Abstract and idea-led prompts
These are the cards candidates fear: nothing to describe, nothing that happened, just an idea. They are actually the fairest cards in the test, because they reward exactly the skill Part 3 will test next. The technique is to refuse to stay abstract — ground the idea in one concrete example within the first thirty seconds, then argue from there.
What the examiner is listening for
Whether you can develop an argument rather than repeat a position, and whether you can hedge, concede, and speculate — the language Part 3 is built on.
How to spend the preparation minute
You get exactly sixty seconds with a pencil and a sheet of paper. This is how to divide them on a card of this shape.
- 0:00–0:15
State the idea in one line
Write the position you are going to take as a single sentence. Vagueness at second five becomes silence at second ninety.
- 0:15–0:30
Find your concrete anchor
Note one real situation, person, or place that illustrates it. This is the single most important note on an abstract card.
- 0:30–0:45
The counter-argument
Write the strongest objection in three words. Conceding it and then answering it is what makes the answer sound like thinking rather than reciting.
- 0:45–1:00
Consequences
Note what would change if you were right. Speculation gives you conditionals and comfortably fills the final thirty seconds.
Language that transfers across every card here
- on the face of it
Introduces the obvious reading before you complicate it.
- I would go so far as to say
Strengthens a claim without sounding aggressive.
- there is a case for saying that…
Hedged argument opener; very useful in Part 3 too.
- it cuts both ways
Idiom for something with advantages and disadvantages.
- in practice, though
Signals the move from theory to a real example.
- that said,
Clean concession marker; shorter and more natural than 'on the other hand'.
- the knock-on effect would be
For consequences that follow indirectly from a change.
Grammar this family pulls out of you
Grammatical range is a quarter of your Speaking band. These structures arise naturally on these cards, so you do not have to force them in.
- Second conditional for hypothesis
- “If schools taught it properly, most of this would sort itself out within a generation.”
- Modals of speculation
- “It might well be that people simply were not asked.”
- Concessive clauses
- “Although I understand the reasoning, I still think the rule does more harm than good.”
What costs people marks on these cards
- Staying abstract for the whole two minutes. Without one concrete example the answer sounds memorised and thins out fast.
- Arguing only one side. Conceding a counter-point costs ten seconds and visibly raises the level of the answer.
- Treating the card as a Part 3 question and answering in forty seconds. It is still a long turn; it still needs two minutes.
Cue cards in this family
5 cards- AbstractDescribe a rule you think should be changed.Ideas, model answer & Part 3
- AbstractDescribe an opinion you used to hold and later changed.Ideas, model answer & Part 3
- AbstractDescribe a skill you think everyone should be taught.Ideas, model answer & Part 3
- AbstractDescribe a change you would like to see in the way people work.Ideas, model answer & Part 3
- AbstractDescribe a piece of information you decided to check before you believed it.Ideas, model answer & Part 3
Where Part 3 usually goes after these cards
The examiner follows your long turn with a four to five minute discussion on the same theme, worked from two related discussion topics. On this family the discussion tends to travel in these directions.
- Who should be responsible for changing rules that no longer work
- Whether people change their minds more or less readily than in the past
- How societies decide which skills are worth teaching everyone
- Whether technology has made it harder to tell reliable information from unreliable
- The balance between individual freedom and collective rules
The timing you are rehearsing against
- 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.