Describe a letter or message you received that meant a lot to you.
A card about a letter, a card, an email or even a voice message that arrived at the right moment. The content can be short — the timing and the sender are usually what give it weight.
The task card
Describe a letter or message you received that meant a lot to you.
You should say:
- who sent it
- when you received it
- what it said
and explain why it meant so much to you.
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
Establish the sender and the timing together, because timing is usually why a message matters: a note from a teacher after a failed exam, a text from a friend on your first night abroad, a card that arrived on a difficult anniversary.
For 'what it said', paraphrase most of it and quote one line directly. Reported speech ('she wrote that she was proud of me') plus one exact quotation is a natural mix and shows grammatical control.
The final bullet is about effect. Explain how you were feeling before it arrived and what changed afterwards, and say what you did with it — kept it in a drawer, saved a screenshot, read it again before an interview.
A short, ordinary message is perfectly acceptable. Two lines with the right context often make a stronger answer than a long, dramatic letter.
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 message I want to describe is a letter that arrived about two years ago, and the strange thing about it is that I wrote it myself — when I was eleven. In my last year of primary school, our teacher, Mrs Okafor, had us all write letters to ourselves 'in ten years' time'. We sealed them in envelopes, wrote our home addresses on the front, and then, being eleven, completely forgot about them. She didn't. Ten years later, almost to the week, she posted every single one, along with a short note saying she'd kept them in a box in her loft through two house moves. What did it say? Mostly very confident predictions, nearly all of them wrong. I was apparently going to be a vet, live on a farm and own a dog called Biscuit. There was a paragraph of very serious advice — 'don't be scared of the dentist', 'stay friends with Daniel' — and then, right at the end, one line in capitals: 'I HOPE YOU ARE BRAVE NOW.' Why did it mean so much? Mainly the timing. It arrived during a really low patch — I'd just been turned down for about a dozen graduate jobs and was seriously doubting myself. And here was this kid, with no idea what was coming, simply assuming I'd be fine. It's hard to stay miserable when an eleven-year-old is that sure of you. The other part was Mrs Okafor herself — the thought that someone had quietly kept thirty envelopes safe for a decade, just to keep a promise to children who'd forgotten it. The letter's still in my desk drawer. And for the record, I did stay friends with Daniel.
Why this works: The unexpected sender gives the answer an immediate hook, and the 'what it said' bullet mixes paraphrase with short direct quotations, as the strategy suggests. The final bullet is answered through timing — a low moment, then a change of mood — and through a second person, the teacher, which deepens the answer without losing focus. The closing callback to Daniel is the kind of light touch that sounds natural in speech. Your own message will be different; keep the timing-first structure.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- out of the blue
Unexpectedly; ideal for a message you were not expecting.
- it arrived at exactly the right moment
Signals timing, which is often the heart of this card.
- heartfelt
Sincere and deeply felt; a natural adjective for a message.
- to read between the lines
To understand a meaning that is not stated directly.
- to be lost for words
So moved or surprised that you cannot speak.
- to mean the world to someone
Informal way to say something is extremely important to you.
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.
- 1Why do some people still prefer handwritten letters to digital messages?
- 2Has instant messaging made communication between people better or worse?
- 3Is it easier to express feelings in writing than face to face?
- 4Should children still be taught how to write letters at school?
- 5What kinds of news should always be given in person rather than by message?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: Objects and possessions. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.