In IELTS Speaking Part 2 the examiner gives you a task card with a topic and some points to cover. You have 1 minute to prepare, with paper and a pencil for notes, and then you speak for 1 to 2 minutes. The examiner may ask one or two short questions at the end.
Most students lose marks in Part 2 because they stop after 40 seconds or run out of ideas. A simple structure fixes both.
Use your 1 minute well
Don't write sentences. Write 4 or 5 key words, one for each part of the card, plus one extra detail you can add if you finish early: a feeling, a comparison, or what happened afterwards.
A structure that fills 2 minutes
- Opening (10 seconds): say what you will talk about. "I'd like to talk about…"
- Card points (60–80 seconds): cover each prompt in order, with one detail or example each.
- The "why" (20–30 seconds): the last prompt usually asks why or how you felt. This is where you show range, so give a real reason.
- Extra detail (if time): what you would do differently, or how it compares with something else.
Sample task and band 7 style answer
Describe a skill you learned that is useful to you.
You should say: what the skill is · when and how you learned it · how often you use it · and explain why it is useful to you.
I'd like to talk about cooking, which is a skill I only really learned a few years ago, when I moved out of my parents' house to study.
Before that, I could barely boil an egg, to be honest. When I started living on my own, I was spending far too much money on takeaway food, so I decided to teach myself. I mostly learned from short online videos, and I also called my mother quite often to ask her how she made some of the dishes I grew up with. At first I made a lot of mistakes. I remember burning rice so badly that the whole apartment smelled of smoke for a day.
These days I cook almost every evening, and on weekends I usually prepare a few meals in advance, which saves me a lot of time during the week.
The reason it's so useful is partly practical: I spend much less money, and I eat more healthily than I did before. But it's also become a way to relax after work. Following a recipe takes my mind off everything else. And when friends come over, I can cook for them, which feels much more personal than ordering food. So I'd say it's one of the most valuable things I've learned, even though nobody ever formally taught me.
Written by BandIQ as a teaching example (about 1 minute 40 seconds spoken at a natural pace). The band is our estimate, not an official IELTS score.
Why it works
- Fluency and Coherence: follows the card in order and uses natural linking (at first, these days, so I'd say).
- Lexical Resource: natural, specific vocabulary (barely, takeaway food, in advance, takes my mind off) and an idiomatic phrase or two.
- Grammar: past, present and present perfect tenses, plus relative and reason clauses.
- A real story (the burnt rice) makes it easy to keep talking and sounds natural rather than memorised.
Don't memorise answers. Examiners are trained to notice rehearsed speech, and memorised answers often don't fit the card. Practise the structure with many different topics instead.
Practise Part 2 with instant feedback
BandIQ Speaking practice gives you a real-style Part 2 card and a 1-minute planning timer. Answer out loud, and in under a minute you'll get an estimated band for Fluency, Vocabulary and Grammar, plus better ways to say what you said.
Frequently asked questions
How long should I speak in IELTS Speaking Part 2?
You can speak for 1 to 2 minutes. The examiner will stop you at 2 minutes, which is fine. Try to keep talking until you are stopped.
Can I take notes in Part 2?
Yes. You get 1 minute to prepare with paper and a pencil. Write key words, not full sentences.
What happens if I finish early?
The examiner may ask you a question or move on. Speaking for less than a minute makes it harder to show your range, so add a reason, a feeling or a comparison to keep going.
Does Part 2 count more than Parts 1 and 3?
No. Your Speaking band is based on your performance across the whole test, assessed on fluency and coherence, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.