Describe a person who inspires you
IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card: Describe a person who has had a positive influence on your life.
An intermediate-level session of about 8 minutes. Covers Parts 2, 3. 7 prompts in total.
The moment candidates brace for is about fifty seconds in, when the planned material has run out and the examiner has not moved. Nobody nods along in Part 2. There is no encouraging noise, no helpful follow-up, and the clock keeps going whether you are speaking or not. Most people have plenty to say about the person they picked; what runs short is stamina. The way forward is usually backwards — take something you mentioned thirty seconds ago and open it out, instead of hunting for a new idea while the silence grows. Who you choose decides how much of that is available to you. Someone you actually talk to hands you their phrases, their advice, an argument you once had with them. A public figure you admire from a distance leaves you holding facts, and facts do not narrate.
Angles worth taking
- The examiner will cut you off mid-sentence at two minutes, so do not wind up early to finish neatly.
- Nobody nods or reacts while you speak, so settle it beforehand that the blank face opposite you means nothing.
- When you dry up, open out something you already mentioned; a fresh topic at ninety seconds rarely survives contact.
- Quote them directly — the sentence they actually said to you — rather than summarising what they are generally like.
- Repairing a sentence out loud halfway through costs far less than a long silent search for the right word.
- The short question that follows your turn wants a sentence or two, not a second run at the card.
Who is in the room
You play
An IELTS candidate giving a long turn
You speak with
An IELTS examiner conducting Part 2
Phrases to reach for
These are shown to you before the session starts. They are what you are asked to use, not a list the scorer is checking off.
Ready to speak?
Free to start. You need a TalkDrill account to speak — reading this page does not.
Browse all IELTS Speaking testsThe format
Parts covered
2, 3
Prompts in total
7
Modes
Learn (guided) · Mock (exam-real)
How a IELTS Speaking session works
Part 1 — the warm-up
Familiar questions about you: work, home, routines. Short answers, but not one-word ones. The examiner is calibrating to your voice.
Part 2 — the cue card
A topic card with prompts, one minute of prep with notes, then up to two minutes speaking without interruption.
Part 3 — the discussion
Abstract follow-ups on the Part 2 theme. Opinions, comparisons and speculation, where the higher bands are decided.
Your band estimate
A score on each of the four official criteria, what pulled it down, and the habit to change before you sit the real test.
What you're scored on
IELTS Speaking is marked on four criteria of equal weight. The estimate reports each one separately, because they rarely move together.
Speak fluently about a person with specific examples and feelings.
Fluency and coherence
Whether you keep going, and whether the ideas connect. Hesitation while you search for a word costs less than hesitation while you search for a thought.
Lexical resource
Range and precision, including whether you can paraphrase around a word you do not have instead of stopping at it.
Grammatical range and accuracy
Variety of structures as well as correctness. All-simple-sentences and all-accurate caps out around band 6.
Pronunciation
Intelligibility, stress and intonation. Accent is not penalised; flat stress and swallowed word endings are.
More IELTS Speaking tests
All IELTS Speaking tests · Ielts Part2 tests · All speaking practice