Part 2 cue cardTransport and traffic

Describe a journey you often make by public transport

"How you feel about the journey" needs more than "it's tiring" or "it's convenient": compare it with the alternative or with how it used to be, and admit mixed feelings. The middle bullets want precise detail: changes, stops, minutes.

1 minute to prepare
Up to 2 minutes
Samples at Band 6, 7 and 8
Updated 20 October 2026

Describe a journey you often make by public transport.

You should say:

where you go
how you travel
how long it takes
and explain how you feel about the journey

Rehearse the long turn

1 minute to prepare · 2 minutes to speak

Sit this card with the AI examinerThen the Part 3 discussion, and a full report

A 60-second plan

where you goMirpur to campus, five days a week
how you travelrickshaw, metro from Mirpur 10, walk
how long it takestwenty minutes on board; forty-five door to door
and explain how you feel about the journeywas a 90-minute bus; rush-hour crush

Sample answers

230 words · about 2:00 spoken at a Band 6 pace

I want to describe my journey from my home to my university. I live in Mirpur, it is in north part of Dhaka, and my university is near Shahbag. I go there five days a week.

First I take a rickshaw to the metro station in Mirpur 10, and always I need to argue with the rickshaw puller about the money. Then I take the metro until Shahbag, and after that I walk ten minutes to my campus.

On the metro it takes only twenty minutes, and the whole journey takes about forty-five minutes. Before the metro, I was going by bus and it took one and half hour or more, because Dhaka traffic is very terrible.

I feel very happy about this journey now. The metro is clean and it has air conditioning, and it is almost always on time, so I am not late for my classes anymore. I save nearly two hours every day, and I use this time for reading. My sister also likes it because there is a special carriage for women, so she feels safer.

But it is not perfect. In the morning it is very crowded, sometimes I cannot enter in the train and I have to wait the next one. Still, it is much more better than the bus, and I think the metro has changed life for many people in Dhaka.

The mistakes that keep it at Band 6

in north part of Dhaka should be in the north of Dhaka
always I need to argue should be I always need to argue
until Shahbag should be to Shahbag
one and half hour should be an hour and a half
very terrible should be really terrible
enter in the train should be get on the train
wait the next one should be wait for the next one
much more better should be much better

Why this is Band 6, not Band 7

Fluency and coherence: Willing to talk and covers every bullet in order, with a useful before-and-after comparison. Not Band 7 because the linking is simple ("First", "Then", "But", "Still") and the feelings are listed one after another without much development.
Vocabulary: Enough topic vocabulary ("rickshaw puller", "air conditioning", "carriage for women"), but with inappropriate choices: "very terrible" adds very to an extreme adjective, and "enter in the train" is not the usual way to say it. Band 7 needs more natural collocation.
Grammar: Mixes simple and complex sentences, with frequent slips: word order in "always I need to argue", a preposition in "until Shahbag", a missing article in "one and half hour", and "much more better". This error rate is typical of Band 6.

Pronunciation is the fourth criterion; it is judged from your voice, so a written sample cannot show it.

268 words · about 2:04 spoken at a Band 7 pace

I'd like to talk about the journey from my home in Mirpur, which is in the north of Dhaka, to my university near Shahbag. I make this trip five days a week during term time.

There are three parts to it. First I get a rickshaw to the metro station at Mirpur 10, and I usually have to bargain with the driver a bit. Then I take the metro to Shahbag, and after that I walk for about ten minutes to get to the campus.

The train journey only takes around twenty minutes, and the whole trip from door to door is about forty-five minutes. That might not sound very fast, but before the metro was built, I had to take a bus, and it used to take me at least an hour and a half because the traffic in Dhaka is so bad.

Overall, I feel really positive about it. The trains are clean, they're air-conditioned and they're nearly always on time, which is quite surprising in Dhaka. I've basically got almost two hours of my day back, and I usually use the time on the train to read or go over my notes. My sister also likes the fact that there's a carriage only for women, because she feels much safer.

Having said that, it isn't perfect. In the morning rush hour the trains are absolutely packed, and sometimes I have to let one or two go past before I can get on. But compared to sitting in a traffic jam on a hot bus, it's a huge improvement, and I don't mind it at all.

The slips

get to the campus should be get to campus

Why this is Band 7, not Band 8

Fluency and coherence: Speaks at length easily and organises the journey clearly ("There are three parts to it", "Overall", "Having said that"). Not Band 8 because the feelings are stated one by one rather than built into a more nuanced picture.
Vocabulary: Some less common, natural items ("bargain with the driver", "go over my notes", "absolutely packed", "got almost two hours of my day back"). Band 8 would use more vivid and idiomatic language for the crowding and the old bus journey.
Grammar: A good range of complex structures used accurately: a passive ("before the metro was built"), "used to" for a past habit, "the fact that" with a clause. One slip, "get to the campus", where no article is needed.

Pronunciation is the fourth criterion; it is judged from your voice, so a written sample cannot show it.

279 words · about 1:55 spoken at a Band 8 pace

The journey I make most often is from my family's flat in Mirpur, in the north of Dhaka, to my university near Shahbag, which I do five days a week during term.

It's a three-stage trip. I take a cycle rickshaw to the Mirpur 10 metro station, which involves a short but fairly spirited negotiation over the fare, then I catch the metro south, and from Shahbag it's a ten-minute walk to campus.

The metro part takes about twenty minutes, and door to door the whole thing is roughly forty-five. That probably doesn't sound remarkable, but before the metro opened I did exactly the same journey by bus, and it routinely took an hour and a half, sometimes two hours if it rained or there was a rally anywhere along the route.

So my feelings about it are overwhelmingly positive, almost grateful, really. The trains are air-conditioned, clean and astonishingly punctual by Dhaka standards, and I've reclaimed something like two hours a day, which I mostly spend reading or revising on the way. There's even a carriage reserved for women, which my sister says has made a huge difference to how safe she feels.

That said, it's not exactly a pleasure cruise at half past eight in the morning. The carriages are packed shoulder to shoulder, and on a bad day you can wait for two trains before you manage to squeeze on. And the rickshaw negotiation still sets the tone for my mood. But compared with sitting motionless in traffic, breathing in exhaust fumes, I genuinely look forward to it, which isn't something many people in my city could have said about their commute a few years ago.

Why this is Band 8, not Band 9

Fluency and coherence: Fluent and coherent, with the feelings developed in two balanced halves ("So my feelings about it", "That said") and a conclusion that widens out to the city. Short of Band 9 only because the three-stage structure is a little visible.
Vocabulary: Wide, precise and idiomatic: "a short but fairly spirited negotiation", "astonishingly punctual by Dhaka standards", "not exactly a pleasure cruise", "packed shoulder to shoulder". Band 9 would keep that freshness in every sentence.
Grammar: A wide range used accurately: a present perfect for a result ("I've reclaimed something like two hours"), a reduced relative ("a carriage reserved for women"), a participle ("breathing in exhaust fumes"). No errors; the gap to Band 9 is the occasional safe structure.

Pronunciation is the fourth criterion; it is judged from your voice, so a written sample cannot show it.

Rounding-off questions

Is public transport better than driving?: In a crowded city, definitely. A train carrying a thousand people takes up far less space than the cars they'd otherwise drive, and it doesn't get stuck in traffic. Driving only makes sense where the public network is poor.
How could transport be improved where you live?: Dhaka needs more metro lines and better connections at each end, because the rickshaw and the walk are now the slowest parts of my trip. Proper pavements would help too; at the moment walking is genuinely dangerous.