IELTS Speaking · Part 2 Cue Card
Describe a happy memory from your childhood
A complete preparation guide: the cue card itself, a 60-second prep framework, a band 7.5 sample answer, topic vocabulary, and likely Part 3 follow-up questions.
Cue card
Describe a happy memory from your childhood.
You should say:
- •What the memory is
- •When it happened
- •Who was involved
- •And explain why it makes you happy
How to use your 1 minute of prep time
Specific to this cue card — not generic advice.
- 1Pick a low-stakes, sensory memory rather than a big event — they're easier to describe richly.
- 2Use past simple but mix in past continuous to set the scene.
- 3Lock onto one or two physical details (a smell, a sound) — they age the memory.
- 4Don't moralise; just describe.
Sample answer (band 7.5)
Read it once for shape, then aloud for rhythm. Don't memorise it — examiners can tell.
The memory that comes back to me most often is one from when I was about seven, staying at my grandparents' house in the countryside during a summer holiday. There wasn't anything special about that particular day — that's almost the point. My grandmother was making jam in a huge copper pot in the kitchen, and the whole house smelled of strawberries and sugar boiling down. I was sitting on the back step with my older brother, and we were trying to skim flat stones across a small pond at the bottom of the garden. He could get four or five bounces; I couldn't get any, no matter how hard I tried. He kept laughing at me, but in a way that was more affectionate than mean. At some point my grandfather came outside with two slices of bread that had still-hot jam on them, and we ate them on the step without saying anything. That's the entire memory. There's no event, no climax. The reason it makes me happy is that it's the clearest sense memory I have of being completely safe, with nothing to do, surrounded by people who weren't going anywhere. As an adult, that combination is very hard to recreate.
Topic vocabulary & collocations
Phrases used in the sample answer that lift fluency naturally.
comes back to me
returns to my thoughts
boiling down
reducing through cooking
skim stones
throw flat stones across water so they bounce
more affectionate than mean
showing love rather than cruelty
no climax
no dramatic high point
very hard to recreate
difficult to experience again
Likely Part 3 follow-up questions
The examiner will move from your story (Part 2) to broader, abstract questions (Part 3). Prepare answers for these.
- Why do childhood memories often feel more vivid than recent ones?
- Is childhood today fundamentally different from forty years ago?
- Should parents film and photograph everything their children do?
- How does growing up in a city versus the countryside affect childhood?
- Why do adults often idealise their childhoods?
Common pitfalls on this card
- ⚠Picking a holiday or birthday and listing the gifts.
- ⚠Saying everything was 'amazing and beautiful' without specific detail.
- ⚠Slipping into present tense by accident.