IELTS Speaking Part 2: Describe a Popular Person – Model Answers 2025

This cue card appears in the IELTS Speaking Part 2 question bank for September–December 2025. You have one minute to prepare and two minutes to speak. The examiner wants to hear not just who the person is, but why their popularity matters and what you genuinely think of them. Go straight into it.

Cue Card

Describe a popular person.

You should say:
– Who he/she is
– What he/she has done
– Why he/she is popular
– And explain how you feel about him/her

Model Answer

The person who comes to mind is Jordan Peterson. He is a Canadian psychologist who has become, more recently, a very prominent public intellectual and podcast host. He has authored several books on psychology and self-development, and I genuinely believe he is one of the more significant thinkers of this generation — though I know not everyone would agree with me on that.

He first gained widespread attention when he publicly opposed legislation in Canada that he felt would compel the use of specific language — particularly around gender pronouns. That controversy was really the turning point. After that, he started receiving interviews from media across different countries, and his audience grew to the point where he eventually launched his own podcast, where he continues to have conversations with writers, scientists, politicians, and thinkers from across the spectrum.

He is especially popular among young men, which the media has covered extensively. His appeal to that group comes largely from the fact that he speaks directly to questions of purpose, responsibility, and how to conduct yourself in a way that actually earns respect — from others, and from yourself. He is not just telling people to feel good. He is telling them to get serious.

I was one of those people he reached. One of the things he said that stayed with me was the idea of cleaning your room first — meaning, you cannot go out and try to fix the world when your own life is still in disarray. After sitting with that, I became much more internally focused. I stopped being so quick to criticise others and started looking more carefully at what I needed to sort out in myself.

Right now, I am genuinely concerned about him. He went through a serious illness a few years ago — depression and medication dependency — and it seems like he may be struggling again. His daughter recently shared something publicly suggesting he has not been active for a while. You might disagree with his politics or some of his views, but he is someone who speaks with real care to a group of people that most public figures do not bother with. I think that matters.

Why This Works

The answer introduces the person clearly, explains the specific moment that made him famous, and then gives a genuinely personal reason for admiring him — which is the hardest part to fake. The “clean your room” observation shows intellectual engagement rather than passive fan loyalty. The closing concern feels honest rather than performed.

📌 Band 7-8 Vocabulary:
– prominent public intellectual — a well-known thinker who influences public debate
– compel — to force someone to do something
– controversy — strong public disagreement about something
– spectrum — a wide range of different positions or views
– disarray — a state of disorder or confusion

IELTS Speaking Part 3: Popular Person Questions and Model Answers

Question 1: Why do some students want to become popular?

Model Answer:
Popularity works a lot like a drug. When you are popular, you get a kind of feedback — attention, admiration, a sense of being wanted — and that feedback feels genuinely good. The brain responds to it. The problem is that the same mechanism that makes it feel good also makes it addictive.

That is why you see people who were popular at one point — maybe in school, maybe in a former career — who simply cannot step away from it. Even when the relevance has faded, the need to stay in the scene remains. They keep reaching for that feeling.

For students, it works the same way. Once you are popular, you want more. You try new things to stay visible, to stay relevant. And what is interesting is that popularity, in a strange way, can actually drive people to improve. If you want to stay at the top, you have to keep adding something. Beauty is not enough, so you develop your intelligence. Intelligence is not enough, so you work on your social skills. It just keeps escalating.

So popularity is a double-edged sword. On one side, it can be destructive — especially when it becomes the thing you organise your entire identity around. On the other side, that competitive drive it creates can push people to genuinely become better versions of themselves.

Question 2: What kinds of people are more popular at school?

Model Answer:
I would break it down into roughly four groups.

First, the attractive ones. There is a well-documented psychological bias where physical attractiveness causes people to attribute positive qualities to someone — intelligence, warmth, competence — even without evidence. Beautiful people are tolerated, and sometimes celebrated, in ways that have very little to do with what they actually bring.

Second, the wealthy ones. Wealth brings influence, and being connected to wealth has a kind of social benefit that proximity to beauty does not. If you are friends with the rich kid, some of that access flows to you. Unlike with attractive people — where standing next to them does not make you more attractive — being connected to wealth can actually benefit you in practical ways.

Third, the academically exceptional ones — the erudites. These are the students seen as having the most promising futures, and there is a respect that comes with that, even among students who would not openly admit it.

And then the fourth group — the ones who have all three. Beauty, intelligence, and wealth. That is the alpha tier. When those qualities converge in one person, the popularity is essentially guaranteed.

Question 3: Do you think a good teacher should become popular?

Model Answer:
The problem here is that a good teacher and a popular teacher are not the same thing — and in many cases, they are actually in tension with each other.

A popular teacher is often popular because of personality. They are entertaining, engaging, easy to like. That does not make them ineffective, but it also does not make them excellent. A truly good teacher — in the technical, measurable sense — is one who produces real results in their students. That requires focus, rigour, and sometimes a willingness to be demanding even when it makes you less likeable in the short term.

The issue with trying to be both is that you end up dividing your attention between your teaching and your persona. The most exceptional teachers — the ones who genuinely change how their students think — are almost never the ones on social media or television. They are the ones too focused on the actual work to build a public image.

Popular teachers are not necessarily bad. But the crème de la crème of the profession tends to be the ones you have never heard of. There is a reason for that.

Question 4: Why are some celebrities not popular anymore?

Model Answer:
There are two main patterns worth distinguishing.

The first is a single event that recontextualises everything that came before it. Will Smith is the clearest recent example. He had spent decades building a particular image — likeable, warm, family-friendly. One moment on live television unravelled a significant part of that. What made it so damaging was not just the act itself, but what it revealed about the gap between the persona people had invested in and the person underneath it. That kind of disillusionment is very hard to recover from. He is trying, but the older audience that grew up with him is not as forgiving.

The second pattern is more complete. Scandal after scandal, or a single revelation so serious that the entire public image collapses. Bill Cosby is the extreme version of this. He had one of the most trusted public personas in American entertainment history. When the full extent of what he had done came to light, it was not just his career that ended — people did not even want his name mentioned. That is a different category of collapse entirely.

Examiner Tips for IELTS Speaking Part 2 Popular Person

Tip 1: Explain specifically why they became popular, not just that they are. The moment of controversy or the turning point is more interesting than a general description of fame. Build around that.

Tip 2: Include a personal connection. The “clean your room” observation works because it shows the person genuinely affected your thinking. That kind of personal impact is what the examiner wants to hear.

Tip 3: For Part 3, use categories when the question is open-ended. “Four groups” gives structure to an answer that could otherwise become vague. It also signals organised thinking.

Common Mistakes on This Topic

Describing only what the person does without explaining why they are actually popular
Part 3 answers that give general opinions without any named example or specific reference
Saying “popular” repeatedly without showing what the popularity looks like in practice
Opening Part 2 with “I would like to talk about a popular person…”

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this a confirmed IELTS Speaking Part 2 topic for September–December 2025?
Yes. Describe a Popular Person appears in the official IELTS Speaking question bank for this period.

Can I describe a local or less internationally known figure?
Yes. A well-described local figure with genuine personal connection often sounds more authentic than a global celebrity described in general terms.

What if I disagree with the person I am describing?
That is fine — and often more interesting. Acknowledging complexity in how you feel about someone is a sign of mature thinking and vocabulary range.