Trip you often take but dislike
IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card with a full sample answer, a Band 9 model of the two-minute long turn.
The cue card
Trip you often take but dislike
You should say:
- where you go
- how often you do this
- when you do this
- why you dislike it
Sample answer
The journey I'd like to describe is my daily commute to work, which, unfortunately, is a trip I'm forced to make constantly yet genuinely dread.
The route takes me from my flat on the outskirts of the city right into the office in the centre, a distance of roughly twelve kilometres. I make this trek five days a week, so it's a deeply ingrained part of my routine, and there's really no way around it short of switching jobs or moving house, neither of which is remotely realistic at the moment.
I usually set off at around half past seven in the morning, aiming to reach the office by half past eight, and then retrace the same route in reverse come evening, typically leaving work around six.
The main reason I loathe it so much is the traffic. Because such a huge number of people are pouring into the centre at exactly the same time, the roads are almost perpetually gridlocked, and what should be a twenty-minute drive frequently balloons into forty-five minutes or longer if there's an accident or roadworks along the way. On top of that, the bus I occasionally take instead is usually packed to the rafters, meaning I often have to stand the entire way, wedged in among other passengers, which is far from pleasant, especially in summer when it turns stiflingly hot. All of this means that, by the time I finally arrive at work, or back home in the evening, I already feel thoroughly drained, even before the working day has properly got underway. Honestly, if I could sidestep this journey altogether, I would, but for now it remains an unavoidable fixture of daily life.
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.