IELTS Speaking Part 2: take ideas from other topics

Describe a time when you received some money as a gift. You should say:

• who gave it to you
• what the occasion was
• how you felt
• and explain what you did with the money.

If you think about some of the topics we have already prepared, the question above should be quite easy.

Some ideas:

1. You could say that you received money for your birthday and took your friends out for a meal. Take some ideas from this lesson.
2. You could say that you bought yourself a new phone (see this lesson).
3. You could say that you used the money to pay for a holiday or trip, and use ideas from this lesson.

Note:
I'm not recommending that you learn my answers word-for-word. Just try to take some of my ideas and adapt them to your own answers.

Comments

[dave]

hi simon.
Tnx for all the information that you provide to your students got my results just this morning and I saw my improvements.
My previous score were L 6.5, R 5.5, W 6, S 7
My very recent scores L 8, R 8.5, W 6.5, S 7
I need to get 7 in all subtest but i'm happy with my scores. I'll just grab the opportunity of being a student nurse in australia. Thanks a million simon. Godbless

[Reza]

Dear Simon,
Many thanks to you for your wonderful website. I passed the exam successfully.
Kind regards,

[Otabek]

how much time was between your 1 an 2 attempts Dave and what did you with your reading and listening . pls help

[Otabek]

Your 1 attempt just like mine L(6.5),R(5)W(5.5)S(5) is it enough 3 month? give advice pls Dave

[dave]

hi otabek. for me, you can actually improve in just a month. You should not practice reading and listening all at the same day, i mean, you should practice it everyday. If you get the right technique in reading, i'm sure it'll be easy. like what simon's technique, dont read all the passage. Honestly, i can answer all the questions in reading without even understanding the passage.

[Rafi]

hi dave, let me congratulate you for a tremendous performance further, can you please give me some tips on reading section?
i mean i have attempt twice the reading test and my score were 4.5 and 5.0, i want to improve it up to 6.0 at least.

[Martin]

Hi Simon & students around the world,

Here is my description for today's Part2 and hope you find it useful to build your own speech.

Cheers,
Martin

============================================

Today I want to talk about a very special moment for me when I received money as a gift.

This happened before I left my home country for my studies in the US. Since I'm from Taiwan, it is part of the Taiwanese culture to give money to represent luck, and such money is always given in a red envelope.

So for that ocassion, I received many red envelopes from different family members, including my parents, my siblings, and even my brother-in-law! To be honest, at first I was a bit overwhelmed by the significant amount of money I received and I didn't feel comfortable because I thought I didn't deserve such thing. But then my mom explained to me that that was simply a type of blessing that they wanted to give me and that they truly wanted to wish me success in my studies.

I understood their intention and gesture, so I was very thankful and emotional at the same time. When I arrived to the US, one of the first things I did was to open a bank account to deposit the money. Since I lived in the school's dormitory, I didn't have many expenses so I used the money for differents kinds of entertainment, such as eating at restaurants with friends, visiting nearby museums, and even attending a Formula 1 race event!

All in all, I am very grateful for having such a nice family, and although it was just money that I received, I could really feel their love, care, and support.

============================================

[ben]

hi Simon and I'm ben.thanks for your helps including a variety of advices and the result showed listening8 reading8 speaking7.5 writing 7.5

[ben]

hi Simon from Tom
these your assissts were perfect for me over in my second results which is totally 8 scores.but I always prefer to take only 9 band

[ben]

hi simon please give advice
how can i maximize my score from reading

[Jay]

Hi Dave

How can you say confidently that without reading whole essay you can make all answers?

[dave]

it's simple jay. the things you should remember when answering the reading part is firstly,the key words. Once you read the question, underline the key word and then find the answer in the passage. most of the time it's only synonymous to the key word which means the word you can find in the text is not exactly the same as what you can see in the question.Secondly, There are actually techniques in finding the write answer like in fill in the blanks, there you can see most of the time a Title on the top of the whole question for example; SUPER BABY, now find that word in the passage and once you locate it concentrate on that paragraph and the succeeding paragraphs. remember, most of the answers are in order that makes the reading test much easier..Also, you should use your time wisely, in my exam, i answered part 1 of the reading exam in only 10 mins, second part was 15 mins that is why i had a lot of time for the last part which give me more confidence. Simon is right, you should answer the easy questions first and answer the headings the last. Just want to share, I learned a lot in my first attempt and promised to myself never to do the same mistakes again because in my first try, I read the whole passage, turn the page back and fort, answer some questions using most of my time which gives me a low score. This technique is not recommendable. The most important thing is you should practice everyday and try my advice. Hope it will help you.

[Jay]

you talking about academic or general..

I am screwed and fumbled to find out answer in Academic..very hard for getting through last passage

[Mohammad Qumar ul hasan]

Hi! Simon, is it a good idea to use redundant phrases in speaking to buy some times ?

[emran]

i need speaking partner,anyone interested please join me emran2888@skype

[Simon]

Great scores Dave!

...

Thanks again Martin. Great example description!

[dave]

tnx simon but im planning to take again ielts in the future.. writing for me is really tough. tnx for your help.

[gurkamal]

does speaking less than 2 mins hampers scoring.

[Simon]

Hi Gurkamal,

You don't automatically lose marks for speaking for less than 2 minutes. However, your answer probably won't be as well-developed if it's too short, so you might lose marks for task response and vocabulary.

[Mohammad Qumar ul hasan]

Hi! Sorry to ask you again, is it a good idea to use redundant phrases in speaking to get some times ?

[Simon]

Hi Mohammad,

Yes, it's ok to do that, but don't use too many. Have a look at this lesson:

http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2011/08/ielts-speaking-advice-be-more-direct.html

and this lesson:

http://ielts-simon.com/ielts-help-and-english-pr/2011/08/ielts-speaking-advice-get-to-the-point.html

[susan]

dear simon
In speaking if I few mistake in part 1 my marks will be reduct or not ?pls make me clear....
and i am always confuse to begging point of part 2 explaining plz give me some solution because I am going to take ielts exam next month 20?

[susan]

beginning.......

[Simon]

Hi Susan,

Every mistake can have an effect on your score, in part 1, 2 or 3.

Just start part 2 with: I'm going to talk about...