Describe a time when you had to wait a long time for something
IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card: Describe a time when you had to wait a long time for something. One minute to prepare, up to two minutes to speak, then follow-up questions.
An intermediate-level session of about 8 minutes. Covers Part 2. 3 prompts in total.
A bench in a corridor outside a ward. A token number on a screen that refuses to move. A results page you refresh knowing that nothing has changed. The event this card asks you to describe is a stretch of time in which you were doing very little, which is why the line to prepare is what you did while waiting. That is where an answer comes alive: talking to whoever was next to you, rehearsing what you would say, giving up and going for tea, checking the same page again. The wait can also be described from the inside, through what you expected, what you dreaded and how the estimate kept moving, rather than through the clock. Most of that material is physical and still available to you, which is more than can be said for the thing you were waiting for.
Angles worth taking
- Choose a wait with a fixed end, such as a result, a train or a passport, so the story finishes.
- Set out what was at stake, because a wait only holds attention when the outcome mattered to you.
- Put other people into the wait, since what they said and did breaks up an otherwise empty stretch.
- Describe what you were told and how it kept changing, which is where the frustration actually comes from.
- Track how the feeling shifted across the wait instead of giving the whole thing a single label.
- Give the length precisely, three hours or two months or a whole afternoon, since the card asks how long.
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Browse all IELTS Speaking testsThe format
Parts covered
2
Prompts in total
3
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 for 1-2 minutes with clear structure and descriptive language.
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.
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