Prepare the type, not the forecast.

New season, same six asks. Every Part 2 card ever written wants a person, a place, an object, an event, an experience or an idea. Here is each one, prepared for this season, with the same answer shown at Band 6 and Band 8.

How the season works. Three times a year, in January, May and September, the pool of Part 2 topics is partly refreshed: some cards retire, new ones arrive, and plenty carry straight on. Sites promising this season's leaked list are selling reconstructions, secondhand, often wrong and always incomplete. What never changes is the shape of the ask, so prepare the six types below and the forecast stops mattering. Every set on this page is original, written for practice, recalled from nobody's exam. For the full drill decks, use the Part 1 questions, the 36 cue cards and the Part 3 discussion, and for practice by everyday topic, the topics generator.

01The six types

Every card is one of these.

Strip the decoration from any cue card and one of six requests is left. Each type keeps recycling the same handful of angles, each has a classic way of going wrong, and each has a framework that fits it. Learn the type once and every new card is a variation you have already prepared.

A person

Someone you admire, someone who taught you something, someone who helped you, an older person you find interesting.

The trapReciting a biography. The card always ends with and explain why, and that is where the marks live.

Reach for SCALE for the story that shows the quality, PSC for why they matter to you.

A place

Somewhere you relax, a place that impressed you, a building you like, a place that has changed.

The trapBrochure adjectives with no viewpoint. Beautiful, peaceful and famous describe every place, so they describe none.

Reach for PRISM for how a place affects people at different levels.

An object

Something you use daily, a gift, something you bought recently, something old you keep.

The trapRunning dry at forty seconds. The object is a peg: the material is the people and habits around it.

Reach for THREAD for how your use of it has changed over time.

An event or occasion

A celebration, a piece of good news, a change you made, a day that mattered.

The trapPure chronology. Then, then, then is a timetable, not a story.

Reach for SCALE for the day itself, THREAD for what changed after it.

An experience

A time you helped someone, learned something, solved a problem, waited for something, got something wrong.

The trapTransplanting a memorised anecdote onto the wrong card. The joins always show.

Reach for SCALE for the Part 2 experience narrative.

An idea

A skill you would like to learn, a piece of advice, a rule, an ambition, a subject you enjoy.

The trapDrifting into essay-speak and losing the personal anchor the card asked for.

Reach for PSC for a focused opinion, PRISM for its effects at different levels.

02This season's sets

Six themes, written for this season.

One full set per type: Part 1 warm-ups, an original cue card and a Part 3 ladder from concrete to abstract. Pick a theme, or let the page pick for you, then answer aloud before you read anything below.

See the band models

03The long turn, two bands

The same card at Band 6 and Band 8.

Each pair below is a model I wrote for this season's cards, to show the distance between the bands, never to be memorised. The band labels are indicative. An examiner hears a borrowed answer within seconds, and the surest way to sound borrowed is to deliver someone else's script.

04The discussion, worked

Where the season is actually decided.

Part 3 does not rotate with the seasons, it follows wherever your Part 2 went. Two questions from the sets above, answered at both bands, with the lifting moves named.

05Twelve weeks, two passes

A season is longer than you need.

Twelve weeks is enough to meet every type twice, and the second meeting is the one that changes your band.

Weeks 1 to 6, first passOne theme a week. Speak the full set aloud, record the long turn, listen back once, and write down your two worst hesitations.
Weeks 7 to 12, second passSame themes, harder angles. Swap the sub-topic, answer the Part 3 ladder without notes, and hold every long turn to the full two minutes.
Any weekOne cold question from the topics generator, so the season never makes you comfortable.

A plan tells you what to practise. A mock tells you where you are.

By week six you will sound better to yourself, which proves little. In a lesson, I run the full Part 1 to 3 against this season's themes, mark it live against the four criteria, and name the band you are sitting at and the two habits holding it down.

Book a lesson with Adam

The book of the method

The Proper English Grammar Guide to IELTS Speaking

The method this site drills for free, written down properly: five response frameworks, thirteen grammatical structures taken to automation, vocabulary by band, pronunciation with audio demonstrations one scan away, and first-language guidance for eight language families. 614 pages, built from more than two thousand documented one-to-one lessons. Most guides teach every candidate the same English; this one starts from what your first language makes you do.

Paperback on Amazon →Kindle edition →The free 79-page companion →