IELTS Speaking · Part 2 Cue Card
Describe a gift you received that was special to you
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 gift you received that was special to you.
You should say:
- •What the gift was
- •Who gave it to you
- •When you received it
- •And explain why it was special
How to use your 1 minute of prep time
Specific to this cue card — not generic advice.
- 1Special is rarely about price; pick a gift with a story behind it.
- 2Note the moment of giving — many candidates skip the actual moment.
- 3Mention what the giver knew about you that made the gift land.
- 4Avoid 'I cried, I was so happy' — show, don't tell.
Sample answer (band 7.5)
Read it once for shape, then aloud for rhythm. Don't memorise it — examiners can tell.
The gift that stands out the most for me was a hand-drawn map I received from my best friend on my thirtieth birthday. She had spent about three months secretly putting it together. It was about A2 size, drawn in black ink on thick cream paper, and it traced every place we'd ever lived in or travelled to together since we met at university — eleven different cities. Each location had a tiny illustration: the café in Berlin where we got food poisoning, the bookshop in Lisbon we got lost in for three hours, the flat in Glasgow with the broken radiator. I received it at a small dinner she hosted at her apartment, with about six close friends. She handed it to me in a tube and tried to look casual about it, but you could see she was nervous. The reason it was so special isn't that it was beautiful — although it is. It's that it was an enormous amount of attention, slowly applied. Most gifts you can buy in fifteen minutes. This one had clearly cost her hundreds of hours, and it was a record of a friendship I sometimes take for granted. It's now framed in my hallway, and I genuinely look at it almost every day.
Topic vocabulary & collocations
Phrases used in the sample answer that lift fluency naturally.
stands out
is the most notable
putting it together
creating it gradually
tried to look casual
pretended not to be nervous
slowly applied
given over a long period
take for granted
fail to appreciate
land
have the desired emotional effect
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 people give gifts on special occasions?
- Are handmade gifts more meaningful than purchased ones?
- Has gift-giving changed because of online shopping?
- Should children be given expensive gifts?
- Is it rude to ask the price of a gift you received?
Common pitfalls on this card
- ⚠Choosing a phone or piece of jewellery without a real story.
- ⚠Saying it was 'special because it cost a lot'.
- ⚠Forgetting to describe the gift physically.