IELTS Speaking Part 2 Sample Answer - A Person Who Inspired

This is a high-scoring sample answer for the following IELTS Speaking Part 2 question: Describe a person who inspired you to do something interesting. Read them to understand what you need to talk about and the kind of answers you need to score well in your IELTS speaking test. For advice, strategies and tips on the best ways to answer (because 2 minutes is very long), this article will help.

IELTS Speaking Part 2 Sample Answer

Describe a person who inspired you to do something interesting

You should say:

Who he/she is

How you knew him/her

What interesting thing you did

And explain how he/she inspired you to do something interesting

Read the Text

I think I’ve had many people in my life that have influenced me. You know, maybe some of my bosses have influenced me, for example, or maybe some friends. Maybe some famous people, too. But the person I’d like to talk about today is a girl I knew well. I know I still know her, but I met her, maybe over 20 years ago. And she was going through a particularly hard time at that time in her life and so was I. And so, we kind of became firm friends because of that. And she was a woman, she had three kids, but her plan was she was going to go around the world with two of her kids, the two younger ones, because the older one was married. And she had it all planned out and so on. And I kind of looked at this in awe and I thought, what a great idea. If she can do that, I can do that, too. And so, I planned, and I planned, and I spoke to her and we planned and we decided to meet up in New Zealand. I mean, there was nothing, there was no relationship there. It was just a friendship, so that’s what I did. She basically, she’s a very, very bright girl. Bright woman. Sorry, she’s a granny now, but she’s a very bright woman. And she had lots of ideas, and she didn’t give me any specific ideas because a lot of the places I went to were different from the ones she went to. But what a difference that trip made to my life. It opened my eyes to a lot of things I would never have seen otherwise and have always been grateful to her ever since.

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Speaking Analysis

This is my opinion of the above answer. The answer was given as in a test, with minimal preparation time.

Good introduction, setting the context that there is more than one person influenced me in my life, but this is the one I’m going to talk about.

Reporting the time, when I met her and what was happening in our lives at that time.

Some description is too simple – she is a woman, she had three kids etc. Could have been better maybe by saying what she did for work and so on.

The part about planning may seem repetitive, but it really emphasises how much planning was needed, especially because she was taking her children on the trip.

Good description of how the experience changed my life at the end.

Less Common and Idiomatic Vocabulary

a particularly hard time – a really difficult period of time
so was I – I was too
firm friends – good and trustworthy friends
all planned out – all arranged in great detail
kind of – more or less
looked at – thought about this
in awe – a feeling of respect mixed with fear or wonder
meet up – to meet somewhere
bright – clever, quick witted
granny – grandmother
it opened my eyes – made me understand
I would never have seen otherwise – If this hadn’t happened, i would have never seen these things
ever since – from that time until now