IELTS Speaking Exam Cue Card How to Do Part Two of the IELTS Speaking Test
Hi, I’m Oli.
Welcome to Oxford Online English!
In this lesson, you can learn about the IELTS
speaking exam, part two.
The IELTS speaking test has three parts, and
in this class, you can learn in more detail
about part two of the speaking exam, and how
to improve your score.
First, let’s review what happens in part
two of the IELTS speaking test.
The examiner will give you a card with a topic.
You have one minute to prepare a short speech
on the topic.
After one minute, the examiner will ask you
to speak.
You need to talk for between one and two minutes.
After you finish, the examiner will ask you
one or two simple questions about what you
said.
Let’s look at a sample question from part
two of the IELTS speaking test which we’ll
use during this lesson:
Describe an important choice you made.
You should say:what choices you had, what
you decided, and how easy it was to make your
decision.
You should also explain how you feel about
this choice now.
Imagine: you’re in the exam.
You have one minute to prepare your answer.
How should you use your time?
Let’s look!
Part one: how to use your preparation time.
The first thing you should do: ask the examiner
if there are any words you don’t understand!
Asking the examiner will use some of your
time, and that’s not great.
But, don’t talk if you haven’t understood
the question; that will be worse.
Secondly, look at the question.
It has four parts: the three bullet points,
and the longer question at the end.
One minute is not a long time.
You can’t prepare everything, so don’t
try.
Try to think of one or two things you can
say for each part of the question.
Make short notes to help you remember your
points.
How can you make effective notes?
Let’s look:
For example, let’s say you want to talk
about choosing what to study at university.
You write:
“Computer science or engineering.”
“IT—interesting career opportunities.”
“Difficult—pros and cons on both sides.”
“Satisfied—IT work is interesting/creative.”
These notes will help you to speak.
Let’s see how:
The four parts of the notes follow the four
parts of the question.
This will help you to keep your answer organized.
You have some key words and phrases like ‘career
opportunities’, ‘pros and cons’ or ‘creative’
which you can use in your answer.
The notes give you at least one or two points
to make about each part of the question.
Again, you won’t have time to do more than
this, so don’t try.
Don’t write full sentences—focus on covering
all the points you need to talk about.
OK—your minute’s up, and it’s time to
talk!
Now what?
Part two: how to organize your answer.
Organizing your answer well is easy to do,
and important, but many students don’t do
it so well.
So how can you organize your answer effectively?
First, start with an opening phrase.
Say something like:
“I’m going to tell you about…”
“I’d like to talk about…”
“I’ve decided to talk about…”
This gives your speech a strong, clear start.
What next?
Very simple: follow the bullet points.
Say 1-2 sentences, using your notes, about
each of the three bullet points.
Hopefully, this will take you 30-60 seconds.
Be focused, and don’t go off topic or add
any points which don’t answer the question.
Every sentence should be a direct answer to
one of the points on the card.
Next, focus on the last part of the question—“…explain
how you feel about this choice now.”
This is the most important part of the question,
because it lets you go into more detail.
This isn’t just true for this question;
this is generally true for IELTS speaking
part two questions.
The three bullet points are quite simple,
and you can’t say very much about them,
sometimes.
The last part has more depth, and you should
spend more time on it.
So, try to make 3-4 sentences about the last
part of the question.
This should take you 30-60 seconds, again.
Great!
You’ve finished, right?
Well, not quite.
You also need a strong finish.
Often, when I practice IELTS with my students,
they act surprised when they finish their
answers, like this:
“…and so I feel like I probably made the
right choice…
…
…
Finished!”
This doesn’t sound like you’ve finished.
It sounds like you’ve just run out of things
to say.
You should know when you’ve finished, and
you should show the examiner clearly.
How can you finish strongly?
Use a concluding phrase, such as:
“That’s why I feel that…”
“Finally, when I look back at my decision
now…”
“I’m glad I made the decision I did.”
Obviously, the finishing phrases aren’t
like the opening phrases, which you can use
for any topic.
The finishing phrases will depend on the question
you get.
Just remember: you need to finish strongly,
don’t just…
…
…
Okay, I’ve finished point 2!
What’s next?
Part three: adding details to your answer.
A lot of IELTS advice says the same things:
give detailed answers, use varied vocabulary,
use different sentence structures.
OK, that’s great, it’s all true, but how?
And how can you use this in part two of your
IELTS speaking test?
Actually, if you follow the advice I’ve
given you so far, this will happen automatically.
If you make two sentences for each bullet
point, make 3-4 sentences for the last part
of the question, write down key vocabulary
to use in your notes; if you do these things,
your answer should already be detailed, with
good vocabulary.
We’ve already done a lot of the work you
need to do here.
What else can you do?
For each point, try to give at least one fact
and at least one opinion.
For example, don’t say:
“I had to choose between studying computer
science and studying engineering.”
Say:
“I had to choose between studying computer
science and studying engineering.
I was interested in both, although I always
felt that studying computer science was a
better choice.”
Don’t say:
“I decided to study computer science.”
Instead, say:
“I decided to study computer science, because
I felt that it would give me more interesting
career opportunities.”
This is a good, simple rule to make your answers
more detailed.
Always include a fact and an opinion if you
can.
Add details wherever you can.
Don’t say,
“It was quite a difficult decision to make.”
Instead, say:
“It was quite a difficult decision to make,
because my parents and my teachers all gave
me different advice, and I didn’t know what
to do.”
Don’t say:
“I feel like I made the right decision.”
Say:
“I feel like I made the right decision, because
I really enjoy working in IT—it’s very
creative and there’s always something new
to learn.”
Following these simple rules will make your
answers more detailed, and give you a higher
chance to get a better score.
Next, let’s look at timing.
Part four: how long should you speak?
This is simple: at least one minute.
Speaking for less than one minute will hurt
your score.
You can speak for up to two minutes.
After two minutes, the examiner will stop
you, even if you’re in the middle of your
sentence.
If the examiner stops you, that’s not necessarily
a problem.
It doesn’t affect your score if you go too
long.
However, if you’ve haven’t covered all
the parts of the question, that could be a
problem.
That’s why a good goal is to speak for 90
seconds.
This should give you enough time to say everything
you want to say.
So how do you do that?
Practice, and time yourself.
Type “IELTS part two speaking questions”
into Google and find some questions to practice
with.
First, speak and look at your timer, on your
phone or wherever.
Answer the same question several times.
Your goal is to cover all parts of the question
in 90 seconds.
Later, when you’re more comfortable with
this, practice your answers, but don’t look
at the timer.
At the end, guess how long you spoke for,
and then look at the timer to check.
If you do this a few times, you’ll start
to feel how long you need to speak for.
You’ll also know how much you can say.
Different people speak at different speeds.
If you can speak fast and fluently, you’ll
be able to say more in 90 seconds.
If you’re a slower speaker, you won’t
be able to say as much.
Practising will help you to understand how
much you can say in 90 seconds.
Part five: dealing with common problems.
Finally, let’s look at some problems which
students face in part two of the IELTS speaking
test.
First problem: “I don’t have anything
to say about this topic!”
Well, I chose the question for this lesson
because it’s an easier one.
“Describe an important choice you made”
Ithink is something which most people could
talk about.
Unfortunately, not all of the questions are
so easy or general.
For example, if the question is, “Talk about
a party which you went to.”
What if you haven’t been to a party for
several years?
What if you don’t like parties?
This could happen.
We hope it won’t, but it could.
What can you do?
First, when you’re preparing for the exam,
be strict with yourself.
Don’t just practice easy questions, or questions
which you think are interesting.
Find the most difficult question you can.
Find the most boring question you can.
Practice answering these.
Find more difficult questions, and more boring
questions, and practice them.
You need to be prepared for anything.
If the worst happens, and you get a topic
where you don’t have anything to say, you
have two options:
First, you can just lie.
The examiner really doesn’t care if you
tell the truth or not.
Make up a story if you can.
Otherwise, try to think of a story from a
friend, or from the news, or anything which
you could use.
For example, if the topic is “Talk about
a party which you went to,” and your friend
told you about a party that he or she went
to last week, use your friend’s story.
To be clear, don’t talk about your friend.
Use your friend’s story and make it about
you.
This is important: in other parts of the IELTS
exam, it can be OK to say “I don’t know,”
or “I don’t have anything to say about
this.”
But in part two, you must answer the question.
You can’t change the topic or adapt it.
What other common problems do IELTS students
have during part two of the speaking test?
Another common problem: “I’m so nervous!”
Alright, well giving a speech like this makes
a lot of people nervous or uncomfortable.
What can you do about this?
First of all, understand that feeling nervous
in this situation is natural.
Very few people can feel totally comfortable
in this kind of situation.
Is there anything you can do to feel less
nervous?
Well, yes, there is.
Try to practice making presentations or speeches
in English, in front of as many people as
possible, maybe in class or with your teacher.
Practicing speaking like this is useful anyway,
but it’s also goodto get used to feeling
nervous.
Feeling a little bit nervous doesn’t mean
your English will get worse.
Feeling nervous is natural; you can feel nervous
and you can still speak well.
It’s important to understand this before your
exam.
Okay, part six, let’s review what we’ve talked
about today.
To get a higher score in part two of the IELTS
speaking test, you need to prepare carefully,
making sure you have something to say for
each part of the question.
You should structure your speech, with a clear
beginning and ending.
Add details to your answer where possible,
especially for the last part of the question.
Try to speak for around 90 seconds.
And, practice in advance, including boring
questions, difficult questions, and speaking
in situations where you feel nervous.
Okay, think about the question we looked at
today:
Here it is again.
Who would you talk about?
What would you say?
What details could you add to your answer?
Try it for yourself, and try to use some of
the things we’ve talked about today.
Alright, that’s the end of the lesson.
Thanks very much for watching!
I hope you found this IELTS advice useful
in preparing for your exam.
Good luck if you have an exam coming up soon!
You can see more of our free lessons on our
website: Oxford Online English dot com, but
that’s all for today.
See you next time!