IELTS Speaking · Part 2 Cue Card
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 place you go to when you want to relax.
You should say:
Specific to this cue card — not generic advice.
Read it once for shape, then aloud for rhythm. Don't memorise it — examiners can tell.
The place I go to relax is a small public library about a fifteen-minute walk from my flat. It's not famous or beautiful — just a 1970s building with worn carpet and a slightly old-book smell — but it has been my reset button for the last three years. I go almost every Saturday morning, and sometimes on weekday evenings if my brain is too noisy after work. I don't really go there to read serious things. I'll usually pick up something light, a magazine or a graphic novel, and sit in the same window seat overlooking a small courtyard. There's a particular sound to a quiet library that I find genuinely soothing — pages turning, the occasional chair scraping, the muted voice of a librarian helping someone. The reason it relaxes me isn't just the quiet. It's the absence of pressure. There's no decision to make, no message to reply to, no algorithm trying to feed me something. The library doesn't want me to do anything. That kind of permission to just exist somewhere has become surprisingly rare in my life, and that's why I keep going back. After ninety minutes there I usually leave with a clearer head than I arrived with.
Phrases used in the sample answer that lift fluency naturally.
reset button
a way to start over
too noisy
too cluttered (about thoughts)
muted voice
quiet, restrained voice
absence of pressure
lack of demands
permission to just exist
freedom from doing anything
clearer head
less cluttered mind
The examiner will move from your story (Part 2) to broader, abstract questions (Part 3). Prepare answers for these.