IELTS Speaking Part 2 Cue Cards: How to Speak for 2 Minutes with Example Answers

How to use the 1-minute preparation

• Write one or two words per bullet point — never full sentences.
• Note your past-tense verbs: the story happened in the past, so 'went, saw, felt'.
• Decide your opening line before you start: 'I'd like to talk about…'
• Star the final 'explain why' bullet — it deserves the most time.

A structure that fills two minutes

• Introduce the topic (10 seconds): what it is, when it happened.
• Cover bullet 1 and 2 (30 seconds each): who, where, when, what.
• Cover bullet 3 (30 seconds): what happened next, with a small story.
• The 'why' bullet (40 seconds): feelings, reasons, what you learned.
• If you finish early, add: 'Looking back…' or 'If I had the chance again…'

Example cue card

Describe a skill you learned recently. You should say: what the skill is, why you decided to learn it, how you learned it, and explain how you feel about it now.

Band 7 sample opening

I'd like to talk about learning to touch-type, which I took up about six months ago. I decided to learn it because I was spending hours every day writing reports, and my typing was painfully slow. I started with a free online course that taught me where to place my fingers, and I practised for fifteen minutes every evening. At first it was frustrating — I was actually slower than before — but after about a month something clicked. Now I can type without looking at the keyboard at all, and honestly it has changed how I work. I feel much more productive, and I wish I had learned it years ago.

Common Part 2 mistakes

• Stopping after 60 seconds — practise with a timer until two minutes feels normal.
• Ignoring the bullets — the examiner checks whether you covered them.
• Reciting a memorised answer — examiners recognise these and mark down.
• Speaking too fast to fill time — steady pace with natural pauses scores higher.

Practise out loud

Our Speaking practice page lets you record real Part 2 answers with a timer and get AI feedback on fluency, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation — the same four criteria examiners use.