IELTS Speaking Part 2: using one minute of preparation to talk for the full two

What you note in the minute after you get the cue card decides how your two minutes go. Notes for a real cue card, how to speak in scene, story and meaning, phrases to keep going, and a full two-minute model answer.

By Lora Kim3 November 20266 min read

A quiet room with two chairs facing each other, a recorder, a card and a pencil on the table

Image: generated

The worry I hear most about Part 2 is "I run out of things to say before a minute is up." Listen to the recordings and the difference is usually how the minute of preparation was used, not level: trying to write full sentences until time runs out, spending thirty seconds choosing a story, or answering each prompt in one sentence and stopping. This post takes one real cue card from preparation to a full two-minute answer, so you can follow it step by step.

How Part 2 runs

Stage	What happens
Cue card	The examiner gives you a card with a topic and three or four points to cover, plus a pencil and paper.
Preparation	One minute. You can make notes and look at them while you speak.
Talk	One to two minutes, on your own. At two minutes the examiner moves on.
Next	A Part 3 discussion on the same topic. The whole Speaking test takes 11 to 14 minutes.

Sources: IELTS (ielts.org) and IDP IELTS, Speaking test format

The three minutes of Part 2. The aim is to still be talking when the examiner stops you.

Speaking is marked across all three parts on four criteria: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical Resource, Grammatical Range and Accuracy and Pronunciation. Part 2 is the only part where you speak at length on your own, so it shows Fluency and Coherence most clearly. The public descriptions draw the line there too: at 6 a speaker is willing to keep going but loses coherence to repetition and hesitation; at 7 they speak at length without effort and keep the thread.

The minute: words, not sentences

A sand timer on a desk next to a slip of paper with short notes and a pencil

Try to write full sentences in a minute and you will finish two. Write two or three keywords in English for each point on the card instead, in the order you will speak, plus one or two phrases you want to use. When you stall, the next word on the page gives you the next sentence.

Cue card

Describe a time when you helped someone.

You should say: who you helped, how you helped them, why you helped them, and explain how you felt about helping them.

Point on the card	One minute of notes (really this short)
who	neighbour, elderly, ex-history teacher
how	packed books, carried boxes, rain, dark by the end
why	son abroad, kind to me, watered my plants
feelings	tired but calm, useful, his stories
Phrases to use	by the time, compared to, if I hadn't

Words alone fit in a minute. The two-minute answer below was built from these notes.

Do not spend the minute choosing a story. Take the first real experience you can describe in detail in English. If it does not match the card exactly, adapt it a little and say so when you start. Invented stories tend to run dry or tangle halfway. If there is a word on the card you do not know, ask at the start of the minute.

While you speak: scene, story, meaning

Answering the points in order tends to produce one sentence per point and then silence. Set the scene, tell what happened in time order, and close with what it meant to you, and two minutes fill on their own. All four points on the card fit inside that shape.

The shape of a two-minute answer. The timings are targets, not rules.

A two-minute model answer

My answer from the notes above. At a normal pace it runs just over two minutes. The phrases in bold mark time and carry the story past the points where most people stop.

Model answer (Lora)

Describe a time when you helped someone. You should say: who you helped, how you helped them, why you helped them, and explain how you felt about helping them.

I'd like to talk about a time I helped my neighbour, an elderly man who lives on the floor below me, move into a smaller flat. This was last spring, on a Saturday morning, and I remember it was pouring with rain, which didn't make things any easier.

He'd mentioned in the lift that his son couldn't come back from abroad in time to help, and he looked genuinely worried, so I offered to give him a hand. In the end it took most of the day. First, we packed his books, and there were a lot of them, because he used to be a history teacher. Then, once the van arrived, I carried the boxes down while he labelled everything in very neat handwriting. By the time we'd unpacked the kitchen at the new place, it was already dark.

As for why I helped, honestly it didn't feel like a big decision. He'd always been kind to me. He used to water my plants when I was away, and I think I'd have felt quite guilty just walking past.

What surprised me was how I felt afterwards. I expected to be exhausted, and I was, but I also felt calm and, I suppose, useful, which is not something I often feel after a normal working day. Compared to how I usually spend my Saturdays, it was a far better use of the day. And if I hadn't offered, I probably would never have heard his stories about teaching in the eighties, which turned out to be the best part.

Look at the structure rather than memorising it: scene (paragraph 1), story (2), reason (3), meaning (4).

Three ways to keep going

When you run dry, carrying on with one of these does far more for Fluency and Coherence than a pause. The model answer's last paragraph uses exactly this to fill another thirty seconds.

Move	Opening	Example
Compare	Compared to how I usually...	Compared to how I usually spend my Saturdays, it was a far better use of the day.
Imagine the opposite	If I hadn't..., I probably would have...	If I hadn't offered, I would never have heard his stories.
Bring in someone else	My friend, on the other hand, thought...	My sister, on the other hand, thought I was mad to spend a whole day on it.

An answer that stops

It was fun. I was happy. That's all.

An answer that keeps going

It was fun, but what stayed with me was how calm I felt afterwards, which honestly surprised me.

Give one feeling a reason and a result, and one sentence does the work of three.
Structures like what stayed with me was and which surprised me show grammatical range at the same time.

Common mistakes

Reading the card back. "Who I helped is my neighbour. How I helped is..." turns a story into a form.
Forcing in a memorised answer. Parts of it miss the topic, and the change in tone gives it away.
"That's it" at 1:30. Stopping early gives up time you could have used to show vocabulary and structures.
Listing without time words. Without first, then, by the time and in the end, the listener loses the thread.

A seven-day practice plan

Day	What to do
1	One cue card: one minute to prepare, two to speak, on a timer. Record it.
2	Listen back, mark any point where you stopped before 1:30, and add a sentence you could say there.
3	Record the same card again. Longer with fewer pauses is the aim.
4	Five new cards, one minute of notes each. Notes only, no speaking.
5	Pick two of them and record your answers.
6	Record again, working in one of the three ways to keep going.
7	Play day 1 and day 6 back to back and write down what changed.

You can practise with a Speaking cue card, timed like the real exam, in the free practice tests right now.

Try the free practice tests

Questions

Do I lose marks if I finish before two minutes?

One to two minutes completes the task. But talking until the examiner stops you gives you more chances to show vocabulary and structures, so practise for the full two.

Is it bad if the examiner cuts me off?

No. Stopping you at two minutes is how the test runs. Do not worry about the unfinished sentence; answer the next question.

Can I look at my notes while I speak?

Yes, you can check them as you talk. That is why it matters to write them in speaking order and legibly.

Sources

Checked on 3 November 2026. Exam rules can change, so check the official pages before you book.