Describe an occasion when you got up extremely early
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 an occasion when you got up extremely early
You should say:
- when this happened
- what you needed to do on that day
- who you were with
- how you felt about getting up early on that day
Sample answer
I'd like to describe an occasion when I had to get up incredibly early — it was the morning my family and I set off on a road trip to the mountains last summer.
It happened during the summer holidays, and we had planned to drive to a scenic mountain region several hours away from our city. To make the most of the day and to avoid the intense afternoon heat and traffic, my father insisted that we leave at the crack of dawn. So my alarm went off at around four in the morning, which is far earlier than I would ever normally wake up.
On that day, there was quite a lot to do before we could actually leave. I had to drag myself out of bed, freshen up quickly, and help load all our bags, food and camping equipment into the car. We also had to make sure we'd packed everything we needed, since we'd be far from any shops once we reached our destination. Despite the early hour, there was a real buzz of excitement in the house.
I was with my whole family — my parents and my younger sister — and we were all in it together, which made the early start far more bearable. We shared a quick breakfast and plenty of yawns before piling into the car.
As for how I felt, I'll be honest, at first I felt absolutely exhausted and more than a little grumpy, as I've never been much of a morning person. However, once we hit the open road and I saw the sun slowly rising over the horizon, painting the sky in beautiful shades of orange and pink, my mood completely changed. It was such a peaceful, magical sight that I quickly forgot my tiredness. By the time we arrived, I felt genuinely grateful that we'd made the effort to start so early, and it turned out to be a wonderful day.
325 words — roughly 3–3 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.