Hi there, it’s Asiya. Today we’ll discuss what topics are popular
in IELTS Speaking Part 2 at the moment, I’ll show you some topics from recent exams and
we’ll have a look at a full sample answer and how you can improve yours. Let’s get started. First of all, let me show you some of the
topics that students reported in recent exams. Just to be clear, it’s not likely that you’re
going to get the same question, there’re simply too many Task 2 topics, but the style
of topics is quite similar. Let's have a look at some of them Describe a time you had to tell your friend
the truth Describe a promise you made to a person Describe a person who you think is open Describe an old thing that your family possessed. Yes it's quite an unusual topic Tell me about a time when you got lost
Tell me about a time when you motivated someone to do something
Tell me about a time you had listen to somebody when you didn’t want to
Tell me about an important decision you’ve made recently And I actually asked you to vote for the most
difficult question out of these 4 Tell me about a time you had to wait for a
long time Describe a photo of yourself that you like
the most Describe a friend who you think is a good
leader Tell me about an occasion when you received
a prize Thank you so much for taking part in this
poll, the clear winner is the first topic about waiting for a long time You’ll hear the sample answer later in this
video. But first, what can we say about all these
topics? First of all Most of Task 2 topics are unpredictable I think these topics are designed to catch
you off guard and make you give an answer you haven't
prepared in advance The topic I got in my last exam was to tell
about a time when I looked into the sky. What’s the probability of rehearsing this
at home? Part 2 topics have moved away from traditional
topics you may find in old books or on the old websites, such as tell me about your favourite
book, tell me about your best friend. Those topics were general and very wide. They were kind of tasks you could prepare
in advance. Today, it’s hardly possible and to be honest,
you shouldn’t try to learn any answers because IELTS examiners are trained to spot them. Indeed, it’s very easy to do. The next tip is practice answering the most
difficult topics at home giving yourself 1 minute to prepare
Part 2 is not just about your ability to speak English, it's also about finding what to talk
about in 1 minute and then sustaining your talk for 2 minutes
So my next tip is Don’t be afraid to invent a story It’s quite probable that you won’t have
any real story to tell. That’s why you shouldn’t be afraid of
borrowing someone's story IELTS examiners understand that your story
may be a lie. It doesn’t matter. Think about movies and friends for inspiration Before we have a look at the sample answer
and discuss how you can improve your Part 2 answers, I’d like to tell you about a platform you
can use to improve your English Speaking skills. This is Cambly an online learning platform
that allows you to practice your English with native speaking teachers at any time that
suits you. Thank you Cambly for sponsoring this video. On this platform, you can choose a teacher
you like or book lessons with different teachers to get used to a variety of accents. You can suggest your own topic for the lesson
or take IELTS Speaking lessons or even a mock speaking test. Lessons start from just 15 minutes a day twice
a week, and you can take them at any time of the day or night if you wish. At the moment, there’s a new exciting and
very generous offer available. You can take one 15-minute class for free. If you like it, subscribe using the link in
the description to get an extra discount. You’ll save the most if you take a 12-month
plan. If you change your mind, you can cancel your
subscription and get a refund. I encourage you to take this free lesson while
it’s available. All the links are in the video description
box below. Now, let’s get back to our sample answer. Here is the full topic: Tell me about a time when you had to wait
for a long time. You should say: where you were when it happened why you had to wait And explain how this situation made you feel. Okay, here’s my answer I’d like to tell you a story about a time
when I applied for a UK visa. When I opened my business in the UK, I switched
to an entrepreneurship visa. It took me just a couple of weeks to receive
it, so when it was time to extend my visa, I was almost certain that it was going to
happen quickly. In fact, the information stated in the immigration
rules gave me extra confidence. It said that my visa was supposed to be processed
within three months. I applied at the beginning of summer and waited
until autumn, but nothing happened. I waited for several more months, but there
was still no news at all. Just to clarify, there’s no way to track
your UK visa. You submit your documents, and the next time
you hear anything is when you get your decision letter in the post. So winter came. By that point, I had spent half a year completely
in the dark about when the decision would come. Then, in December, I discovered that my holiday
trip booked for January was non-refundable. Out of sheer desperation, I wrote a letter
to the Home Office and received a very predictable reply that a holiday trip wasn’t a valid
reason to accelerate one’s visa application! I guess at least this reply proved that my
application hadn’t been lost completely. To cut a long story short, I didn’t make
it to the Dominican Republic for my winter dose of sunshine. Eventually, I did receive my documents back
in March. By that time, it was more than 8 months after
my initial application. I must admit that it was quite a nerve-wracking
experience, but at the end of the day, all’s well that ends well as they say. Okay, that’s my answer. I usually get 8.5 in my exam but this answer
was prepared in advance, so it’s better than my candid answers. If you want to hear unrehearsed Part 2 and
3 answers, that’s the video I tried to fit my sample answer within two
minutes. In any case, when your time is up, the examiner
will stop you. Don’t worry if you haven’t finished. When you give your Task 2 answer, concentrate
on your story. Don’t worry about the bullet points. This is not a writing task where you must
describe each bullet point in your letter. In IELTS Speaking, it’s much more important
to speak fluently and tell your story to communicate in English Those bullet points are supposed to give your
ideas to talk about. In reality, if you just give answers to those
bullet points, you’ll probably finish too quickly. Think about your story. Now let’s have a look at the sample answer
and I’ll show you how it’s organized. When you speak, particularly when you practice
at home, make sure that you use enough discourse markers or linking words to indicate to your
listener what you’re going to say next. IELTS examiners specifically check if you
do If we have a look at my answer, here’re
all the discourse markers: So, In fact, Just to clarify, Then, By that
point, I guess, To cut a long story short, Eventually, By that time, I must admit, If your speech is fluent, you may get away
without using too many linking words but if you speak English relatively slowly, it’s
very important to show how to transition from one idea to the next. Remember that your discourse markers should
be quite informal, not nevertheless, furthermore, additionally which are formal linkers used in IELTS Writing. Now, when you’re asked to tell a story you’re
going to talk about the past and will have to use the past tenses. Let’s have a look at all the verb tenses
in the story. The past simple is the main tense. You can see all the verbs in the past simple
in black and bold: applied, opened, switched… As you can see almost all the verbs are in
this tense. Let’s have a look at exceptions: It was going to happen quickly. That was my expectation about the future. Today I would say: I’m going to get my visa
quickly. And if I tell about this moment one year later,
I'll use the past continuous tense. I thought it was going to happen quickly All the verbs in yellow are in the present
simple. There’s no way to track your UK visa. It’s still true today, so I can use the
present simply tense. If today we could track those visas, I’d
have to use the past simple. Let’s have a look at the two verb tenses
in red. By that point, I had spent half a year This is the past perfect tense. If I was waiting today, I’d say I have spent
– the present perfect, a result. But I’m talking about the result that existed
at a certain moment in the past. So I need the past perfect - I had spent. Similarly, the next verb: my application hadn't
been lost This is the past perfect tense but also the
passive voice. Home Office hadn’t lost my application by
that point in the past. So the application hadn’t been lost. Next, in blue, when the decision would come In the past, I was talking about the future,
so I used the future in the past tense. In short, you just add would. I thought I would go. I believed the decision would come. And one more, eventually, I did receive my
documents back You can see this sentence at the end of the
story in black and underlined. You can use DO and DID to emphasize what you
want to say: I DID receive my documents. I DID call him. I DO believe this is true. A good exercise is to record your answer and
then check if you use past tenses through out your story Another piece of advice I'd like to give you
is this: practice giving answers to recent Part 2 topics. Despite the fact that they are difficult to
predict, you can still develop useful skills and improve your answers. The only topics which can be reliably predicted
in IELTS Speaking are the first set of questions is Part 1. Actually, there’re just a few topics used
there and you can find sample answers to most of them and useful vocabulary in the
PDF document. The link is on the screen and in the video
description box below. And don’t forget to check out Cambly if
you want to improve your speaking skills with a native speaking teacher. Good luck with your IELTS preparation, thank
you for watching me!
