Part 2 — how to fill the two-minute long turn

What Part 2 actually is

• The examiner gives you a task card with a topic and points to cover, plus paper and a pencil.
• You have one minute to prepare and speak for up to two minutes. The examiner stops you when the time is up.
• Afterwards there are one or two short follow-up questions on the same topic.
• If your answer ends quickly, you have less opportunity to develop it. Practise with a timer so you can add relevant detail without rushing.

The pencil is for notes, not for writing a novel in sixty seconds.

The preparation minute: nouns, not sentences

• Write a few keywords beside the card points. Use enough to remember your route, not a script.
• Nouns and names make useful prompts: grandmother, kitchen, dumplings, winter, hands, Sunday.
• Full sentences take longer to write and can tempt you to read rather than speak naturally. Keywords leave room to adapt.
• A keyword is a trigger: dumplings can remind you of the place, the people and what happened next.

Spend the two minutes where the marks are

• Use the card points as a route through your talk. You can connect them naturally rather than treating each as a fixed paragraph.
• The card also asks you to explain an aspect of the topic. Leave enough time for that explanation, which often needs a reason and an example.
• Practise a flexible split: introduce the subject briefly, cover the card points, then develop the explanation. Adjust it to the card you receive.
• If you finish early, do not stop. Go back and add: what it looked like, who else was there, how you felt at the time, what you would do differently now.

Choose the tense the story needs

• Some cards invite a past event, such as Describe a time when…; others may ask about a person or object you know now. Follow the actual prompt.
• For a past event, check common irregular verbs: went, saw, took, brought, taught, kept, felt, thought.
• Use past continuous (I was living in Xi'an at the time) or past perfect (I had never seen snow before) when the timeline calls for it. Variety helps only when the meaning stays accurate.
• Choose a real or plausible example you can develop naturally. Your language is assessed, not whether the memory is dramatic.

How to practise it

• Use a timer and speak aloud. Silent planning cannot reveal whether you can keep a spoken answer going.
• Record a card, listen for where the explanation ran thin, and add one relevant detail on a second attempt.
• Compare two attempts at the same card. The improvement shows what planning helped; neither attempt gives you a reliable band score.
• Avoid memorising a complete answer. The card and follow-up may differ from your script, and flexible language is more useful than recitation.