Onterra TutorDescribe a person who is very good at their job
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 person who is very good at their job.
You should say:
- who this person is
- what their job is
- how you know them
- and explain why they are so good at it.
Your 2-minute structure
- Open with a direct answer (10 seconds). Name your choice immediately: one sentence that answers "describe a person who is very good at their job". Do not waste your first 20 seconds on "that's an interesting question".
- Who this person is (about 25 seconds). Give the fact, then add one detail and one feeling. A specific memory always beats a general statement.
- What their job is (about 25 seconds). This is where a past-tense story earns grammar marks. Set the scene in one sentence, then say what happened.
- How you know them (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 they are so good at it (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.
The person I think of immediately is Mr Adio, the tailor whose shop is two streets from my house. His job is making and repairing clothes, and I've known him since I was a teenager taking school trousers to be adjusted. What makes him exceptional is partly skill and partly conduct. The skill part is obvious when you watch him: he measures once, cuts without hesitation, and remembers the body shape of customers he hasn't seen in a year. But the conduct is the real lesson. He tells you honestly when a style won't suit you, he quotes one price and keeps to it, and if he says Thursday, the clothes are ready Wednesday night. In a city where 'it's almost ready' is a national anthem, that reliability has made him mildly famous; people bring wedding outfits to him from across town. Watching him taught me that mastery is not only talent, it's the boring promises kept a thousand times. I'd honestly trust him with any fabric before I trust some designers with billboards.
Why this answer works
- An everyday professional described precisely beats a celebrity described generically.
- 'It's almost ready is a national anthem' is local humour that reads as high fluency.
- Skill vs conduct gives the answer two clean sections and a clear 'why so good'.
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.