Onterra TutorBand 8.5 model answer: Describe an old object in your family that has been passed down through generations
A band 8.5 sample answer to this IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card, with the structure examiners reward. You get 1 minute to prepare and up to 2 minutes to speak.
The cue card
Describe an old object in your family that has been passed down through generations.
You should say:
- what the object is
- who originally owned it
- how it has been kept or maintained
- and explain why it is meaningful to your family.
Your 2-minute structure
- Open with a direct answer (10 seconds). Name your choice immediately: one sentence that answers "describe an old object in your family that has been passed down through generations". Do not waste your first 20 seconds on "that's an interesting question".
- What the object is (about 25 seconds). Give the fact, then add one detail and one feeling. A specific memory always beats a general statement.
- Who originally owned it (about 25 seconds). This is where a past-tense story earns grammar marks. Set the scene in one sentence, then say what happened.
- How it has been kept or maintained (about 25 seconds). Slow down and be concrete: a name, a place, a number. Details are what make an answer sound fluent rather than memorised.
- And explain why it is meaningful to your family (about 25 seconds). Link back to your opening sentence with a connector like 'which is exactly why' so the whole answer feels planned.
- Close with why it matters (15 seconds). End on how it affected you or what it taught you. A natural closing line signals confidence to the examiner.
Band 8.5 sample answer
269 words. Notice how specific the details are; that specificity is what you should copy, not the story itself.
Right, the object that comes to mind is an old brass abacus, sits on a shelf in my dad's study, this thing is dark with age and a couple of the beads are chipped where they've been worn smooth over decades of use. It belonged to my great grandfather, who ran a small rice shop in the market, and from what my dad says he used that abacus every single day to work out prices, never trusted a calculator even once they became available, apparently he could add up a whole ledger faster with his fingers flying across those rods than most people could with a machine. As for how it's survived, honestly nobody does anything special, it just sits there, though my dad does wipe the dust off it now and then and once a year or so he rubs a bit of oil into the wooden frame so it doesn't crack, one of the rods is slightly bent, actually, from god knows what, but it still slides fine. What makes it meaningful, I think, is less the object itself and more what it represents, this idea of someone building a whole business and feeding a family with basically just this simple wooden tool, no fancy technology, just persistence. My dad sometimes takes it down and shows my little cousins how to use it, clicking the beads up and down, and even though none of us will ever actually need an abacus for anything, that fifteen minutes of him teaching them feels like it's passing something on that isn't really about maths at all. I like that it's not locked away somewhere, it's just there, part of the room.
Why this answer earns band 8.5
- "his fingers flying across those rods" shows Lexical Resource through a vivid, idiomatic image rather than a flat verb like 'moved quickly', which is roughly what a Band 6 answer would settle for
- the sentence "though my dad does wipe the dust off it now and then and once a year or so he rubs a bit of oil into the wooden frame so it doesn't crack, one of the rods is slightly bent" is a comma-spliced run-on typical of natural Fluency and Coherence in speech, not a model for written sentence boundaries
- "nobody does anything special" plus the coordinated non-finite phrases later in the same passage are simple coordinated verb complements, not a subordinate clause, so it should be described as Grammatical Range through coordination rather than complex subordination
- "less the object itself and more what it represents" demonstrates Lexical Resource via a balanced contrastive structure, upgrading a Band 6 version that might just say 'it is meaningful because it is old'
- the closing line "it's just there, part of the room" gives understated Fluency and Coherence, a natural spoken close instead of a summary sentence like 'in conclusion, this object is very important to my family'
How the two minutes are spent
- Name the object with one concrete physical detail, like wear or damage (25s)
- Say who owned it and give one specific habit or story about them (35s)
- Describe present-day upkeep, including an honest flaw or imperfection (30s)
- Explain the deeper meaning and close on a personal, understated note (30s)
Phrases worth learning
| his fingers flying across those rods | to describe someone doing a practiced skill quickly and naturally |
| less the object itself and more what it represents | to explain symbolic meaning without sounding like a list |
| nobody does anything special | to downplay upkeep of an old item in a natural, conversational way |
| passing something on that isn't really about X at all | to express that a tradition carries a deeper, less literal meaning |
| it's just there, part of the room | to end a description casually instead of with a formal summary |
The abacus, the rice shop, and the oiling routine are plausible invented details chosen to show texture, not facts to be checked; pick an heirloom that feels less like a stock 'old sewing machine' answer and invent your own specific, slightly imperfect details rather than worrying about whether any of it is literally true.
What the examiner listens for
Fluency (can you keep going for 2 minutes without long pauses), vocabulary range (topic words, not just "good" and "nice"), and grammar variety (past tenses and linking words like "which is why" and "even though"). Hesitation is normal; stopping is what costs bands. If you lose your thread, say "what I mean is..." and keep moving.