IELTS Speaking Part 2: Describe a Person You Admire (Band 9 Sample)
This Part 2 cue card asks you to describe a person you admire and to explain why. A band-9 answer doesn't just list adjectives — it brings the person to life with specific detail and lands one clear, well-developed reason for the admiration. Below is a model long-turn of about 230 words, spoken in a natural register, followed by a breakdown of why it earns a 9 on all four speaking criteria and the collocations that do the heavy lifting.
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01 · The cue card
- who this person is
- how you know this person
- what this person is like
- and explain why you admire this person
02 · Band 9 sample answer
The person I'd like to talk about is my first manager, a woman named Linh, whom I worked under when I joined a small tech startup straight out of university. I've known her for about six years now, and although we no longer work together, we've stayed in touch and I still turn to her whenever I'm facing a big decision.
What strikes me most about her is that she's remarkably level-headed. No matter how chaotic things got — and in a startup they often did — she never seemed to lose her composure. She's also incredibly generous with her time; she'd happily sit with me for an hour explaining something she could have done herself in five minutes. On top of that, she has this quiet confidence that puts everyone around her at ease.
The main reason I admire her, though, is the way she leads by example rather than by handing out orders. She never asked anyone to do something she wasn't willing to do herself, and that earned her a kind of respect you simply can't demand. She also took a genuine interest in helping people grow, and honestly, a lot of what I know about handling pressure and dealing with people I picked up just from watching her. If I can become half the mentor she was to me, I'll count that as a real achievement.
03 · Why this scores Band 9
The answer moves through the four cue-card prompts in order without hesitation, using natural signposting — "What strikes me most about her", "The main reason I admire her, though" — to link ideas rather than pausing or restarting. The discourse markers do the cohesion work a fluent speaker relies on, so the two-minute turn never stalls or repeats.
Character vocabulary is precise and idiomatic — "level-headed", "lose her composure", "quiet confidence", "puts everyone at ease", "leads by example" — and it is used unforced. The answer paraphrases the prompt too ("someone you admire" becomes "a kind of respect you simply can't demand") instead of echoing it.
A wide range of structures is controlled accurately: a non-defining relative clause ("a woman named Linh, whom I worked under"), a fronted comment clause ("What strikes me most about her is..."), and a mixed conditional to close ("If I can become half the mentor she was to me, I'll count that as a real achievement"). No error interrupts the flow.
The script is built from speakable, stress-timed phrases with natural chunking — the commas mark the breath groups a band-9 speaker would actually use — and it avoids tongue-twisting consonant clusters, so the recording can land clear sentence stress and intonation without sounding rushed.
04 · Useful phrases for this topic
Tap a phrase to see what it means and how to use it. Natural phrases like these lift your Lexical Resource score.
05 · Frequently asked questions
How long should a Part 2 answer be?
You speak for up to two minutes, so aim for roughly 220–280 words of natural speech. This model is about 230 words; it covers all four cue-card points without rushing or padding, which is exactly what the examiner wants.
Do I have to answer the cue-card points in order?
It's the easiest way to stay coherent, and this answer does follow the order — who the person is, how I know them, what they're like, and why I admire them. You're free to reorder as long as every point is covered and the talk still flows logically.
Should I use the one minute of preparation time?
Yes. Use it to jot a few keywords next to each bullet — a name, one trait, one reason — not full sentences. That keeps you fluent because you're speaking from ideas rather than reading a script.
Is it okay to describe someone I know personally instead of a famous person?
Absolutely, and it's usually better. A real person you know gives you specific, believable details ("she'd sit with me for an hour"), and concrete detail scores higher than vague praise of a celebrity you've only read about.
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