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Describe A Difficult Decision That You Made And Had A Good Result: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What was the decision?
  • When did you make the decision?
  • How long did it take you to make the decision?
  • Explain why it was a difficult decision to make.
Show all 93 answers

Cue 1:What was the decision?

  • Clearly state the decision you made, providing context about the situation.
  • Mention the potential outcomes of the decision to highlight its significance.

Example

The difficult decision I made was to leave my stable job in a multinational company to pursue my passion for photography. I had been working there for over three years, and while it provided financial security, I felt unfulfilled.

Cue 2:When did you make the decision?

  • Specify the time frame when you made this decision, such as a particular month or year.
  • Share any relevant events that led up to this decision to give it more context.

Example

I made this decision in early 2022, after attending a photography workshop that reignited my passion. The workshop made me realize that I wanted to turn my hobby into a career.

Cue 3:How long did it take you to make the decision?

  • Discuss the duration it took you to arrive at this decision, emphasizing any internal conflict.
  • Mention any discussions you had with friends or family that influenced your decision-making process.

Example

It took me about two months to make this decision. I spent countless nights weighing the pros and cons, and I also spoke to my family and friends, who encouraged me to follow my dreams.

Cue 4:Explain why it was a difficult decision to make.

  • Describe the fears or concerns you had about making this decision.
  • Explain how the fear of failure or uncertainty contributed to the difficulty of the decision.

Example

This was a difficult decision because I was afraid of financial instability and the fear of failing in a competitive field. Leaving a secure job felt risky, and I worried about what others would think of my choice.

Conclusion

    Example

    In the end, I took the leap and started my own photography business. It was challenging at first, but I am now thriving and feel more fulfilled than ever. This decision taught me the importance of following my passion and believing in myself.

    Following this structure will ensure you cover all the essential points while providing a clear and engaging response to the cue card topic.

    Tips to answer this Cue Card

    1: Vague Responses

    Providing vague or unclear answers can make it difficult for the examiner to understand your experience. Specific details help create a clearer picture of your decision-making process.

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    Tip

    Use specific examples and details when describing your decision to make your response more engaging and informative.

    2: Rushing Through the Explanation

    Rushing through your explanation can lead to missing important points. It may also make your answer sound unstructured and less convincing.

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    Tip

    Take your time to explain each cue clearly, ensuring you cover all aspects of the decision-making process.

    Neglecting Emotional Impact

    Ignoring the emotional aspects of your decision can make your response less relatable. Emotions often play a significant role in difficult decisions.

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    Tip

    Include how you felt during the decision-making process to add depth and connect with the examiner.

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    Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood
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    Anonymous student Band 8

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    The toy which I liked in my childhood was a panda doll, which makes me pleasant and makes me more blush. The pandas are the most beautiful creatures of the world, which looks gigantic and has pooshy cheeks and they are like stars in the clouds and they dream in me. Furthermore, these have been given by my father. My father is a very very beautiful artistic person, who makes me think of that. Every day you will face every difficulties and make you suffer and move forward. Pandas are always seen in Japanese countries. It is my lifelong dream to visit a Japanese country and click a photo with the original pandas, which makes sounds better.
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    Anonymous student Band 6.5

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    As India is a very large country full of diversity, so there are many places which have their own language and speak their native language. The place which I visited and I didn't know about their language was Leladakh, which is about 300 km away from my hometown and it is a very good place as it consists of different kind of trees, animals and have many scenic views and I visited over there last year in summers as it was the best time to visit because it has many, it was cold over there and we had summers in our area so it was the best time to visit over there and I went over there with my whole family.
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    When I was a kid, I had a little pencil box which had these four buttons which gave the pencil box an operative use. When you press the button, the box would open up. When you press the second button, a little part of it would slide out. Basically it was just a little electronical and a fun thing to have and I owned it when I was in 6th. One day after break, I was standing and talking there with one of my friends and another friend of mine was running through the hallway and accidentally she pushed my shoulder and my pencil box hit the ground and it broke into multiple pieces to the point that it was not functional anymore.
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    It Ends With Us is a book I read recently. It's by the author Colleen Hoare. It's mainly a story about two teenagers, Atlas and Lily, and how they just handle their life going through high school, adolescence, and just domestic violence at home. Both of them come from very, very different families. However, they have one common determining factor between them, which is domestic violence. The abuse that they've seen their moms go through is just insane, and they connect through that on a different level. They're actually in the same high school, but they never speak to each other until Atlas actually crashes into an empty house next to Lily's villa. When Atlas is homeless and he doesn't have anywhere to go, he just comes and breaks into the house next to Lily's, and Lily helps him with all the daily necessities like clothes and food, medicines and stuff. Furthermore, their friendship blossoms into love, but it doesn't really fructify as Atlas has to leave. This book really gave me a lot of knowledge about domestic abuse and how to deal with it.

    All Answers

    Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

    Band >7

    One of the most difficult decisions I made was switching my career focus from traditional engineering to AI and machine learning in IOT. This happened about a year ago when I realized that AI is transforming industries and I wanted to be a part of that change. However, it was a tough decision because I had no prior experience in AI or ML and I knew it would require a lot of effort to learn new skills and transition into a different field. I spent several months researching, taking online courses, and working on projects to gain hands-on experience. There were moments of doubt because I wasn't sure if I could succeed in a completely new domain. However, I stayed persistent and eventually I started working on real-world AI or ML projects related to IOT security and optimization. The result was incredibly rewarding. Not only did I gain valuable knowledge, but I also got the opportunity to contribute to innovating solutions in AI and IOT. Looking back, I am glad I took the risk because it opened up better career opportunities and allowed me to work on something I truly passionate about.

    Band 7

    One of the most difficult decisions of my life was to choose between a data science major or an architecture major. So I was right out of high school not knowing anything about real-life skills. That is the time when I came across both of these dreams and realized that my skill set aligns really well with architecture. So architecture is an art and math major which combines the beauty of design along with structural knowledge. I leveraged my problem solving skills as well as my passion for design and art into something cumulative that would give me great results. I've worked well on developing my skill set which had to be quite diversified because of the great amount of knowledge that we need to have for a particular design. I did spend my time reading a lot of structural books, reading a lot of art books but at the end it did have a good result. I ended up scoring a lot better than what I used to in my high school. It helped me develop the real-life skills and it helped me to get into a great firm. It took me about two years to decide but once the results were out I could clearly see the difference between what it could have been and what it became.

    Band 7

    If I want to talk about, there was a football match which was happening in our school, it was a tournament between the under 17 teams of Valsad. And I remember that the tournament was going really well for us, we had won three matches and now we were about to go in the final. But before the final match, in the second last match, I got a really bad injury on my right foot. And the question was that will I be able to play or not in the final. I was a very good player of my team, so my coach had given me two options. One was to actually go and play in the match with all the pain or either take rest and let my foot recover. It was a very quick decision to take as we needed to make the starting 11 team. So I took the decision to actually play in the game with all the pain as it was the last match and I had to give all in and I was ready for it. The match ended with us winning, I actually didn't score a goal but I did give a winning assist in the match. And in that match I felt like if I would have not decided to go and play, the game's result would have been affected because of me. And I think that was one good and difficult decision that I had to make in my life which resulted in a good ending.

    Band 7

    The difficult decision I took was moving out of my home, because as I come from a conservative background, in my entire family they never allow women to work. I came out of my home for my work and it took a really emotional rollercoaster for me because I was in no contact with my parents for more than a year because they never allowed me to go to another city for work. So I fought with them and I moved out. I am not going to regret that decision because now they understand the importance of women working in this generation.

    Band 7

    In 2023, when I was working in a horticultural company, it was probably a dream job. But before joining that position, I wanted to study master's on food science. So the master's that I wanted to study was completely different from what I was working on. So it was a pretty difficult decision because I wanted a personal growth, and I also wanted to get more exposure. However, my sister helped me to make that decision, to stand with that decision. Because one day she told me that even though this is a dream job, you don't want to be in the same place stuck for your whole life or maybe the 10-20 years. So I think it is the best age that you should go out and explore more things. Maybe you will find more things. Maybe you will find another dream job. So I think from that day onwards, I thought that, okay, whatever decision I make, I don't know if it's going to be wrong or right. But if I stick to it and make it work, it will probably turn out to be a good decision. And I went ahead and got my degree on food science. And I think it was one of the best things I did for my personal development, for my career, because now I have expertise in both food and agriculture. So if I see the market right now, it's really vulnerable. So if I have experience in both these degrees, I probably will find a job.

    Band 6-7

    A difficult decision that I made and actually turned out to be a very good decision because of the results it gave me was staying away from home because I had to attend a college in a city which was far from mine. And this decision was taken four years ago where I had to come to a conclusion and choose between two colleges, one in the same city as mine and one far away from it. Being a person who has lived their life always with their family from the beginning, it was very difficult for me to even think about living away from them and being alone is something I fear of and I always love having people around me, especially when I'm home. So shifting to college in a new atmosphere with new people around, it was something very challenging but I actually took up the challenge and made sure that we need to grow and it is important for me to stay away from home in order to learn and become more independent. At first I couldn't even cook myself and the cleaning and everything was done by the house help at home but once I was in college I had to stay in a hostel which actually made me work from cooking to cleaning, everything was done by myself. Also the fact that staying with random people who now are my best friends is a very good result of such a difficult and important decision of my life and hence I'm really grateful for the decision I've made and it did take me two months to actually come to this decision after considering all the possible options and pros and cons that this could give me.

    Band 6-7

    A difficult decision which I had to made was after my 12th standard, when I need to choose between either between gap year for intensive coaching for a medical entrance exam or to pursue a graduate degree. Pursuing a graduate degree is generally is the most common and easy option for each and every one of us, but taking a gap year comes with risk and fear of failure, but I didn't let that fear overcome my happiness and dream. I analyzed the situation and had this courage that I need to pursue MBBS in future, so I took a gap year, I devoted what year for practice and hard work, though I faced many challenges, I didn't give up and continued my path of preparation for medical entrance. As a result, I passed the exam with good grades and got admission into MBBS which was my dream. I feel that even if it is difficult at a moment to decide between our goal and the easier option, we should go with our goal so that we don't regret it in the later life. I feel that this decision had made me really strong and it was the best decision of my life till date.

    Band 6-7

    A decision that I have taken after passing my 12th or you can say after completing my schooling is to go for engineering. I have done that and like I've gone to some private institute since I'm not able to clear government exams at that point of time and after one year as the COVID happens and all the colleges were shut down so I have to come back to school or come back to home and while coming back I've realized can I give another chance to my government exam. I gave another chance to my exams and I qualified it as well so it was a tough decision for me to take like to go either for a government institute or to continue with the same private institution since I have paid a lot of fees over there and to complete my undergraduation at the private institute but like since my parents convinced me and my sister convinced me to to go for a government institute as it was a much offers much greater placements and much greater knowledge over there so I have choose to go for a government exam. It happened just after COVID ends like and it was not difficult not only for me but as well as for my family as well as my whole career was going to depend on this decision and which stream I was going to take it like in my private institution I was pursuing computer science but in my next one you can say government examination I tried to get electronics and communication engineering as I was keen interest toward it so that this decision mainly has a drastic change in my life so I have to like very cautious about this.

    Band 6-7

    After my 12th, I decided to move to the larger city like metro city and to do my college there. Therefore, it provided me many opportunities to get work or to get a good exposure to study in a good university. It was a very hard decision to leave my family and go to a completely new city and get my own place and live alone, but it was quite difficult. Still, it gave me a good result and a good university.

    Band 6-7

    A difficult decision that I had made and had a good result is moving from the outskirts of the city to the centre. A difficult decision that I had made and had a good result is moving from the outskirts of the city to the centre. I have been living in the outskirts for nearly 12 years and 3 years back I made the most toughest decision to relocate. Actually it was not a sudden decision, it took almost years of planning, but we were having some skepticism regarding the new location and all that, but 3 years back it was time for me to enroll in a college, so there were not many well known universities in the outskirts, so definitely I have to move to the city where I have lot of opportunities. So that was the main factor behind us to move to the city and it was really difficult for an array of reasons, firstly I have been born and brought up in that place, so I am emotionally connected to it and I can say the place is an extended version of my personality and also there is all the good memories spending with my family, secondly living there in the backdrop of picturesque hills, luscious valleys and verdant landscapes had brought a cathartic effect in my life, which is not available
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