IELTS Speaking cue cards 40 tasks, with the Part 3 that follows
Part 2 is the long turn: one minute to prepare, up to two minutes to speak, no interruption. Every card below comes with what each bullet is asking for, how to spend the preparation minute, and the Part 3 discussion questions the examiner moves on to. Free, no signup.
Written by Anjali Tripathi · CELTA and DELTA qualified · 5 years teaching IELTS
Record an answerWhat Part 2 is
The examiner hands you a card with a topic and four bullet points, gives you a pencil and paper, and starts a one-minute timer. When it stops you talk, for between one and two minutes, uninterrupted. At two minutes the examiner stops you and asks one or two short rounding-off questions before moving into Part 3. It is the only part of the Speaking test where you hold the floor alone, which is exactly why it is worth practising separately. Conversation carries you through Parts 1 and 3. Part 2 does not.
The bullet that carries the marks
Every cue card follows the same shape. Three bullets ask for facts, and the fourth begins "And explain". That fourth one is where the band is decided, and it is the one candidates most often run out of time before reaching. The reason is arithmetic. Two minutes across four bullets is thirty seconds each if you split them evenly, and thirty seconds is not enough to explain anything. Spend fifteen to twenty seconds on each of the first three and you buy yourself a full minute for the last, which is what it needs.
What you are marked on
Four criteria, equally weighted. Fluency and Coherence is whether you keep going and whether the answer holds together, which is why hesitation costs more than a wrong word. Lexical Resource is range and precision, including whether you can paraphrase when a word will not come. Grammatical Range and Accuracy rewards a mix of structures, and Part 2 gives you an easy route to that mix because most cards let you use more than one tense naturally. Pronunciation is about being understood: intelligibility, stress and intonation, not accent. Nothing in the descriptors rewards a memorised script, and one of them explicitly counts against it.
How to practise these
One card, one minute of notes, two minutes of talking, recorded. Then listen back, which is the part everybody skips and the part that changes anything. You are listening for three things. Where did you hesitate, and was it for a word or for an idea. Did you reach the last bullet, and how long did you have left when you got there. And did you repeat a word you could have paraphrased. Those three are worth more than any amount of reading about the test. Recording an answer here gets it marked on all four criteria with the moments that cost you marks, so you can hear the problem rather than guess at it.
Describe an event or experience (14)
Past narrative. Sequence the story rather than summarising it, and keep the outcome for the last bullet so the answer has somewhere to go.
Describe a person (3)
Character vocabulary and relative clauses. The trap is describing what the person looks like for ninety seconds and never reaching why they matter, which is the bullet the marks are on.
Describe a place (5)
Location language and the tenses that go with it. If the place has changed, you need past and present in the same answer, and that contrast is free evidence of grammatical range.
Describe an object or possession (9)
Physical description is the easy half. The half that carries the band is why the thing matters to you, which needs reasons rather than adjectives.
Describe an activity or habit (4)
Present habitual forms and frequency language. Contrast what you usually do with what you did recently, and the answer gains a second tense without any effort.
Describe a plan or something in the future (1)
Conditionals and future forms, the structures that separate Band 6 from Band 7 fastest. Would, might and going to all belong here.
Every other cue card (4)
The rest of the bank. Whatever the topic, the structure is the same: one minute of notes, two minutes of talking, and at least half of that spent on the bullet beginning with 'And explain'.
Frequently asked questions
How long should an IELTS Speaking Part 2 answer be?+
Between one and two minutes. Aim to still be speaking when the examiner stops you at two. Drying up early means the examiner has to prompt you, and that prompt is part of your recorded performance.
What happens in the one minute of preparation?+
You get a pencil and paper and make notes. Write single words rather than sentences: there is not time for sentences, and reading aloud from notes flattens your delivery and costs you under Fluency and Coherence.
Can I use notes while I speak?+
Yes, you keep the paper and can glance at it. Glancing is fine. Reading is not, and the difference is audible to an examiner sitting a metre away.
Should I memorise cue card answers?+
No. Examiners are trained to recognise memorised responses and the band descriptors treat them as evidence against fluency. Practise the shape of an answer, not the words of one.
Are these the real IELTS cue cards?+
They are cue cards in the exact format of the exam, across the topics that recur in it. The test owners do not publish live cards, so no site has them. The format, the timing and the marking criteria are what you can actually practise against.
Reading about it is not practising it. Get a band in seconds.
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