Onterra TutorDescribe a goal you want to achieve in the future
An IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card, with the structure examiners reward. You get 1 minute to prepare and up to 2 minutes to speak.
The cue card
Describe a goal you want to achieve in the future.
You should say:
- what the goal is
- when you set it
- what you are doing to achieve it
- and explain why it matters to you.
Your 2-minute structure
- Open with a direct answer (10 seconds). Name your choice immediately: one sentence that answers "describe a goal you want to achieve in the future". Do not waste your first 20 seconds on "that's an interesting question".
- What the goal is (about 25 seconds). Give the fact, then add one detail and one feeling. A specific memory always beats a general statement.
- When you set it (about 25 seconds). This is where a past-tense story earns grammar marks. Set the scene in one sentence, then say what happened.
- What you are doing to achieve it (about 25 seconds). Slow down and be concrete: a name, a place, a number. Details are what make an answer sound fluent rather than memorised.
- And explain why it matters to you (about 25 seconds). Link back to your opening sentence with a connector like 'which is exactly why' so the whole answer feels planned.
- Close with why it matters (15 seconds). End on how it affected you or what it taught you. A natural closing line signals confidence to the examiner.
Sample band 8+ answer
About 90 seconds when spoken at a natural pace. Notice how specific the details are; that specificity is what you should copy, not the story itself.
A goal that genuinely matters to me is buying my parents a house before my father turns seventy, which gives me about eight years. I set it during my first year of working, on the day I realised the rent my parents had paid over thirty years could have bought the flat twice. It's not a vague dream; I've broken it down. I'm currently saving a fixed percentage of my income into an account I've deliberately made hard to touch, I've started a weekend consulting side business to raise the percentage, and I've begun studying how land purchase works in my state so I don't lose everything to a fraudulent agent, which happens painfully often. Why does it matter so much? My parents sacrificed quietly and constantly, school fees before new clothes, every single year. A house is the one gift that would say 'you can stop worrying now' in a language they fully understand. Honestly, imagining handing them the keys is the single image that gets me out of bed on hard days.
Why this answer works
- A deadline, a plan and named obstacles turn a wish into a goal the examiner believes.
- The fraud detail is local and real, adding authenticity no memorised answer has.
- The 'language they fully understand' line answers 'why it matters' with feeling and control.
What the examiner listens for
Fluency (can you keep going for 2 minutes without long pauses), vocabulary range (topic words, not just "good" and "nice"), and grammar variety (past tenses and linking words like "which is why" and "even though"). Hesitation is normal; stopping is what costs bands. If you lose your thread, say "what I mean is..." and keep moving.