Describe something you own that is important to you
IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card: Describe something you own that is important to you. 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.
Here is a test for whatever you are about to choose: can you picture your own hands on it? Expensive things pass that test and then stall, because the justification keeps circling back to what they cost. Something you carry, wear, repair or put away in a particular place gives you a minute of physical detail before you even reach the reason it matters — a watch that belonged to a grandparent, a bat kept since school, a notebook, a bag stitched twice. How you got it is the bullet with a story in it; how often you use it is the bullet that demonstrates the importance so you never have to assert it. A thing in genuine use has marks on it, and the marks are half the description.
Angles worth taking
- Say where it lives when unused — a drawer, a particular shelf, the same pocket every day.
- Explain what would change tomorrow if it disappeared, rather than repeating that it means a lot.
- How you got it usually contains another person; let them have a line of their own.
- Frequency argues for you: daily use, or twice a year on one particular date, both count.
- If it was given to you, the giver’s reason gives you a second angle to spend twenty seconds on.
- Say what it looks like to somebody else: ordinary, worn out, not worth what replacing it would cost.
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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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