IELTS Speaking Part 2
- 3 to 4 minutes
- 60s preparation
- 100 questions here
Try Part 2 on the real clock.
Describe a person you admire. You should say who the person is, how you know about them, what they have done, and explain why you admire them.
Press record, answer out loud, then press again.
One free take on this device · no account · no card
What actually happens
- Length
- 3 to 4 minutes
- Preparation
- 60 seconds, with paper and a pencil
- Your answer
- One to two minutes, uninterrupted
- Marked on
- Fluency and Coherence, Pronunciation, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range — four equal criteria
What sayit measures on this page
An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.What they are listening for
- Whether you are still speaking at the ninety-second mark, or ran out at forty.
- Whether the talk has a shape — a beginning, a middle that develops, an end — rather than a list.
- Whether the pauses fall between ideas, where a listener expects them, or inside a clause, where they read as hesitation.
- Whether pronunciation holds up under two minutes of continuous speech, when most speakers start to tire and blur.
Described in our own words. The official band descriptors are copyrighted and we do not reproduce them.
How to answer Part 2
- 1
Use the whole minute, and write nouns
Notes should be nouns and names, not sentences. A sentence tempts you to read it aloud; a noun triggers a sentence you build live, which is what the examiner is listening for.
- 2
Spend most of the time on the last prompt
The final bullet is almost always the why — why it mattered, why you remember it. That is where the interesting language is. Get to it by the one-minute mark.
- 3
Tell one story, not three
One person, one journey, one object, in detail, beats a survey of three. Detail is what carries you to two minutes without filler.
- 4
Have an ending ready
Know your last sentence before you start: 'so that is why I still think about it.' A talk that dribbles out sounds unfinished even when the content was good.
100 Part 2 questions, with model answers
- Describe a person you admire.people
- Describe a teacher who influenced you.people
- Describe a friend you have known for a long time.people
- Describe an older person you respect.people
- Describe someone you know who is very good at their job.people
- Describe someone who helped you when you were in difficulty.people
- Describe a family member you are close to.people
- Describe a person who made you laugh.people
- Describe a leader you admire.people
- Describe someone you know who is good with money.people
- Describe a neighbour you get on with.people
- Describe a stranger who was kind to you.people
- Describe a colleague you enjoy working with.people
- Describe a child you know.people
- Describe a person who inspired you to learn something.people
- Describe a famous person you would like to meet.people
- Describe a place where you like to relax.places
- Describe a city you have visited.places
- Describe a building you find beautiful.places
- Describe a park or garden you enjoy.places
- Describe a cafe or restaurant you like.places
- Describe a place you would like to live one day.places
- Describe a quiet place you know.places
- Describe a shop you go to often.places
- Describe a library or study space you use.places
- Describe a place in nature you remember well.places
- Describe a room you spend a lot of time in.places
- Describe a historic place you have visited.places
- Describe a market you have been to.places
- Describe a place that was very crowded.places
Common Part 2 mistakes
Finishing at forty seconds
The commonest Part 2 failure is simply stopping too early. If you reach the end of the card, go back and expand the last prompt.
Reading the notes aloud
It flattens the rhythm and the pace becomes a monotone. Glance and look up.
A memorised talk pushed onto the wrong card
Examiners hear it immediately, because the details do not fit the prompts. Adapt a real memory instead.
Filling with um and like
Fillers are counted on your transcript here. A short silence between ideas sounds better than a stretched filler inside one.
Straight answers
What happens if I stop before two minutes?
The examiner will move on. Nothing dramatic happens, but you have given less evidence than a candidate who kept going, and in the part designed to measure exactly that.
Do I have to cover every bullet on the card?
The bullets are prompts, not a checklist. Covering them keeps you organised, but a talk that develops one idea richly is stronger than one that ticks four boxes in ten seconds each.
Can I take notes in my own language?
You can write whatever helps in the one minute of preparation. Just remember that you have to speak in English straight afterwards, so notes that need translating cost you time.
Practise Part 2 every day until your test
A free account gives you one cue card a morning, an estimated band after each answer, and a trend line instead of a single take.