Short answer: Use the minute to write four or five keywords — one per cue card bullet, plus one for an ending — never full sentences. Choose your topic in the first ten seconds and commit.
A trigger word per idea keeps you talking for two minutes; two written sentences keep you talking for twenty seconds.
Part 2 is the only moment in the entire IELTS Speaking test where you are given preparation time: one minute, a pencil, paper, and a cue card with a topic and three or four bullet prompts.
It is also the most wasted minute in the exam. Candidates freeze deciding what to talk about, or write two beautiful sentences and then dry up at the thirty-second mark of a two-minute talk.
This guide gives the minute a structure: a second-by-second routine, the keyword method, the ending trick that saves the second minute, and how to actually use the notes while you speak. For the talk itself, pair it with our cue card answering guide.
What happens in the one minute before Speaking Part 2?
The examiner hands you a card, a pencil and paper, and says you have one minute to prepare and can make notes. The timing is strict — the official test format allocates exactly one minute before your talk of up to two minutes.
The card always has the same anatomy: a main instruction ("Describe a person you admire") and three or four bullet prompts ("who this person is", "how you know them", "what they do", "and explain why you admire them").
Those bullets are a gift most candidates ignore: they are a ready-made structure for the whole talk. Cover them in order, develop each one, and a two-minute talk organises itself.
One more reassurance: you cannot change the card, but you can bend your material to it. The examiner assesses your English, not the truth or originality of your story — adapting a story you know well is a legitimate and sensible strategy.
Should I write full sentences or keywords in my notes?
Keywords — without exception. The arithmetic is unforgiving: most people write at ten to fifteen words per minute under pressure. Spend the minute writing sentences and you produce twenty-five words — about twenty seconds of spoken material for a two-minute talk.
Keywords invert the ratio. One trigger word unlocks an idea you can talk about for thirty seconds: "grandmother — garden — every summer — patience" is four seconds of writing and ninety seconds of talking.
The right keyword is concrete and personal. "Interesting" triggers nothing; "the burnt cake" triggers a whole story. Nouns and specific details make the best triggers because each one carries a scene with it.
There is a second cost to sentences: you will read them aloud, and read-aloud speech is flat, eyes-down and disfluent. Notes exist to prompt speech, not to script it — a distinction the examiner can hear within one sentence.
What is the best one-minute routine for the cue card?
Sixty seconds is enough for a complete plan if every second has a job. This is the routine to drill until it is automatic.
| Seconds | Job | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| 0–10 | Choose and commit | Pick the first workable topic that fits the card. No second-guessing, no switching |
| 10–40 | One keyword per bullet | Four or five concrete trigger words, written down the page in talk order |
| 40–50 | Plan the ending | One keyword for a feeling, comparison or reflection to finish on |
| 50–60 | Rehearse the opening | Say your first sentence silently so the talk starts without a stumble |
The first ten seconds are the dangerous ones. Candidates lose thirty seconds auditioning topics for the "best" story — but the examiner grades language, not story quality. A mediocre topic with a full minute of planning behind it beats a perfect topic chosen at second forty-five.
The ending keyword at 40–50 seconds is the most underrated line in the routine. Talks rarely die at the start; they die at ninety seconds, when the bullets are used up. A planned reflection — how you felt, how it changed you, how it compares with today — reliably fills that final stretch.
The last ten seconds buy you something disproportionate: a clean start. A rehearsed opening sentence means no false start, and a confident first line settles your nerves for everything after it.
How do I use my notes while speaking?
Glance, don't read. Your notes are a map on the table: finish developing one keyword, glance down, lift the next trigger, look up, keep talking. Each glance costs half a second and restores your whole structure.
Because you wrote the keywords in talk order, you always know where you are — and if the examiner's two-minute stop arrives before your last point, that is fine. Being stopped at two minutes is normal and costs nothing; it usually means you filled the time, which is exactly what you want.
If your mind blanks mid-talk, the notes are your recovery system: glance, grab the next keyword, and bridge with a natural filler — "anyway, the other thing I remember is...". The bridge phrases that make this seamless are in our natural fillers and connectors guide.
What you must not do is hold the paper up and read. Read-aloud delivery flattens intonation and hesitates unnaturally — both graded features. The paper stays on the table; your eyes come back up.
What if the two-minute talk still runs dry?
Even with good notes, some talks hit an early wall. Build two expansion habits into your preparation so the wall has doors in it.
The first is the feelings pass: for any keyword, you can always add how you felt at the time, how you feel about it now, and whether that changed. Emotion questions never run out, and answering them naturally produces the past-versus-present grammar range examiners reward.
The second is the comparison pass: how the thing compares with others of its kind, with what came before it, or with what you would choose today. "Compared with the phones we have now, it was hilariously basic" is instant, honest material.
Both passes work on any topic — person, place, object or event — which is what makes them safety nets rather than scripts. Rehearse each once or twice and they will surface on their own at the ninety-second mark, exactly where talks go to die.
How do I practise the one-minute routine?
The routine only pays off if it is automatic on test day, and automation takes repetitions — but cheap ones. Each rep is three minutes: one minute of prep, two of talking.
Do one rep daily with a real timer and an unfamiliar card. Timing yourself honestly matters most in the prep minute: without a timer, everyone drifts to ninety comfortable seconds and trains the wrong skill.
Work through varied topics so the choose-and-commit step gets tested against people, places, objects and events alike — the cue card library organises real topics by category with model answers and follow-ups. Then run full-format reps in the timed cue-card practice, which enforces the real one-minute-prep, two-minute-talk clock.
After each rep, review the notes you made, not just the talk: were the keywords concrete? Did you write an ending trigger? Did the talk actually follow the notes? Ten reps with that review loop and the minute stops feeling short.
Conclusion
The one minute before Part 2 is not thinking time — it is building time, and sixty seconds builds a complete talk if you spend them on the right things: an instant topic decision, one concrete keyword per bullet, a planned ending, a rehearsed first line.
Drill the routine until it runs on rails, keep your notes as triggers rather than scripts, and the part of the test candidates fear most becomes the only part you get to plan.