IELTS Speaking Part 2: Describe a Piece of Good News (Band 9 Sample)
This Part 2 cue card asks you to describe a piece of good news you received and to explain how you felt. A band-9 answer tells it as a short story — the news, how it came, the reaction — and lands one clear, developed reflection. Below is a model long-turn of about 235 words in a natural spoken register, followed by a breakdown of why it earns a 9 on all four speaking criteria and the collocations worth stealing.
Practice this exact speaking task with AI feedback
Record your answer and get a band score on all four criteria — Pro plan, credit-metered.
01 · The cue card
- what the good news was
- how you received it
- who you shared it with
- and explain how you felt about it
02 · Band 9 sample answer
The good news I'd like to talk about is the day I found out our app had reached its first ten thousand users. It might not sound like a fortune to most people, but for a small team that had been slogging away for over a year, it was an absolutely enormous milestone.
It came in the most ordinary way — I was just checking our dashboard one morning, coffee in hand, when I noticed the number had ticked over. For a second I genuinely thought I'd misread it. Once it sank in, I immediately called my two co-founders, and within minutes we were all messaging each other in a flurry of excitement. That evening we went out for a proper celebration, the first real one we'd allowed ourselves.
As for how I felt, it was pure elation, but mixed with a huge sense of relief. There had been so many moments of doubt along the way, days when I honestly wondered if we'd made a terrible mistake, so seeing concrete proof that people actually wanted what we'd built was incredibly validating. More than the number itself, it was that feeling of 'we might just pull this off' that I'll never forget.
03 · Why this scores Band 9
The answer tells the news as a story in order — what, how it came, who was told, and how it felt — with natural linking ("It came in the most ordinary way...", "As for how I felt..."). It builds to a clear emotional point and sustains a full two-minute turn.
Precise, idiomatic vocabulary — "slogging away", "ticked over", "a flurry of excitement", "pure elation", "pull this off" — carries the story, and the emotion is expressed vividly rather than with flat words like "very happy".
A wide range is controlled accurately: past perfect continuous for background ("a team that had been slogging away for over a year"), a "when" narrative clause ("I was just checking our dashboard... when I noticed"), and a cleft ("it was that feeling... that I'll never forget"). Tenses stay consistent.
The script is built from speakable, stress-timed phrases with natural chunking, and the emotional content invites genuine intonation, so the recording lands clear sentence stress without tongue-twisting clusters.
04 · Useful phrases for this topic
Tap a phrase to see what it means and how to use it. Natural phrases like these lift your Lexical Resource score.
05 · Frequently asked questions
Does the good news have to be dramatic?
No — a personally meaningful piece of news makes the best answer, because you can describe genuine feelings. This model uses a business milestone, which gives it a strong, original reason for mattering, but exam results or a family event work just as well.
How do I fill two minutes on a piece of news?
Tell it as a short story: set up why it mattered, describe how it came and who you told, then reflect on how it felt. The build-up and the reflection naturally fill the time far better than just stating the news.
What tense should I use?
Mostly past simple and past perfect for the story ("we had been slogging away", "I noticed the number"), with present or future for the lasting feeling ("that feeling... I'll never forget"). Accurate mixing lifts the grammar score.
How important is the "how you felt" part?
It's the point of the task. The examiner wants a developed personal reaction. This answer describes "elation mixed with relief" and the validating feeling of success, rather than just saying "I was really happy".
Want feedback on your own answer?
Toey grades your recording on Fluency, Lexical Resource, Grammar and Pronunciation, then shows exactly how to reach the next band — Pro plan, credit-metered.
Try IELTS Speaking practice