Friend You Dislike Cue Card round·English Tests·Hard·20 min

IELTS Speaking Part 2 — Friend You Dislike Cue Card

20 min · 1 credit · scorecard at the end

Take this on a laptop or desktop — not your phone. The live interview needs a full screen and keyboard (including a sketch whiteboard on coding rounds). You can buy now, but start it from a computer.

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Updated 2026-05-16 · Newly added · be among the first to take it

Field: English Tests
Company: IELTS Academic (British Council / IDP)
Role: IELTS Academic Speaking Part 2 Candidate
Duration: 20 min
Difficulty: Hard
Completions: New
Updated: 2026-05-16

How to prepare

What this round tests, what strong and weak answers sound like, and the traps to sidestep.

What this round is about

Topic focus. You speak on the confirmed January to April 2026 cue card describing a friend you became close to even though you dislike some things about them, covering who they are, how you met, what you dislike, and why you stay friends.
Round format. One minute of preparation with notes allowed, then a one to two minute uninterrupted long turn, then one or two short rounding off questions and a few abstract Part 3 questions on friendship.
Conversation dynamic. The examiner gives the topic, stays silent through your long turn, stops you near two minutes, and only then asks follow ups; this is a monologue, not a chat.
What gets tested. The four equally weighted criteria, fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation, where one weak area caps the whole band.

What strong answers look like

Four move shape. You paraphrase the card, set the scene of when and where you met, develop one concrete episode, and close with a reflective sentence, for example ending that accepting small flaws is part and parcel of friendship.
Natural idiom and precise personality words. You reach for relationship language such as we hit it off or we drifted apart, and specific adjectives like opinionated or dismissive rather than only nice or good.
Tense range and signposting. You move between when we first met, we have grown closer, and we will probably stay in touch, and you signpost moves with discourse markers.
Sustained, unrehearsed delivery. You fill the full two minutes with hesitation only to find an idea, not a word, and you stay specific instead of listing.

What weak answers look like (and how to avoid them)

Early stop. Falling silent around forty to fifty seconds devastates fluency; keep developing the current bullet with an example or a feeling instead of stopping.
Skipped bullet. Never addressing what you dislike or why you stay friends loses topic coverage; check off all four bullets in your prep notes.
Memorised block. An evenly paced rehearsed answer collapses under an unexpected question; speak from keyword notes, not a script.
Forced vocabulary. Shoehorning big words that do not fit lowers lexical resource; use precise language you can deploy naturally rather than impressive sounding filler.

Pre-interview checklist (2 minutes before you start)

Recall one real friend. Pick a specific person you can describe with one concrete episode rather than an invented ideal.
Identify two disliked habits. Have two observable behaviours ready, such as interrupting or checking a phone, with how they make you feel.
Have your scene set. Fix when and where you met so you can open the body in the first fifteen seconds.
Think of your reflective close. Decide the one sentence about why the friendship still matters before you start.
Pull up two natural idioms. Have relationship phrases you can use accurately, not ones you are unsure of.
Re-read the four bullets. Map one keyword to each so you do not drop a bullet under time pressure.

How the AI behaves

Stays silent on the long turn. It will not interrupt, coach, or feed you vocabulary while you are speaking your monologue.
Probes every gap. After the long turn it asks pointed rounding off and Part 3 questions and follows up on the weakest looking criterion.
No mid-interview praise. It will not say great answer or validate you; it acknowledges what you said and pushes further.
Redirects on rehearsal. If your delivery sounds memorised it asks an unexpected question to see if you can still produce natural language.

Common traps in this type of round

Adjective listing. Saying he is nice, good and kind with no episode attached, instead of one developed story with reasons and feelings.
Person drift. Starting on the friend then sliding into describing someone else and abandoning the card topic.
Over self correction. Restarting sentences repeatedly so the talk sounds like editing rather than communicating.
Speed equals fluency. Rushing the two minutes so pronunciation blurs and grammatical slips multiply.
Rude not specific. Turning the dislike bullet into an insult instead of a specific behaviour balanced by what you value.
Script collapse. A polished memorised opening that falls apart the moment an unexpected rounding off question lands.

Reference

The full breakdown

How you're scored, the questions candidates ask most, and the research this interview is built on. Skim it — or just start the interview.

Interview framework

You will be scored on these 6 dimensions. The full rubric with definitions is below.

Cue Card Coverage

Whether you actually answer all four bullets on the card, who, how, dislike and why, instead of leaving a prompt unspoken.

20%

Long Turn Endurance

Whether you sustain coherent speech across the full one to two minutes rather than stalling and going silent early.

18%

Topic Development Specificity

Whether you develop a concrete episode with reasons and feelings instead of listing generic adjectives like nice or good.

18%

Lexical Precision And Idiom

Whether your vocabulary and idioms are precise and fit the meaning, rather than big words shoehorned in unnaturally.

16%

Grammatical Range Under Pressure

Whether you keep accurate, varied grammar and tense control when answering unscripted rounding off and Part 3 questions.

14%

Unrehearsed Spontaneity

Whether your speech stays natural and on topic under an unexpected redirect rather than collapsing into a memorised cadence.

14%

What we evaluate

Your final scorecard breaks down across these dimensions. The full rubric and tier criteria are revealed inside the interview itself.

Common questions

What does this IELTS Speaking Part 2 round actually test?

It tests a single long turn on the confirmed January to April 2026 cue card about a friend you became close to even though you dislike some things about them. The examiner scores you against the four equally weighted public band descriptors: fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. You must cover all four bullets on the card, sustain speech for one to two minutes, stay on the topic given, and answer one or two rounding off questions plus a few abstract Part 3 questions about friendship afterwards.

How should I structure my two minute answer?

Use a four move shape. First paraphrase the card line so you are not just repeating it. Second set the scene by saying when and where you met this person. Third develop the body with one or two concrete episodes that cover what you dislike and stay specific rather than listing adjectives. Fourth close with a reflective sentence about why the friendship still matters to you. Vary your tenses across these moves and signpost each move so the examiner can follow the progression.

What are the most common mistakes that cap this answer below Band 8?

Stopping after forty to fifty seconds, skipping one of the four bullets, drifting onto a different person, delivering a memorised block that collapses when the examiner interrupts, forcing big or idiomatic vocabulary that does not fit the context, restarting sentences repeatedly through over self correction, rushing so fast that pronunciation and grammar slip, and using only generic adjectives like nice or good without a concrete episode. Any one weak criterion caps the overall band, so a single recurring weakness is enough to lose the eight.

How is this AI examiner different from a real IELTS examiner?

It behaves like a real examiner in the ways that matter: it gives the topic, times the preparation minute, stays silent during your long turn, stops you near two minutes, and asks rounding off and Part 3 questions. It will not coach you, feed you vocabulary, or tell you your band during the session. The difference is that afterwards you get a transcript backed scorecard naming the exact bullet you skipped and the moment your fluency or grammar broke, which a real examiner never provides.

How is the scoring done?

Scoring mirrors the public band descriptors. The four criteria each carry equal weight and a Band 8 needs consistent Band 8 across all four, because the criterion bands are averaged and one weak area pulls the result down. The scorecard breaks down topic development, discourse organisation, vocabulary range, grammatical control and intelligibility, and it flags observable behaviours such as a skipped bullet, an early stop, or a memorised cadence rather than judging your accent.

What should I do in the one minute preparation time?

Jot keywords, not full sentences. Put one or two keywords against each of the four bullets: who the person is, how you met, what you dislike, and why you stay friends. Note one concrete episode you can tell as a short story and one or two natural idioms you can use accurately. Do not write a script, because reading a script aloud produces flat memorised delivery that the examiner detects and that caps fluency and coherence.

How do I describe something I dislike without sounding rude or off topic?

Stay specific and behavioural rather than insulting. Name one or two observable habits, for example that the person interrupts or checks their phone while others are speaking, and attach how it makes you feel. Then balance it by acknowledging what you value in them, which sets up the final bullet about why you are still friends. This keeps you on the card, shows lexical precision through personality vocabulary, and lets you finish with a genuine reflective close.

What does a strong Band 8 answer actually sound like?

It opens by paraphrasing the topic, names the person and when you met within the first fifteen seconds, develops one concrete episode with reasons and feelings, uses relationship idioms such as we hit it off or part and parcel naturally rather than forced, moves smoothly between past, present and future tenses, signposts with discourse markers, and ends on a reflective sentence. Hesitation, if any, is to find an idea rather than to search for a word, and self correction is rare.

What happens if I run out of things to say before two minutes?

Falling silent is the single most damaging Part 2 failure for fluency and coherence. If you feel yourself running dry, extend the bullet you are on with a specific example, a contrast, or how the situation made you feel, rather than stopping. In this practice the examiner may give one neutral prompt asking if there is anything else to add, but it will not supply content, so the recovery has to come from you developing your own ideas.

What kinds of follow up and Part 3 questions come after the long turn?

Immediately after the long turn the examiner asks one or two short rounding off questions on the same topic, such as whether you think you will stay friends with this person in the future. Then it moves to abstract Part 3 discussion: what qualities make a good friend, whether it is possible to stay friends with someone whose behaviour you dislike, how friendships change between childhood and adulthood, and whether social media has made friendships stronger or weaker.

Why does the examiner sometimes ask an unexpected question mid topic?

Examiners are trained to detect memorised answers, which sound too evenly paced and have grammar that collapses under an unscripted prompt. When the delivery sounds rehearsed the examiner deliberately redirects with something off script, for example asking about a specific disagreement you had with this friend, to see whether you can still produce natural, accurate, connected speech. Handling that redirect with fluent, specific language is exactly what separates a real Band 8 from a coached Band 6.5.

Sources this interview is built on

Real candidate-report URLs (Glassdoor / AmbitionBox / PrepInsta / GeeksforGeeks / Medium) reviewed when authoring the questions, persona, and rubric. Verify the realism yourself.