IELTS Speaking / IELTS speaking Part 2 & cue cards
IELTS Part 2 cue cards: one minute to prepare, two minutes to speak
You get one minute, a pencil, and a card with four prompts. What you do in that minute decides the next two.
Updated August 2026Part 2 is the only part of IELTS speaking where you are alone: the examiner hands you a task card — a cue card — and after one minute of preparation you speak for up to two minutes with no help, no follow-ups, no rescue. The card always has the same anatomy: a topic (‘Describe a person you admire’), three ‘you should say’ bullets, and one ‘and explain’ instruction — and that last line is where the marks live, because it forces evaluation rather than description. The documented failure mode is running dry at 40-50 seconds: candidates describe the three bullets in three sentences and stop. The fix is mechanical and practisable — one sentence of setup, two of detail per bullet, and the explain line developed with a reason and an example. This page covers the current card categories, the one-minute plan, and how to train the two-minute muscle.
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Practise the long turn2 free coaching sessions · available until used · no card needed · no subscriptionThe process
- 1Read the card twice; circle the ‘explain’ line — it carries the marks.
- 2Spend the minute writing one keyword per bullet plus two for the explain line — notes, not sentences.
- 3Open with a setup sentence that names the topic.
- 4Take the bullets in order, two sentences each, past tenses for stories.
- 5Develop the explain line longest: reason, example, link back.
- 6If you finish early, add how you feel about it now — never just stop.
- 7Expect one rounding-off question; answer it in one or two sentences.
The card anatomy
Topic, three ‘you should say’ bullets, and one ‘and explain’ line. The explain line is where the marks concentrate, because it is the only part of the card that forces evaluation rather than plain description.
The one-minute plan
Write one keyword per bullet, plus two for the explain line — notes you can glance at, not sentences you read from. The minute is for retrieval cues, not for drafting a script.
The 40-second collapse and the two-minute structure
Setup sentence, two sentences per bullet, then the explain line developed longest — that shape reliably fills the full two minutes. Candidates who run dry at 40 seconds almost always described the bullets and skipped explaining them.
Current card categories with examples
Seven categories are stable from cycle to cycle — person, place, object, event, skill or goal, and media — even as the individual cards inside each one rotate.
The rounding-off question
After your two minutes, the examiner usually asks one short question on the same topic — answer it in a sentence or two. It also marks the transition into Part 3, which takes the same topic into more abstract territory.
Real questions
Grouped by area.
Person
Place
Object
Event
Skill/goal
Media
Pricing
FAQs
Can I see the cue card while I speak?
Yes — the card stays in front of you, and you keep your notes.
What if I stop before two minutes?
The examiner will not rescue you; a 45-second answer caps what you can show for fluency. Train the structure until two minutes feels short.
Can I change the topic slightly?
Stay on the card — adjacent stories are fine if you connect them to the bullets; ignoring the card costs coherence marks.
Are cue cards different in 2026?
Categories are stable (person, place, object, event, activity, media, goal); individual cards rotate in and out each cycle.
Should I memorise model answers?
No — examiners hear the same model answers weekly; a memorised story that half-fits the card scores worse than a simple true one.
Sources
More IELTS speaking guides
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