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    Speaking Part 2Reported 3 September 2026

    Describe a time you worked in a group

    The cue card

    Describe a time you worked in a group.

    You should say

    • what you did
    • who you worked with
    • what problems you faced
    • and explain why you worked in the group

    How to answer it

    This question has come back: candidates reported it on 23 July 2026, 3 September 2026. Questions that repeat across sittings are the ones worth rehearsing properly.

    Choose a group that went slightly wrong — someone did not deliver, or two people wanted different things — because a group where everything worked has no story in it. Say what your own role was and what you would do differently, which answers the implicit 'and how did you feel' without being asked.

    What moves the band

    • Teamwork lexis: we divided it up, carry the weight, take the lead, pull in different directions, chase people up.
    • The leadership follow-up wants qualities plus an example, not a list of adjectives.

    Two answers, two bands

    Both answers below respond to this exact question. Read them in order: the difference between them is what a band is actually made of. They are written by us for this page — they are not candidate transcripts.

    Band 6.5

    What a 6.5 sounds like

    I would like to talk about a group project that I did at university last semester in my marketing course.

    We were a group of four students and our task was to prepare a presentation about a company and its advertising strategy. We chose a famous soft drink company because there was a lot of information available about it.

    We divided the work between us. One person collected the information, another person made the slides, I wrote the text of the presentation, and the fourth member practised the speaking part with us. We met three times in the library and we also had a group chat on our phones where we shared everything.

    In the end the presentation was very successful and our teacher gave us a high mark. Everybody did their part well and there were no problems in our group, because all of us were responsible students and good friends.

    I enjoyed this experience very much and I learned that teamwork is very important for our future careers.

    Why it scores what it scores

    Well organised, appropriate length, and the division of tasks is clearly explained. The problem is the one the plan predicts: a group where everything worked has no story in it. Because nothing went wrong, there is nothing to narrate — no complication, no decision, no repair — so the answer stays in flat past simple and ends on the conclusion that teamwork is important, which teaches the examiner nothing about the candidate.

    Band 8

    What an 8 sounds like

    The one worth talking about is a group project that nearly didn't happen, which is why I remember it.

    Four of us, second year, a presentation on a local company. The problem appeared in week two: one member — I'll call him K — simply stopped replying. Not rude, not hostile, just gone. And the three of us spent about ten days doing the thing groups always do, which is complain to each other and hope somebody else deals with it.

    What I actually did, eventually, was ask him directly rather than about him, and it turned out his father was in hospital and he'd been too embarrassed to say. So we re-cut the work: he took the one piece that could be done at two in the morning from a phone, and we absorbed the rest. He delivered it, too.

    It went fine in the end — good mark, nobody remembers the presentation. What I took from it is narrower than teamwork is important. It's that a silent group member is a question, not a verdict, and I'd assumed for ten days that I knew the answer.

    I'd like to say I handled it well. I handled it late.

    Why it scores what it scores

    The plan asks for a group that went slightly wrong, and the complication is what generates everything above a 7 here — past perfect, reported thought, a genuine decision the candidate had to make. Crucially the lesson at the end is specific and self-critical rather than the generic one, and the last line is a concession that reads as honest rather than modest. Note that the candidate's own role is stated plainly, which many answers forget.

    Phrases worth stealing

    • “Not rude, not hostile, just gone”
    • “complain to each other and hope somebody else deals with it”
    • “ask him directly rather than about him”
    • “a silent group member is a question, not a verdict”
    • “I'd like to say I handled it well. I handled it late.”

    Part 3 questions reported with it

    Part 3 follows the topic of the cue card, so these are the discussion questions the same candidates were asked next.

    1. Do people work better alone or in groups?
    2. What makes a good leader?
    3. Should students learn teamwork?
    4. Are group assignments useful at school?

    These are candidate recalls. These are questions reported by test-takers after their exams, not official or leaked IELTS material. Wording varies by test version, location and memory. Use them for timed practice — never as a prediction of what you will be asked.

    Practise these next

    Know the number. Now move it.

    A conversion table tells you where you stand today. Langujet's AI marks your writing and speaking against the real rubric and tells you exactly which criterion is holding your score down.