IELTS Speaking Part 2 — Person Who Influenced You at Band 8

It tests whether you can speak alone for one to two minutes on a People topic and cover all four bullet points: who the person is, how you know them, what they do, and how they influenced you. The examiner scores four equally weighted areas: fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. A band 8 long turn names one specific person, develops one concrete story rather than listing virtues, and keeps going naturally until the examiner stops you at two minutes.

Open by naming the person and your relationship with a hook in the first fifteen seconds, for example a teacher, an uncle, or a coach and why they matter. Use a clear time anchor such as back in my second year of engineering. Spend the body on one episode that shows the influence happening, add one honest or unexpected detail like a setback they recovered from, then close by reflecting on how it changed your own behaviour. Cover every bullet on the card and keep talking until you are stopped.

The biggest one is listing adjectives about the person, she is kind, he is hardworking, she is helpful, without a single story. Others include stopping after about a minute so the long turn is under-developed, repeating the same point because time remains, choosing an example too broad to picture, and reciting a memorised answer that sounds written. Rephrasing the card into a different question you would rather answer also costs marks because you stop covering the bullets given.

It follows the real procedure closely: it reads the cue card aloud, gives one minute of preparation, lets you speak for one to two minutes, asks one rounding-off question, then runs a short Part 3 discussion. Like a real examiner it stays neutral, never tells you your band, and redirects clearly memorised answers. The difference is that afterwards you get a transcript-backed scorecard naming the exact bullet you under-developed and where delivery slipped, which a real examiner never gives you.

Scoring mirrors the public band descriptors. The system tracks whether you covered all four bullets, whether you used one concrete developed story, your topic development and coherence, your vocabulary range and paraphrase, your grammatical range and accuracy, and your delivery features like stress and intonation. Each dimension has band-anchored descriptions so the report can show where you sat between band 6, band 7 and band 8, and what specifically pulled the score down.

Take quick notes against each of the four bullets rather than writing full sentences, and order them the way you intend to speak. Decide on one specific person and one concrete episode instead of several thin examples. Note a time anchor and one honest detail you can build the story around. Keep planning until you are asked to begin, and do not waste the minute choosing between several people.

Do not stop and do not repeat the same point in different words. Extend the story instead: add what the person did next, how others reacted, what you felt at the time, or how the influence still shows up today. Move into the reflective close, how it changed your own choices, and keep developing until the examiner stops you. Drying up early is one of the clearest band 6 signals, so plan one story deep enough to last.

It sounds like one continuous, well-organised story rather than a list. The speaker names the person and relationship fast, anchors it in time, develops a single episode where the influence is visible, drops in one honest or surprising detail so it does not sound rehearsed, and closes by reflecting on the lasting effect. Vocabulary is varied with some idiomatic phrases used naturally, sentences mix simple and complex structures accurately, and the rhythm is stress-timed with natural intonation throughout.

You can, but it makes the 'how you know this person' bullet hard to develop authentically, which is a common reported weakness. If you pick a public figure, be honest that you know them through their work, books or interviews, and put your development effort into the influence bullet with a concrete example of something you changed because of them. A person you actually know, a teacher, relative, mentor or coach, usually gives you richer material for a band 8 long turn.

The examiner asks one short rounding-off question such as whether you still see this person or whether they have influenced others, which needs only a brief answer, not a second monologue. Then Part 3 opens up the theme into discussion: whether children need role models, whether celebrities or family members are better role models, and whether someone can be influenced by a person they have never met. Part 3 answers should be longer and justified with reasons and examples, not yes or no.

No. Examiners accept all accents, including Indian English, as long as you are clearly understood. What is assessed is the range and control of pronunciation features: word stress, sentence stress, rhythm, intonation and chunking. The common India-specific issue is a flat, syllable-timed rhythm with dropped word endings, which reduces intelligibility and pronunciation marks. Working on stress-timed delivery and natural rise and fall helps far more than trying to imitate a British or American accent.