Describe a person who has inspired you
A full Band 9 model answer for this IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card, with the key vocabulary it uses, three Part 3 follow-up answers, and an examiner note on why it scores so highly.
Describe a person who has inspired you.
You should say:
- who this person is
- how you know them
- what they did that inspired you
and explain why this person has had such an influence on you.
You get 1 minute to prepare and should speak for 1-2 minutes. Try it yourself first, then compare with the model answer below.
Band 9 sample answer
The person I would like to talk about is my secondary-school chemistry teacher, Mrs Anand, who, looking back, probably shaped the way I approach problems more than anyone else.
I got to know her when I was about fourteen, at a point when I was genuinely struggling with science and had more or less written myself off as a humanities student. What set her apart was that she refused to let any of us coast. Rather than simply working through the textbook, she would bring in everyday puzzles — why bread rises, why iron rusts — and have us reason our way to the chemistry behind them.
The moment that really stuck with me was when I failed a test badly and went to her expecting a lecture. Instead, she sat down with me, went through every mistake without a hint of judgement, and said something I have never forgotten: that being wrong is just data, not a verdict. That reframing completely changed how I dealt with failure.
The reason she has had such a lasting influence on me is that she taught me far more than chemistry. She instilled a kind of intellectual resilience — a belief that almost anything can be understood if you are patient enough to break it down. To this day, whenever I hit a wall with something difficult, I catch myself thinking the way she taught me to, and that, to me, is the mark of a truly inspiring person.
Key vocabulary used
The collocations and idiomatic phrases above that lift the answer into Band 9 lexical resource.
- written myself off
- decided I had no chance of succeeding
- refused to let us coast
- would not allow us to do the bare minimum
- really stuck with me
- stayed in my memory and mattered
- without a hint of judgement
- without criticising me at all
- intellectual resilience
- the mental toughness to keep thinking through hard problems
- the mark of
- a clear sign or defining quality of
Part 3 follow-up questions
The examiner develops the topic with more abstract discussion questions. Here is how a Band 9 candidate might answer.
Do you think teachers can have more influence than parents?
In certain respects, yes. Parents shape your values and character, but a gifted teacher can open up a whole subject — or a way of thinking — that a child would never have encountered at home. I would say their influence is different rather than greater: parents form who you are, while inspiring teachers often determine what you become interested in.
Why do some people inspire others while others do not?
I think it comes down to authenticity and the willingness to invest in people. Inspiring people tend to lead by example rather than by lecturing, and crucially they make others feel capable. Someone can be enormously talented, but if they cannot make their passion contagious, it rarely rubs off on anyone else.
Are the people who inspire young people today different from in the past?
To some extent. In the past, role models were mostly drawn from one's immediate community — a relative, a teacher, a local figure. Now, with social media, young people increasingly look up to public figures and online creators they have never met. That widens their horizons, but it also means the role models are more curated and sometimes less genuine.
Why this is a Band 9 answer
Band 9 features: precise idiomatic lexis ('written myself off', 'rubs off'), a mix of complex structures used accurately, a clear narrative arc with a memorable anecdote, and a fully developed 'why' that answers the final prompt directly.
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