How to Answer IELTS Speaking Part 2?

Janice Thompson

9 min read

Updated On Dec 20, 2021

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This post will help you figure out the strategies, common errors of answering Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking test and furnish you with 3 Band 9.0 Sample Answers.

Part Two of the Speaking Test is where you are given a topic to talk about for 1 – 2 minutes.
The topic can be on any subject and you are given one minute to prepare for it including making notes if necessary.
After speaking for one to two minutes ( you must speak for a minimum of 1 minute and a maximum of two minutes.), the examiner will stop you and ask you a general follow-up question on the topic which should be answered briefly (ideally 5 seconds.)
Tip: You should try and speak for the maximum 2 minutes permitted to maximise your chance of being highly rated in your ability to present a topic in English.

How to Answer IELTS Speaking Part 2 ?

And here are some topic examples:

Question 1

Describe a shop that you like to visit. In your talk mention the following:
• Where the shop is
• What the shop specializes in
• Why you like to shop there

(Follow-up Question: Do your friends also like to visit this shop?)

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Question 2

Describe a place that you enjoyed visiting recently. In your talk mention the following:
• Where the place is
• Why you visited the place
• What you liked about the place
(Follow up Question: Is this a popular place to visit? )

Question 3

Describe a job that interested you:
• What the job is
• What the job involves
• Why this job interests you
(Follow-up Question: Is this a popular job in your country?)

Advice on how to answer the Topic

You should focus on the keywords in the question and identify the three questions which
need answering.
For example Question 1:

The notes for Question 1 could look like this

Describe a shop you like
• Where the shop is: Abe Fashion store, Golden City Shopping Mall, city centre, ten minutes from my home
• What the shop sells: Women’s fashion, skirts, jackets, tops, dresses, accessories, all from local designers
• Why you like the shop: Always new stock, original clothes, cutting edge designs, friendly staff

The answer could be something like this:

I would like to talk about a shop which I have been going to for four years now. It is called ABC Fashion and as the name suggests it is a fashion shop dedicated to women’s fashion. It is located in the centre of my home town, only 10 minutes walk away from where I live. This means it has a prime position in the city centre. I am a big fan of it for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the store has a policy of only selling clothing items such as jackets, dresses and tops designed by locally based fashion designers. This gives all their products a freshness and originality of design which I really appreciate. It also allows me to help support and encourage local people who are building their own fashion businesses in my local area.

Secondly, despite the fact that all the items are limited edition designs, the prices are extremely reasonable and compare very favourably with the large and much more well known clothing stores in my city. Abe fashion is even able to offer similar prices to the national clothing chain stores which we have in my city.

Thirdly, Abe Fashion has a very relaxed and original layout to their shop. There are comfortable chairs and fashion magazines to read for people who come in but don’t want to buy anything. They even have a coffee machine where you can buy yourself hot drinks. I can genuinely say that the whole decoration is very tastefully and stylishly presented in a truly original way.

Finally what makes Abe store are the staff-they are wonderful. I have known some of them for the entire four years that I have been going in to the store. They say that it is such a nice atmosphere to work in that they don’t want to leave and look for work elsewhere. In fact, I now consider them to be my friends. They even sometimes reserve clothes which they think that I will like to buy. These are the little things that make shopping in ABC fashion store such a great experience and indeed why I decided to talk about it here today.

There would then be the follow up question to answer: Do your friends also like to visit this shop?
And the answer could be: Yes, it is very popular with my friends.

Now, it’s your turn to answer Question 2

Describe a place that you enjoyed visiting recently. In your talk mention the following:
• Where the place is
• Why you visited the place
• What you liked about the place
(Follow up Question: Is this a popular place to visit? )

You can follow these steps to answer this question:

1. Identify the Key words (Place, enjoy visiting recently, where, why, what)

Make a note plan:
• Where the place is
White Beach on Mindoro island 2.5 hours bus and boat ride from my home city, central
Philippines
• Why you enjoyed when you visited the place
In a beautiful natural setting, first time to go on white sandy beach, very exciting, with friends
• What you like about the place
Stunningly beautiful area, beautiful blue sea
Write your answer:
I would like to talk about a place which I visited last summer. This place is called White beach. It is on Mindoro island in the centre of my country. Mindoro island is actually so large that it made up of two provinces. To get there we had to go on a two and a half hour bus and boat ride from my home city which is in the centre of Luzon island.
I went to Mindoro with friends from home. We wanted to go to somewhere interesting that we had never been to before, where we could enjoy both the sun and the sea. We did an extensive search on the internet and found out that White Beach in Mindoro offered these things. Before I went to White Beach with my friends I had never been to Mindoro, and I had not met anyone else who had been to the island either. However the island is being heavily promoted now as a holiday destination for Filipino people, so myself and my friends were aware of it. However we had always assumed that it would be too expensive for us to visit and stay there. So when we went to our local travel agent and found out that it was within our holiday budget, we were both amazed and really happy. We booked for a week and stayed in a hotel with a good view of the large, sandy beach.
The first thing I noticed when we arrived there was how hot it was-Mindoro is in the centre of your country, so it is warm all year round. I think it was about 34 degrees on the day we landed at the airport. Myself and my friends were so hot that after checking in to our hotel rooms, we all changed in to our beach clothes and headed straight out onto the beach. We were amazed at just how hot the sand was on the beach. The sea was amazing, we had never seen such blue water.
We spent a week at White beach and when we returned we brought some traditional handicrafts made by the local people. We gave these as souvenirs to our friends and family. White beach was a place that I really enjoyed visiting.

There would then be the follow up question to answer: Is this a popular place to visit?
And the answer could be: Yes it is very popular with my friends.

How to answer Question 3:

1. Identify the Key Words: A job interested you, what, what job involves, Why interests you
2. Make a note plan:
Describe a job that interests you.
• What the job is: Film actor
• What the job involves: Acting, making films, rehearsing
• Why this job interests you: Chance to become famous, travel

3. Write your answer:
I think that for many people acting seems like glamorous work, but it is a profession that requires talent and lots of practice and training. For most actors as well there is a large degree of luck involved in becoming successful in your career. However acting is something that I have always wanted to do. I can remember wanting to act as a child, and it is an ambition that has stayed with me to this day. For me, all the hard work and effort involved would be rewarded by the sense of satisfaction that I would get from having acted in a great film.

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When most people think of film stars, they think of celebrities, of being famous and being admired for who you are. I have to admit that I too would like to be famous and to be admired by people. I think that this is a normal part of being a human being, and that everybody secretly wants to be respected by others. I think that the problem would come in finding out how well to deal with becoming suddenly famous and being well known throughout the country.

A big attraction in acting for me would be the ability to travel and meet new people. I really enjoy travelling and look forward to doing this whenever I can, and it would become a very big part of my job if 1 was to become an actor. Acting would also involve meeting new people and this is also something that I am greatly interested in and I would genuinely enjoy this side of the profession.

It seems that everybody wants to become a movie star, so I know that I would have a lot of intense competition to achieve my dream. However with hard work and practice and an admittedly large amount of luck, I feel confident in being able to achieve this ambition. How soon this may happen however is unclear, because there are so many factors involved. Many other people have succeeded in becoming well respected actors both domestically and internationally, and Ifeel that there is no reason why I cannot do the same. I believe that talent and hard work will go a long way in becoming successful in life.

There would be the follow up question to answer: Is this a popular job in your country?
And the answer could be: Yes it is very popular with my friends.

Common Errors to IELTS Speaking Part 2

There are three possible serious errors to answering Part 2 of the Speaking test, These are:
1. Not Speaking
2. Not speaking for a minimum of 1 minute.
3. Not speaking about the topic – called being off topic.

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