How to Prepare for Speaking Part 2?

In the second part of IELTS Speaking, the examiner gives you a card with a topic, for example:

Describe a street market or an outdoor market that you have visited.
You should say:
Where it is
What can you buy there
What is it famous for
and explain how you feel when you visit there.

You prepare for 1 minute and should speak from 1 to 2 minutes. There are a lot of topics and they are all different. BUT! You can divide Speaking Part 2 topics into groups to get ready:

1. Describe a person:
an older person you admire, a singer, an actor, a polite person, a celebrity, member of your family, person who wears unusual clothes

2. Describe a place:
a  home you liked/visited but did not want to live in, part of a city or town, a quiet place, a market, a café/restaurant, city, country, a beautiful place to visit in your country/city, school, a tall building in your city you like or dislike

3. Describe an object:
present, clothes, a device/ a piece of equipment, a photo, a souvenir, toy, an old object which your family has kept, art or craft (painting, woodwork) you made at school

4. Describe a time when…/an experience/situation:
A time when you helped a friend, a time you saw 2 of your friends having an argument, a time you used your imagination, a  time you were pleased with your purchase, a time you made a promise to someone, an experience when you got bored when you were with others, a time when your computer broke down, when you told your friend the truth, when you gave advice, when you saw smth interesting on social media, when you were not allowed to use your mobile phone, when you saw a lot of people smiling; when you tried a new food for the first time

5. Describe an event:
an event in history, a sports event, an important event in your life, a trip you often take, but dislike

6. Describe an activity:
game, sport, an activity you do alone, something healthy you do, a party, activity by the sea, a puzzle (jigsaw, crossword) you have played, an activity you do after work or studies

7. Describe mass media:
an app, a TV documentary, a film, advertisement, article, news, book, an article on health you read in a magazine or on the Internet

8 Describe something from nature:
wild animal, plant, animal, lake, river

9 Work:
Company that employs a lot of people, an  ideal job you'd like to do in the future

10 Other:
An interesting conversation you had, a skill you can teach others, your favourite weather, natural talent you want to improve, plan in your life not related to work/study, law on environmental protection

This classification will help you prepare words, phrases and also your stories.

For example, you can now think of 1 person you can talk about if you get one of these topics: an older person, a polite person, a member of your family – this could be 1 person. You can use the words you have prepared about describing people.

The same is true about an object. You can use the words you prepare to describe objects.

The difficult one could be a situation/time when….as there are all sorts of situations. Here you can use Past tenses as these topics are usually about the past. So, do some work on various Past tenses to feel more confident.

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