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 teacher who influenced you.
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 teacher who had the biggest impact on me was Mr Chen, who taught me history when I was about fifteen. He was a slightly unusual teacher — he never followed the textbook, and he refused to use the projector. Everything was discussion or chalk. What made him special wasn't that he was charismatic; he wasn't, particularly. It was that he treated us as if our opinions actually mattered, even when they were poorly thought out. He'd ask a question, we'd answer with something half-formed, and then he'd say, 'Okay, now defend it,' and force us to argue our position for ten minutes. The first time he did it I was furious. I remember leaving class genuinely upset. But about three weeks in I noticed I was thinking before I spoke, in his class and outside it. The way he influenced me has only become clearer with time. I work in policy now, and the habit of having to justify a casual statement turns out to be enormously useful. Most of my schooling rewarded the right answer; he rewarded the well-defended one. That's a much harder thing to teach, and I haven't met another teacher who did it as deliberately.
Phrases used in the sample answer that lift fluency naturally.
shot by shot
in close detail, frame by frame
textbook
official course book
half-formed
incomplete, partly thought out
defend a position
argue in support of an opinion
well-defended
supported by strong reasoning
as deliberately
with as much intention
The examiner will move from your story (Part 2) to broader, abstract questions (Part 3). Prepare answers for these.