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Up to 2 minutes on one topic — how not to run out at 40 seconds
Most students run out of things to say around 40 seconds into Part 2 — long before the 2 minutes are up. Here’s what actually fills the time.
The real problem: not vocabulary, but depth
Running dry at 40 seconds isn’t usually a vocabulary problem — it’s answering only the bullet itself instead of developing it. “How often you go there” answered as “most weekends” is one sentence, not the 30 seconds it needs.
Developing “how often you go there”
Most weekends.
Most weekends, usually Saturday morning before it gets busy — I try to go early because that’s when it’s quietest, which is really the whole reason I like it.
Add a specific detail to every bullet
A name, a time, a person, a number — one concrete detail per bullet turns a one-line fact into several seconds of real speech, and it’s the single easiest way to extend an answer.
Explain why, not just what
The cue card’s last bullet is almost always an “explain why” — that’s usually the richest 30 seconds of the whole answer if you actually reason it out, instead of repeating a fact from an earlier bullet.
If you finish early, add one more detail
Running short is better than running silent — if you’ve covered all 4 bullets with time left, add one more specific detail or a brief related thought rather than stopping.
DEB
4 things to know about filling the full 2 minutes