Describe a goal you are currently working towards.
An honest card — an exam, a savings target, a fitness milestone, a language level. Examiners hear 'IELTS band 7' constantly; if that is your goal, make the details unmistakably yours.
The task card
Describe a goal you are currently working towards.
You should say:
- what the goal is
- why you chose it
- what you are doing to achieve it
and explain how you will feel if you achieve it.
Now say it yourself
Record your own two minutes on this card and have it transcribed and marked against the Speaking criteria. Practising is free; the band estimate is part of Pro.
Record my answerHow long you have
- 1 minute
Preparation
The examiner hands you the card, paper and a pencil. Make notes — a few words per cue point, never sentences.
- 1–2 minutes
Your long turn
Speak until the examiner stops you at two minutes. Finishing early is the most common self-inflicted problem in Part 2.
- 1–2 questions
Rounding off
The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions, then moves straight into the Part 3 discussion on the same theme.
Part 2 takes three to four minutes in total. The whole Speaking test runs 11 to 14 minutes across three parts, and Part 3 that follows lasts four to five minutes.
How to approach this card
If your goal is the IELTS itself, be disarmingly specific about the machinery: which module is the wall, what your last mock scored, what changed in your routine. Specificity rescues a common answer.
The 'what you are doing' point should sound like a system, not a wish: the days, the minutes, the one thing you track. One believable number does more than three adjectives.
For the final point, resist 'I will be very happy'. Say what changes: the visa application goes in, the shirt fits, you phone your father first.
Ideas you can actually use
Three angles on this card. Pick the one closest to something real in your own life — invented material is what makes candidates hesitate at ninety seconds.
Goals with visible progress
- A qualification, a test, a distance, a sum saved, a language level
- Something with a number attached, because numbers give you specifics to speak about
- A modest goal you are genuinely mid-way through beats an ambitious one you have not started
The 'what are you doing about it' bullet
- The weekly mechanics — how many hours, which days, what you gave up to make room
- The thing you tried that did not work and what replaced it
- How you measure progress, and what you do on the weeks when there is none
The honest feeling
- Relief is a more truthful answer than joy for most long goals
- What it unlocks practically — a job, a move, a conversation you could then have
- Naming a fear about achieving it is unusual and instantly memorable
What your one minute of notes should look like
Not sentences — a few words per cue point. This is the level of detail sixty seconds actually buys you, and it is enough to speak from for two minutes.
- GOAL — pass the exam + get to B2 in Spanish by next summer
- WHY — partner's family; can follow but can't join in
- DOING — 3 evenings/wk + weekly call w/ tutor; podcasts on commute
- FEEL — relief more than pride; want one full dinner conversation
Model answer
Speak your own answer first. Examiners are trained to spot memorised speeches and mark them down — use this to study structure, pacing and naturalness, never to recite.
Show the model answer
The goal I'm working towards at the moment is getting my Spanish to a genuinely conversational level — I have set myself B2 by next summer, which is about ten months away. I chose it for a very specific reason rather than a general one. My partner's family are Colombian, and I have now spent four Christmases in a room where I can follow roughly seventy per cent of what's being said and contribute almost none of it. And that seventy per cent is the cruel part, because you understand enough to know exactly what you're missing. Her grandmother is in her nineties. That's really the deadline, if I'm honest with myself, rather than the exam. What am I actually doing? Three evenings a week, about an hour each, which isn't heroic but is survivable. I have a tutor I speak to for fifty minutes every Tuesday, which is by far the most useful part, because it's the only bit I can't quietly skip. I listen to podcasts on the commute, although I've stopped pretending that counts as study — it's comprehension practice and nothing more. And I gave up an evening of television to make room, which sounds like a small sacrifice and was surprisingly hard for the first month. How will I feel if I get there? I suspect relief rather than triumph. What I actually want isn't a certificate — it's one specific evening where I sit at that table and follow a whole meal and say something that makes her grandmother laugh. If that happens, the exam result is fairly irrelevant. And there's a slight fear in it too, which I've only recently admitted. If I get to B2 and the conversations are still difficult, I'll have run out of excuses.
Why this works: The reason for the goal is deeply specific — a real room, a real percentage, a real deadline that is not the official one — which is why the answer never feels generic. The 'what are you doing' section gives concrete mechanics and honestly downgrades one of the activities, which reads as candid rather than boastful. Ending on relief and then on a fear is a genuinely unusual move that lifts the answer well above the standard optimistic close.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- a realistic but stretching target
The collocation examiners hope to hear instead of 'big dream'.
- I have broken it into stages
Shows method; invites detail.
- progress has been uneven
Honest, and sets up a stronger finish.
- it would open the door to
Links achievement to consequence.
The same phrases in a full sentence
A phrase list is only useful if you know how the words sit around it. Say each of these aloud once before you attempt the card.
- I am working towards
- “I am working towards a specific level rather than just 'getting better', which helps enormously.”
- to chip away at it
- “There is no shortcut — you just chip away at it three evenings a week.”
- to stay on track
- “The weekly call with a tutor is really what keeps me on track.”
- it is a slow burn
- “It is a slow burn, and for the first six months you cannot see any progress at all.”
Part 3 discussion
After your long turn the examiner moves into a four to five minute discussion on the same theme, working from two related discussion topics with about three questions each. The first stays close to your own experience; the second widens out. Answer with reasons and examples, not one-line replies.
Setting goals
Example questions
- 1What kinds of goals do young people in your country set themselves?
- 2How useful is it to write goals down?
- 3Do you think people give up on goals too easily?
Ambition
Example questions
- 1Would you say having ambitions is always a good thing?
- 2Can you suggest why some people are more ambitious than others?
- 3How much do families influence the goals people choose?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: Activities and habits. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.