Speaking Part 2: band 7, 8 & 9 sample answers
Cue card
Describe a place you have visited that you would recommend to others.
You should say:
- where the place is
- when you went there and who you went with
- what you did there
- and explain why you would recommend it
I'd like to talk about a place I visited last year, which is a small town called Hallstatt in Austria. It's in the mountains, next to a beautiful lake.
I went there in the summer with two of my friends. We were travelling around Europe, and we decided to stay there for two days because we saw some photos online and they looked amazing.
While we were there, we did a lot of things. We walked around the old town, we took a boat on the lake, and we went up the mountain to see the view. We also tried some local food, which was really nice.
I would definitely recommend this place to other people because it is very peaceful and the scenery is beautiful. It's a good place to relax and take photos. Even though it's quite small, there is enough to do for a short trip, so I think everyone should visit it.
Why it scores band 7
- Fluency: speaks at length and covers all four bullet points clearly.
- Coherence: generally fluent, but linkers are simple ('and', 'because') and a few ideas repeat.
- Lexis/Grammar: accurate and adequate, though the vocabulary is not yet wide-ranging.
Model answers written to illustrate each band, aligned with the official IELTS band descriptors. Sharply is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by IELTS, the British Council, IDP, or Cambridge Assessment English.