Do I have to answer all the points on the cue card in IELTS Speaking Part 2?

Modified on Fri, 26 Sep at 3:14 PM

The 'cue card' (question paper) in Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking test shows you the topic of your talk and gives you a suggested outline for your talk. It will have three bullet points and a further point to explain (four points in total).

You do not have to follow this outline exactly. You could change the order of the points on the cue card, and you don't have to mention every point on the cue card in detail. However, the points are there to guide you and you should definitely try to speak about all of them to some extent.

You might have other points connected to the topic you want to speak about, too, and that is also fine. You need to try to speak for two minutes in total, and 90 seconds at the very least, so keep talking. Use the 60-second preparation time before you start speaking to write down any ideas or words that could be useful.

You can learn more about Speaking Part 2 and exactly what you need to do with our Guided Skills for Speaking courses. Choose the Study section, select Topic and Speaking and then Part 2 Speaking to watch classes, do training, and do practice.

Also, check out Speaking example answers in the History area once you have completed a Speaking practice task. Here, you can watch videos of students taking IELTS Speaking exams and read examiner comments on their performance. Just click view result / get result and then scroll down to example answers.