Describe a person who met difficulties but succeeded
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 met difficulties but succeeded
You should say:
- who this friend is
- what the achievement was
- what he or she did
- why you were proud of your friend's achievement
Sample answer
I'd like to describe a friend of mine named Farid, who faced considerable difficulties but ultimately succeeded, and whose achievement I'm genuinely proud of.
Farid is a close friend from my university days, and his achievement was overcoming serious financial hardship to graduate at the top of our class and land an excellent job. It might not sound extraordinary on the surface, but knowing everything he had to endure makes it truly remarkable.
To give some background, Farid came from a fairly poor family, and his parents simply couldn't afford to support him financially through his studies. As a result, he had to work part-time jobs, often late into the night, just to cover his tuition fees and living costs while keeping up with a demanding course.
Despite these obstacles, what he did was nothing short of inspiring. He managed his time with incredible discipline, studying on public transport, during breaks at work, and late into the night after his shifts. He never once complained or used his circumstances as an excuse. Whenever he struggled, he simply worked harder, and he was always willing to ask for help and learn from others. Through sheer determination and relentless effort, he not only kept up but excelled, eventually graduating with top marks and securing a prestigious job offer.
There are several reasons why I felt so proud of him. Firstly, his perseverance in the face of such adversity was genuinely humbling and made my own challenges seem trivial by comparison. Secondly, he proved that with enough determination and hard work, it's possible to overcome even the most difficult circumstances. His success wasn't handed to him; he earned every bit of it.
Farid's story continues to inspire me to this day. Whenever I feel like giving up on something, I think of his resilience, and it reminds me that obstacles are there to be overcome rather than to hold us back.
318 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.