IELTS Speaking Part 2: the 2-minute long turn (cue card strategy for Band 7+)

IELTS Speaking Part 2: the 2-minute long turn — cue card strategy for Band 7+, with practice prompts.

By the IELTS Training editorial team · Last reviewed 2026-10-04Free account to read

The format, in 20 seconds

You get a card with a topic ("Describe a time you had to learn something new"), three or four bullet prompts, and the line "You should say...". You have 1 minute to prepare (you can write notes) and then up to 2 minutes to speak. The examiner stops you at 2 minutes — not because you failed, but because the section is over.

One correction worth making: there is no "right answer" to any cue card. Examiners do not grade your story. They grade four public criteria — fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, pronunciation — exactly as in Parts 1 and 3. A boring but fluent story beats an impressive but stammered one.

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IELTS Speaking Part 2: the 2-minute long turn (cue card strategy for Band 7+)

The format, in 20 seconds

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