IELTS Speaking Part 2: a cue card technique for the full two minutes

Part 2 is the only part of the Speaking test where you talk alone. The examiner hands you a card with a topic and three or four points, gives you a pencil and paper, and says you have one minute to prepare. Then you speak for one to two minutes, and the examiner stops you. Many candidates call it the cue card; IELTS calls it the task card. Both mean the same thing.

Most people who struggle with Part 2 do not struggle with English. They struggle with the minute of silence, then with the moment, about forty seconds in, when the story runs out. This guide gives you a routine for both.

What the examiner is listening for

Part 2 is marked with the same four criteria as the rest of the test: Fluency and coherence, Lexical resource, Grammatical range and accuracy, and Pronunciation. The examiner is not ticking off the points on the card. The points are there to help you find things to say. What the long turn shows, more clearly than Part 1, is whether you can keep going on one subject, organise what you say and control your tenses while you do it.

That has two practical consequences. First, a simple, true example told well is better than an impressive one you have to invent on the spot. Second, speaking for the full two minutes matters, because a talk that stops at one minute gives the examiner less evidence of your range.

The first ten seconds: choose, do not search

Read the top line of the card twice. It tells you the subject and the tense. "Describe a story you read that you later discussed with someone" is about the past. "Describe a skill you would like to learn" is about the future and your reasons. Underline the verb in your head.

Then choose the first real example that comes to mind and stay with it. It is easy to spend half the minute weighing two options. If nothing real comes to mind, take something close to real: a book a friend described to you is still a book, and you can describe it honestly as one you heard about.

Notes that help you speak

You have about fifty seconds left. Do not write sentences. You will not have time, and if you read them aloud your speech will slow down and flatten. Write single words or short phrases, one line for each point on the card, plus one line of your own.

For the story card above, a useful set of notes looks like this:

The last line is the one most candidates skip. The final point on a task card nearly always asks you to explain: why it mattered, how you felt, what you learnt. That is where you show opinions, reasons and a change of tense, so give it a word or two in your notes and plan to spend the most time there.

A shape for the talk

A simple order keeps the talk coherent without sounding rehearsed. Use the card's points in this order, whatever order they are printed in:

1. Name it in one sentence. "I'd like to talk about a short story I read last winter, about a village during a flood."
2. Set the scene. When and where you met it, in two or three sentences. This is the easiest part to say and it settles your nerves.
3. Tell what happened, with one detail. One concrete detail is worth more than a list: the old radio the family kept listening to, the colour of the water, the line you remember.
4. Bring in the other person. Who, and what they said. Reported speech gives you a natural change of structure: "She thought the father had made the wrong choice."
5. Explain, and come up to the present. Why it stayed with you, and what has changed since. This is where the present perfect belongs: "I've read that writer's other stories since then."

When you run out of things to say

It happens to almost everyone at some point. Do not apologise and do not stop. Look at your notes and use one of these moves:

• Add a reason. "The reason it stayed with me is that…"
• Give an example. "For instance, there was one scene where…"
• Make a contrast. "Most stories I read for school were quite different, because…"
• Compare then and now. "At the time I thought…, but now I think…"
• Say how it felt. Name the feeling, then say what caused it.

Each move gives you another thirty seconds of connected speech, and each uses a different grammatical pattern. That is the coherence and range the examiner is listening for, produced without a memorised template.

Language that sounds prepared in the wrong way

Examiners hear the same openings many times a day. "Well, this is a very interesting question" or a long, learnt introduction about why stories are important to society adds nothing and can sound memorised, which works against you. Start with the subject. The same goes for idioms placed for show: one natural, accurate phrase is better than three that do not quite fit the story.

The end of the long turn

Keep talking until the examiner stops you. At two minutes they will interrupt, politely, and that is normal: it does not mean you did something wrong. They may then ask one or two short rounding-off questions, such as whether you often discuss books with friends. Answer in a sentence or two. Part 3 follows straight after, with broader questions linked to the same topic, so the ideas you used in Part 2 may be useful again.

How to practise this week

Practise the routine, not the topics. What transfers from one card to another is the habit: ten seconds to choose, fifty seconds of keyword notes, five steps, and the explain point at the end.

1. Take any card, set a timer for one minute and write your notes.
2. Record yourself speaking until a second timer reaches two minutes.
3. Listen back once. Mark where you paused for more than a few seconds and what you were trying to say.
4. Speak the same card again straight away, using one of the moves above at the point where you stopped.

The second attempt is where most of the improvement happens. Saying a better version aloud, while the first one is still fresh, fixes it in a way that reading feedback does not.

BandNine runs Part 2 this way: Alex hands you a task card, the one-minute preparation clock runs, and you speak until Alex stops you at two minutes. The report then quotes the lines that cost you, and Say it again lets you answer with the better version straight away. The bands it shows are AI practice estimates, not official IELTS results.

Next: how the IELTS Speaking band descriptors work

Questions people ask

How long should I speak in IELTS Speaking Part 2?

Aim for the full two minutes. The examiner stops you at two minutes, and a talk that ends at one minute gives less evidence of your range. Keep going until you are stopped.

Should I write full sentences in the one-minute preparation?

No. Write single words or short phrases, one line for each point on the card and one for the final point. Reading sentences aloud slows and flattens your speech.