How to prepare for CUE CARD in IELTS Speaking
In todays article we will discuss give you some tips regarding performing good in IELTS Speaking Section -2 which is a cue card.
How to Prepare the Answer
In IELTS Speaking part 2 that is a cue card, many of the candidates prepare for this part of the test by reading sample questions and answer. Reading and Practicing is always good, the more you practice, the better you becomebut the most important thing to remember is that you need to address the question.
Practicing sample questions are always helpful and will give you the best result only when you practice the following things.Only following one thing won’t give you complete success as you have to keep in mind other things as-well which will help you get the full benefits. This is why, we didn’t just provide you the sample questions and answers, rather we discussed the most effective techniques that our students used and succeeded.
Before we start let’s talk about how the time is distributed in part 2 of IELTS Speaking. When they present you with the cue card they give you 1 minute to prepare for it along with paper and pencil. This is the most important section of speaking part 2– the planning time. When this 1 minute is finished, you will be asked to talk for around 2 minutes on that cue card. You will be marked on the basis how you speak during this 2 minutes.
Whatever you prepare in planning part won’t be consider for scoring as this part is given to you to prepare and hence won’t be marked. Your planning will not be marked. But how you perform in the speaking, depends on how effectively you used this 1minute for planning time. That’s why it’s important to know the technique how you can use this 1 minute wisely. Let’s see the techniques that we can use to make the best use of the planning period.
Distribution of 1 minute:
Let’s discuss how can we distribute this 1 minute wisely: –
First (10 seconds)
Locating keywords in the question sentences is the first stage. If you use the question words (“What”, “when”, “where”, “whom”, and “how”), it might be easy for you to understand what you need to include in your discussion. Spend maximum 10 seconds for this part.
Brainstorming
(20 seconds)
This strategy comes into play at the second stage. You have the topic ‘information Technology’, write this topic word in the middle and write all related words that you can remember around the topic word. for example:
Don’t think too much. Just keep writing the words that come to your mind. Do it quickly. You shouldn’t spend more than 20 seconds for this stage.
Five Headings
(10 seconds)
You know you got 60 seconds for taking preparation. Still you have 30 seconds left for your preparation. Look at the words you’ve just written down. Distribute these words among the five headings in 10 seconds. The headings are as below:
– Introduction
– Past
– Description
– Opinion
– Future
Imagine Sentences
(20 seconds)
You have 20 seconds left. Now, it’s time to imagine some sentences using the words you have just written under the five headings. Remember, we said imagine some sentences, we didn’t say to make sentences. This is because if you make sentences, you can make only 1 or 2, whereas you can imagine 5-6 sentences easily.
So far you have,
– picked up the keywords from the question sentences
– written down the supportive words centered to the keywords
– distributed those supportive words among five headings
– imagined a few relevant sentences
Many students think this strategy is difficult to implement in the exam. As a result, they don’t go through this planning process. But the truth is, you will feel it difficult only in the first few practices. After that you will be surprised to see the benefit you avail using this strategy. It will pay off, we guarantee.
Thank You 🙂
