Something you saved for
IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card with a full sample answer, a Band 9 model of the two-minute long turn.
The cue card
Something you saved for
You should say:
- what it was
- how long it took you to save enough money to buy it
- why you wanted to buy this thing
- how you felt when you bought it
Sample answer
The thing I'd like to talk about that I scrimped and saved for is a good-quality laptop, which I treated myself to around two years ago.
It took me roughly eight months of consistent saving to afford it. I was working a part-time job at the time, and rather than blowing everything I earned, I made a point of setting aside a fixed sum from every paycheck specifically for this purpose, which demanded a fair amount of self-discipline, especially when I was tempted to splurge on smaller things instead.
I had my heart set on this particular laptop mainly because my old one had become painfully sluggish and unreliable, to the point where it was genuinely hampering my university work, freezing constantly the moment I had more than a couple of programs open. I'd done extensive research beforehand and settled on a specific model with the processing power I needed for video editing, which is something of a hobby of mine, and I didn't want to compromise on quality just to shave off a bit of money.
When I'd finally scraped together enough and went to buy it, I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of achievement, almost more so than if my parents had simply handed it to me. Because I'd worked and waited for it myself, I valued it far more, and I was genuinely paranoid about it for months afterwards, terrified of dropping it or spilling anything on the keyboard. Looking back, that whole process taught me a valuable lesson about the satisfaction that comes from earning something through patience and hard graft, rather than acquiring it instantly, and it's a mindset I've tried to carry over to other purchases since.
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 talk about rather than a script.
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.