clearly and logically scores better than a directly relevant answer delivered in fragments.
Give yourself one minute with each card, write notes only, then speak for two minutes. Recording yourself makes the difference between practising and merely feeling that you have.
Describe a friend who is important to you.
and say why they are important to you.
Describe a hotel you have stayed in.
and say whether you would recommend it.
Describe something you used to collect.
and say whether you normally collect things.
Describe a board game you have played.
and say whether you still play it.
Everything on IELTSforFREE stays free. If you want your speaking assessed rather than self-checked, IELTStestONLINE adds speaking assessments, writing assessed against the four criteria, and a support tutor who answers your questions.