IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card

Describe your study room

: You should say

how it looks like
how much time you spend in this room
how an ideal study room should be
and give details of your study room

: Sample Answer

Describing my study room is easy – but perhaps a little embarrassing! Firstly, I will tell you what it looks like, then I’ll talk about how much I spend using it before comparing it with what my ideal study room might be like. That way you will have all the details of my study room

I am lucky because there is a ‘spare’ room in my flat which I can use as a study space. That’s the good news. The problem is that the room has also ended up being a dumping ground for everything else that doesn’t have a home. It is full of clutter. The room hosts a large double bed, already made up in case of guests, and a wardrobe. There is also a small chest of drawers and a bedside table. Also stored in the room are a Henry Hoover (a type of vacuum cleaner); an ironing board, a clothes rack and a set of low clothes rails that I use to hang out washing to dry. These items and bits of furniture all added together don’t leave very much space for me to work in. Even so, I have a table in the corner of the room. It is quite light, as it is positioned right underneath a duplex window – that’s a sort of sloping window set into the roof – my flat is on the top floor of a converted old house, so it is actually an attic space

The table is reasonably sized, but I’m afraid it’s also rather cluttered. I have a couple of sets of in-trays on my desk, full of writing paper items (notebooks and reams of A4 paper), together with letters and documents awaiting my attention. There is also a tin full of pens, pencils, highlighters and other odds and ends which take up more space, and an old shoe box full of envelopes and cards that I tend to stock up on in case I need to send a friend a birthday card or quick message. I still like to send messages traditionally through the post for special occasions, rather than using email or texting. In the middle of my desk is my laptop, on which I do all my work. That doesn’t leave any spare room, so my printer is on the floor under the table. I have to crawl on my hands and knees to retrieve papers from it when necessary

Even though the space isn’t ideal, I do try and discipline myself to go in there every day to do some work free of other distractions. At least a couple of hours a day, but obviously if I have an important deadline then I can spend all day and half the night in there ‘burning the midnight oil’ to use an English expression. I sit on a little swivel office chair, that was actually very, very cheap to purchase and looks rather flimsy, but is in fact extremely comfortable. That was a bargain buy, I must have had it 15 years at least

My ideal study room would be airy, spacious and uncluttered. It would be a dedicated room, rather than a shared space that ends up collecting all the overflow from every other room in the home. I’d have a huge table, with neat piles of documents and space to spread out reference materials if needed. I’d prefer a window I could properly see out of, rather than one in the roof, but I do like the natural light. If money were no object, all my stationery would match, and I’d have a printer that never jammed or ran out of ink. A neat wooden filing cabinet would contain all my paperwork filed away in an orderly fashion. In one corner I’d have a cosy armchair by a window overlooking a beautiful garden. When I needed inspiration I’d be able to sit in it, gazing out of the view and thinking wise thoughts. I’d also like an endlessly refilling pot of hot fresh coffee, though I expect if I did all that caffeine would be very bad for me

So you can see why I’m a little embarrassed by my study room, I’m ashamed it is such a cluttered area. Even so, when I find I’m really focused on some interesting project I don’t notice my surroundings. Unfortunately, if I don’t really want to face up to the task I’m supposed to be working on then it is very easy to be distracted when I’m so squashed in by the chaos around me. One day I might have to have a serious clear up, though I really don’t know where else I’d put all those things if I do