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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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    All Answers

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

    Band 6-7

    One of the difficult decisions that I had to take, I would say was choosing between whether to pursue a degree, my bachelor's in medical or whether to pursue in engineering. The reason that it was very difficult for me was that my father was willing, wanted me to take up engineering as my higher studies. But my mother was very much interested and very much wanted me to take up medical. In the end, I decided to go with engineering and I would say that it turned out really good as in my later years, in my fourth year when pursuing electronics engineering, I started with a project that was implementation of SNN on FPGA. In this project, I had incorporated biomedical signals into my model and that allowed me to open up a new line for my master's that would be in biomedical engineering and this allowed me to somewhat be in between of both medical and engineering branches. In that project, I remember we faced a lot of problems. One of the biggest problem that we faced was of not having enough GPU, we were running our code on Kaggle, but there was a runtime limitation of 12 hours on it. So we had to buy a pro version of Google Colab and that was also very difficult because in India, the Google Colab version was not available.

    Band 6-7

    Hi, so beginning with this incident happened back in 2022 when I was in the final year of my bachelors. After the completion of COVID, I had one year left of my bachelor course to study and get distinction. Apparently, two semesters were left over. I tried my best to get good grades. Furthermore, I along with my friends decided that we will focus on having a group study. Collectiveness and group study will always help us. But a major issue for me at that time was traveling to far off place and leaving at a totally different location just for reading. Also as COVID had passed recently because of the pandemic, it was fearful to stay out of home leaving at an unknown place and studying. But I and one of my friends, we decided to sacrifice few of this comfort of home and work hard, study and get good marks. All praise and thanks to our curator who helped a lot in getting good results. I almost lived for more than 20 days out of my home and worked at a different location and it was a totally unknown place to me. Thereby, I along with my friends studied hard and when the results came, I and all my family members all were happy that I got distinction in my bachelor's.

    Band 6-7

    Okay, so one of the most difficult decision which I took in a recent past would be to start exercising. Now, it's a good thing that I started working out more but I would rather say it was a very difficult decision because I am someone who is inherently lazy. I like to sit on bed, rot on the couch the entire day, sit on a desk, do my work on the computer and not move an inch. I would even ask people to bring things to me instead of moving or going there. So yeah, it was indeed a very challenging task for me to decide that I have to move around a much and I have to start exercising. It took me quite a while and a lot of pushing from my friends, from my family but finally one day I chose to like, no, it's no more, I would start working out tomorrow. And ever since I have been doing, I feel more free, I feel less fatigued at times and it gives me a better, it helps me be in a better mood throughout the day. Along with, ever since I started working out, I have started being, I have been more engaged in outdoor activities. I go on hiking, I go on trekking with my friends, I go swimming, bicycling around and yeah, it gives me a lot more, brings a lot more activeness in my life which was previously missing and yeah, certainly brings a lot of health benefits associated with it. If I have, thinking back, if the decision now does not feel as difficult as it was but the time I made it and the situations were like that or the environmental pressures were such that it was really a tough decision for me to make.

    Band 6-7

    A difficult decision that makes me struggle in starting but had a good result at the end. I will say sleeping on time and waking up on time is really difficult for me as I used to scroll all day on Instagram and the release thing. So my dopamine levels were really high at the time when I scrolled and I can't sleep properly so I've seen a pattern in which I was awake till 3am and I think that's the time when I decided to quit all this thing and I've decided a new sleep cycle in which I used to wake up at 6am and will sleep at around 11pm. By this I think I've improved my discipline and I think this is the only essential thing in our life to do some things on time because when we wake up on time I think all other things will be on the same time for example my digestion, my mood, my everything around me is going on time so I really enjoy living it. So now I can't go back to my 3am sessions at night but yeah it improves very much in me and I think everyone should try it once for just 15 days and we all can see changes in ourselves. Thank you.

    Band 6-7

    term fun Friday so after so every every month there is a lot and two names of analysts are drawn from that which will be potential candidates to host the event so last month I got my name drawn at the lot and I was given the choice if I want to host the event being an introvert it was it is very difficult for me to interact with such huge number of people and in the event I will be hosting around I was supposed to host around 100 to 150 people and it was quite a daunting task for me however I took a leap of faith and I decided that I need to face my fears and personally develop myself so I agreed to the terms and I agreed to host the event for at starting I was very nervous like in how to organize the event and of that scale I was very scared but I took some steps I began practicing practicing hosting for two to three weeks prior and every day I would ask my seniors and and for their feedback if my presentation or hosting skills are good I took knowledge from various articles and YouTube videos and in the fateful day I decided to test myself and I performed quite well I even received

    Band 6-7

    personality growth in my life I took decision to make people cut off from my life who don't respect me value me and fake people especially I don't make friends now I only make friends when I will trust them fully if they are trustworthy I tried them first if they can become my friends in reality or they will become fake friends so I try to maintain some distance from people I said colleagues is colleagues and relatives are relatives and I now I don't trust people easily this really helps me to grow in my life personally and I really see growth in my personality this decision has changed my life totally now I am a different person

    Band 6-7

    An important or difficult decision that I made was after my 12th class I choose fine arts as my career option. So I decided to take bachelor's degree in fine arts after my high school. I got 100 out of 100 marks in my painting as I choose an additional subject in my 12th class. After that I gained confidence and I was on seventh heaven when I got these marks. So I decided that I will made up my career and future in this in this fine arts course only. So I opted bachelor's of fine arts degree but it was a little confusing also for me and for my parents also as it was a new course for us.

    Band 6-7

    One of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make is making a career switch. After completing my degree in commerce and working in a data-heavy back-end role in audits at PwC, I decided to switch careers into something that was more creative in the fashion and marketing industry. I realised that the job I was in was something that I was passionate about. I was always more drawn to more creative areas and this was a very difficult decision to make because it was completely different from my area of specialisation which was finance. Marketing was just one of my minor subjects in college and making that jump was sort of like a risky leap but it was finally worth it.

    Band 6-7

    ...and have a good background. The fuck? Okay, the most difficult time in my life to take a decision, to make a decision, which pretty much had a very good result, was when I was pursuing my degree and I had to choose between two streams, which was biology and commerce. And both had nothing to do with each other. And I ended up choosing both of them and it was kind of hectic for my schedule to cope up with both the degrees. I used to run from this end of the city to the other, which also made a big difference in my daily schedule. And it was very hard for me to cope up with it. I also ended up having some health issues. But it was a very good decision, so now I have enough knowledge about both the streams and both the backgrounds.

    Band 6-7

    After completion of my graduation, I also thought to get a job like others in a good reputed company. I tried my best, but I am an average student. I can tell you that I am a below average student. I also thought, why will I not get a job like others. I tried, tried a lot and tried a lot. I entered into a BPO and after that entered into some other small, small, small scale companies. After that, I made a decision that I need to go for a coaching for 6 months. It's like around 4 to 5 lakhs of investment I need to, I mean it's a tuition fee. If we are not going to get, just they will train us, they will not give a job. Just they will train us. By the training, we need to change our, what we say, technology and everything and we need to enter into a job. With their, they will be like a backbone for us. 6 months of training. Ours is like very small, small, like daily wages labor. My dad is daily wages. Entering into a software industry is very difficult. But after entering there, I did it. I did it and I went into a reputed company. I got starting, starting only 50k per month. My parents were happy and I am happy. My life got settled there. Yeah, it's very, very big decision which I made in my career. So, it is giving me a good opportunity. It gave me a good opportunity. And now I am in a good position. That helped me now to...
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