Describe a person who makes plans a lot and is good at planning
IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card with a full sample answer, a Band 9 model of the two-minute long turn.
The cue card
Describe a person who makes plans a lot and is good at planning
You should say:
- who this person is
- how you know this person
- what plans this person makes
- how you feel about this person
Sample answer
I'd like to talk about my mother, who is without doubt the most organised person I have ever known and a truly brilliant planner.
Naturally, I've known her all my life, and over the years I've come to appreciate just how much her meticulous planning holds our whole family together. She has an incredible gift for foresight, preparing for almost every aspect of life well in advance.
She makes all sorts of plans on a daily basis. To begin with, she carefully structures the entire week for our household, from organising the chores and drawing up shopping lists to scheduling everyone's appointments. Whenever our family goes on a trip, she takes charge of all the arrangements, meticulously planning the transport, accommodation and the places we'll visit, and she even prepares backup plans in case anything goes wrong. On top of that, she manages the family's finances impressively, keeping track of all our expenses and making sure everything stays within a sensible budget.
What amazes me most is her ability to juggle both long-term goals and everyday responsibilities without ever seeming stressed or forgetting a single thing. Thanks to her, our family life runs remarkably smoothly and feels stable and secure.
As for how I feel about her, I have nothing but admiration and gratitude. Although I don't possess anything like her level of organisation, her example constantly motivates me to improve my own planning habits. She has taught me the immense value of being prepared and thinking ahead, which is a lesson I try to apply in my own life.
In essence, my mother is the backbone of our family, and her extraordinary planning skills make all our lives easier and more comfortable. I feel genuinely lucky to have such a capable and caring person looking out for us all, and I aspire to be as organised as her one day.
311 words — roughly 2–3 minutes at a natural speaking pace.
Reading a model answer is not the same as saying one. The sample above shows what a strong Part 2 answer sounds like. What it cannot tell you is how yours sounds — whether you hesitate, repeat the question back, or run out of things to say at forty seconds.
You can record an answer to this exact question and get it marked on fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and pronunciation — the same four criteria the examiner uses.
Common questions
How long should I speak for in Part 2?
Between one and two minutes. The examiner stops you at two, so aim to still be talking at the ninety-second mark rather than finishing early — running out at forty seconds is the most common problem in this part.
What do I do with the one minute of preparation time?
You get one minute and a pencil and paper. Most candidates waste it writing full sentences they then read aloud, which sounds flat. Note a few keywords against each bullet instead, so you have four things to say and can speak naturally from them.
Do I have to cover all four bullet points?
They are prompts, not a checklist, and you are not penalised for skipping one. In practice they are the easiest way to fill two minutes, so covering them is usually the simplest way to keep going.
Does it matter if the story is not true?
No. You are assessed on your English, not on whether the events happened. Inventing detail is fine and often easier than recalling a real memory under pressure.
Model answers written and reviewed by The English All-in-One IELTS team. They are teaching models showing what each band looks like, not real candidate scripts.