Describe a hobby or interest you have taken up recently.
A friendly habit card that rewards specificity. Because the hobby is recent, you can talk about being a beginner, which is far more interesting — and far easier to speak about honestly — than claiming expertise.
The task card
Describe a hobby or interest you have taken up recently.
You should say:
- what it is
- how you started it
- how often you do it
and explain what you get out of it.
How 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
Choose something you have genuinely started, however unimpressive. Baking bread, learning chords, running slowly, growing three plants on a balcony. A modest real hobby produces detail for two minutes; an impressive invented one produces silence at forty seconds.
Lean into being new at it. Beginner status gives you a natural narrative — the first attempt that went wrong, the thing you could not do at first and now can — and it lets you use present perfect naturally: I have only been doing it since March, I have not got the hang of the timing yet.
The final bullet asks what you get out of it, and the strong version is specific rather than general. Not 'it relaxes me', but that it is the only hour in the week when you are not looking at a screen, or that it gave you a reason to talk to a neighbour. Name the exact benefit and the answer stops sounding like every other answer.
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.
Modest hobbies with real detail
- Bread making, growing something on a balcony, learning three chords, running slowly
- Something started by accident — an object left behind, a free class, a friend's invitation
- Something you are visibly bad at, which is far easier to talk about honestly
Use beginner status
- The first attempt that went badly, described specifically
- The part you still cannot do, named precisely
- Present perfect throughout: I have only been doing it since March
The unexpected benefit
- The only hour of the week not spent looking at a screen
- It gave you a reason to talk to someone — a neighbour, a shop, a group
- It produces something you can give away, which changes how you behave
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.
- WHAT — bread making, ~7 months
- STARTED — flatmate left flour + a book behind; first loaf was a brick
- OFTEN — 1–2 loaves/wk, Sat + sometimes Wed; 20 min work over 6 hrs
- GET — only screen-free part of the week + gave loaves away, now know the neighbours
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
About seven months ago I took up bread making, which I'd never have predicted, because I'm not really someone who cooks. It started almost by accident. My flatmate moved out and left a bag of strong flour and a book behind, and rather than throw them away I tried the simplest recipe in it on a wet Sunday. The first loaf was genuinely awful — dense, pale, more like a brick than bread — but it came out of my own oven and that was oddly satisfying, and it snowballed from there. Now I make one or two loaves a week, usually Saturday and sometimes Wednesday evening. It isn't a quick hobby, which is part of the appeal. There's about twenty minutes of actual work spread across five or six hours, so you start it and then live your day around it. I'm still very much a beginner — my timing is hit and miss, and I haven't got the hang of shaping at all, so the loaves come out looking a bit lopsided. What do I get out of it? Two things, really. The obvious one is that it's the only part of my week that isn't on a screen, and I didn't realise how much I needed that until I had it. The less obvious one is that it made me generous in a way I'm not naturally — you can't eat two loaves, so I started giving them away, and I now actually know the couple downstairs, which after two years in the building I couldn't previously have claimed.
Why this works: Everything here is small and true, and that is why it never stalls. The origin story is specific enough to be unfakeable, the frequency section carries duration and frequency language naturally, and the final bullet delivers two benefits — one expected, one surprising — instead of the usual 'it relaxes me'. The self-deprecation about lopsided loaves also does real work: it sounds spoken rather than prepared.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- I have taken it up
The exact phrasal verb for starting a hobby.
- I am still very much a beginner
Honest self-assessment that sounds natural and buys you material.
- to get the hang of it
Idiom for gradually becoming competent.
- it snowballed from there
For an interest that grew faster than expected.
- hit and miss
Inconsistent results; perfect for a beginner's efforts.
- it gives me something to show for the evening
Specific benefit language; far better than 'it is enjoyable'.
- I dip in and out of it
For an irregular rather than fixed routine.
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 have taken it up
- “I have taken it up fairly recently — about seven months ago now.”
- to get the hang of it
- “I still have not got the hang of shaping, so the loaves come out lopsided.”
- hit and miss
- “My timing is still quite hit and miss, which is half the fun of it.”
- it snowballed from there
- “I tried one recipe on a wet Sunday and it snowballed from there.”
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.
Hobbies and free time
Example questions
- 1What kinds of hobbies are popular among young people in your country?
- 2How much free time do most working people have?
- 3Do you think hobbies are becoming more expensive?
Interests and work
Example questions
- 1Should employers encourage staff to have interests outside work?
- 2Can you suggest why many adults give up their hobbies?
- 3Is it better to be reasonably good at several hobbies or excellent at one?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: Activities and habits.