One minute to prepare, up to two minutes to talk, and no help from the examiner. Part 2 is the part candidates dread, and it is also the one where preparation pays off most — not by memorising answers, which examiners hear coming, but by knowing how to shape two minutes on any topic.
Every card below has a suggested structure for the long turn, the vocabulary that topic actually invites, and the specific mistake it tempts people into. They are the same 60 cards the examiner draws from in a live test.
10 cards
The most common Part 2 card there is, and the one most often answered with a list of adjectives instead of a story.
A card that rewards specific life detail — the era someone lived through is free material most candidates leave on the table.
A narrative card disguised as a person card — the marks are in the situation, not the description.
One of the few cards where you can prepare real content in advance without it sounding memorised.
The 'how you met' bullet is the story engine here — most people rush it and then run dry.
A card that hands you an entire vocabulary field — work, skill, standards — if you pick someone whose job you can actually describe.
Close cousin of the influential-person card, but the classroom setting gives you concrete scenes for free.
The card most likely to be answered in the abstract, which is exactly what loses marks in Part 2.
A low-stakes card that rewards ordinary domestic detail — the kind most candidates think is too small to mention.
The only person card set in the future, which means conditionals — and conditionals are where band 7 grammar lives.
10 cards
A description card where the marks come from the atmosphere, not the floor plan.
A sensory card. The crowd itself is the subject, and describing it well is most of the score.
The mirror of the crowded-place card, and harder — you have to describe an absence.
Broad enough that the risk is a shapeless list of sights rather than a shortage of material.
The card that most rewards actual descriptive vocabulary — shape, material, scale, age.
An easy card to answer adequately and a hard one to answer memorably — the difference is season and time of day.
Food, atmosphere and habit all in one card — no shortage of material, so the risk is drift.
The one place card where you can bring in facts — but the facts are the setting, not the answer.
Future-tense card. Conditionals and speculation are effectively required, which is why it's set.
Small, ordinary and often underestimated — which makes it a good card for showing you can build from little.
10 cards
The temptation is to name your phone and stop. The card rewards anything more specific.
The object matters less than the relationship behind it, and the best answers know that early.
Recent means you have real detail available — use it, because vagueness here is obvious.
A card that needs physical description, which is exactly the vocabulary most candidates haven't rehearsed.
You describe two things here — the image, and the moment it froze. Most candidates only do one.
A process card. The sequence of making is the structure, which makes this one of the easier cards to fill.
Modern, easy to talk about, and dangerously easy to answer in generalities about social media.
The saving is the story. The object is only the ending, and candidates routinely get that backwards.
Retelling the plot is the standard failure. The card asks what you enjoyed, which is a different question.
Two stories in one — the object's and the family's — which is why this card rarely runs short.
12 cards
The word is journey, not destination — and the difference is worth a band.
A card built on a fork in the road. If there was no real alternative, pick a different decision.
Cultural detail is free marks here — the examiner may genuinely not know how the occasion works.
A narrative with built-in tension — one of the easiest cards to speak fluently on if you tell it in order.
Mirror image of the person-who-helped-you card, and the same rule applies: build the problem first.
The card rewards process. What you tried and abandoned is worth more than what finally worked.
Needs a turn in it. A mistake with no consequence and no lesson is just an anecdote.
The waiting beforehand is the story. Without it, the news is one sentence and you're stranded.
A card about boredom, which has to be described without being boring — the reason it's harder than it looks.
The most grammatically demanding narrative card — it needs past, past perfect and present in one answer.
Say what *you* did. Answers that stay in 'we' the whole way through tell the examiner nothing.
The difficulty has to be real and specific. 'It was hard' is the sentence that caps this card at band 6.
8 cards
A future card, so the grammar is conditional — and the plan needs to be plausible, not aspirational.
Works equally well for someone who plays badly — how you started and why you continue is the material.
'Recently' is the operative word — it means you can talk about being a beginner, which is more interesting than expertise.
Process, sense and culture in one card. The risk is reciting a recipe rather than describing a meal.
Needs a contrast to work — what you're relaxing *from* gives the answer somewhere to start.
Repetition is the subject. Describing something you've done four hundred times needs a different approach from a one-off trip.
Honesty scores here. An answer about something you manage three times a week beats an invented daily regime.
The smallest card in the bank, and it lives or dies on whether you can make a small thing vivid.
6 cards
Same discipline as the book card — plot summary is the trap, response is the answer.
Music is hard to describe and that's the opportunity — most candidates give up and talk about the artist instead.
Pick one with a purpose. 'Google' and 'YouTube' are the answers that give you least to say.
Series give you more material than films — format, running length, how it changed over time.
Choose something you actually understood. A story you half-followed will strand you at ninety seconds.
An audio card, which means the *when* matters more than for any other media topic — listening is something you do while doing something else.
4 cards
Quote the advice. An answer that only paraphrases it never quite lands.
The strongest answers steelman the rule before attacking it — that's what 'why it exists' is doing in the bullets.
Future card, so it needs a plan with steps. A wish with no mechanism runs out of things to say.
Overlaps the difficult-thing card, but the emphasis is different: pride, not struggle.
Reading a cue card and speaking to one are different skills, and only the second is assessed. Pick a card, take your minute, and talk for two — the examiner will not interrupt, and the report afterwards will tell you where the time went.
This guide is written from the publicly published IELTS Speaking band descriptors, in our own words. For the official wording, see the British Council's band descriptors. MockLive AI is an independent practice tool and is not affiliated with IELTS, the British Council, IDP or Cambridge Assessment English.