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Describe a difficult thing you did and succeeded in: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What the difficult thing was
  • When you did it / where
  • How you did it / steps you took
  • And explain how you felt after succeeding
Show all 52 answers

Cue 1:What the difficult thing was

  • Clearly state the challenging task you undertook, making it relatable and specific.
  • Explain why this task was difficult for you personally.

Example

The difficult thing I did was preparing for the IIT JEE entrance exam. It was a significant challenge because it required extensive knowledge of physics, chemistry, and mathematics, and I had to compete with thousands of other students.

Cue 2:When you did it / where

  • Mention the time frame when you undertook this challenge, such as during your final year of school.
  • Describe the environment, like your study space or school, to give context.

Example

I started preparing for the exam in my final year of school, around January 2022. I spent most of my time studying in my room, which I had turned into a mini classroom, filled with books and notes.

Cue 3:How you did it / steps you took

  • Outline the specific steps you took to overcome this challenge, such as creating a study schedule.
  • Include any resources or support systems you utilized, like coaching classes or study groups.

Example

To tackle this challenge, I created a strict study schedule that included daily study hours, practice tests, and regular revisions. I also joined a coaching class where I could get guidance from experienced teachers and interact with fellow students.

Cue 4:And explain how you felt after succeeding

  • Describe your emotions upon achieving your goal, emphasizing the sense of accomplishment.
  • Reflect on how this success impacted your future aspirations or self-confidence.

Example

After successfully clearing the IIT JEE and securing a seat in my desired engineering college, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief and pride. It boosted my confidence and motivated me to pursue my dreams in engineering with even more determination.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, overcoming the challenge of preparing for the IIT JEE was a transformative experience for me. It taught me the value of hard work and perseverance, and I believe it has set a strong foundation for my future endeavors.

    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 Descriptions

    Avoid being too general when describing the difficult task. Vague answers can leave the examiner confused and uninterested in your story.

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    Tip

    Provide specific details about the task, including what made it difficult and the context in which you faced it.

    2: Skipping Steps

    Do not skip important steps in your explanation. Omitting details can make your answer seem incomplete and less engaging.

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    Tip

    Outline the steps you took clearly, ensuring you explain how each step contributed to your success.

    Neglecting Emotions

    Failing to express your feelings after succeeding can make your answer less impactful. Emotions help connect with the examiner.

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    Tip

    Share your feelings in detail, explaining how you felt during and after the experience to create a more compelling narrative.

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    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

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    Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
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    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    Pitampura Test Centre, New Delhi

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    I like to taste different types of cuisine. Here I would like to talk about my favorite dish at my traditional festival of Onam which is Sadya. Sadya is popular in my city. We are experimenting these cuisines on Onam festival day. Onam is a famous festival in my city. All family members get together in my home and we make a delicious Sadya. There are many ingredients includes that Sadya. Moreover, we make a big feast that day as well as we create a lot of memories together and we wear that day the traditional dress called Sari and men wear the Dhotis. That festival is really important to us because the whole day we are conducting different kinds of games at our homes and all the family members came together. It's a memorable day in my life. This is the festival. We are making the Sambar and Aviyal. These all the kinds of foods are making with the vegetables.
    Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 8

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    Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

    Answer

    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.
    Describe a time you were in a place where you didn't know the local language
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 6.5

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    Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

    Answer

    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.
    Describe a time when your friend damaged something you owned
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7

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    Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

    Answer

    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.
    Describe a book you recently read
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    CBD Belapur Test Centre, Navi Mumbai

    Answer

    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 6-7

    Since my childhood days, I have been very poor in mathematics. And so, I often used to take classes of mathematics from my teachers, from my mentors who had a very significant impact on my overall score in mathematics. The reason behind this is because of the fact that, like, I still remember I was in class 8 and my pre-boards were about to happen and on that time I had no strategy nor I had neither any good strategy nor I had a plan on how to cope up with the exam and it's obvious that you have lots of anxiety and issue, but still I managed to cope up with it because of the well-trained mentor. What they did was, in the last moment, they helped me to provide some good strategies and techniques through which I could get marks of around, like, I could score 80% in my mathematics exam. And apart from that, I think my mother, father and my siblings have motivated me a lot. Whenever I used to feel sad, like, because of bad score in mathematics, they used to help me by helping me to solve, they used to give me some puzzles which I had to solve and they used to set a timer and I just used to finish those stuffs, finishing the puzzle on time. And that also improved my mathematics skills and by the end of the semester, by the end of the results, when the results were out, I was amazed.

    Band 6-7

    When I was in school, we had to fight a cricket game against our seniors. Our teachers and supervisors had considered we were no match to the seniors and did not allow us to compete in the competition. But being the captain of the team, I knew my team had the strength, capabilities, and I had the total belief that team could beat any team in the school given their strengths. I persuaded my teachers that give us one chance to prove ourselves. Against all odds, I was able to convince the team and the teachers for giving us a chance. When the day came when we played against the 9th class students, we emerged victorious and then we were pitted against the 10th class. There were two teams in 10th class, one was English medium and another was Telugu medium. First we were pitted against the English medium school and the English medium were considered relatively easier competition compared to the Telugu team. We had beaten them as well and then we were pitted against the Telugu medium team. To the surprise and shock of everyone, we had beaten the 10th class Telugu medium as well. From that day, the perspective of teachers towards me and my friends had changed completely forever. This was a great experience. The day was filled with joy and ecstasy.

    Band 6

    One of the difficult things I have done is participating in a dancing competition. So, I know I am naturally not good at dancing, but people used to call me for some dancing competition etc. But I used to tell I am not good at that and my body is not flexible for dancing. But I had this friend who always constantly supported me to take part in dancing. She used to tell me that I should just go and participate. But I always resisted because I always thought I was not good at dancing. But there was this time when there was a shortage of one of the members in a dancing group. The group was very important to me. So, once there was a shortage, I took part in that. I practiced day and night and finally in the competition, I was able to dance. I was surprised. I never thought I would be able to, but I danced and our team won second place. I am not remembering which was exactly the prize we won, but I remember it to be second place. After that, I started participating in other dancing competitions and I used to win prize. I joined in a dancing academy and the teacher praised me. For 20 years of my life, I thought I would not be able to dance. I am not good at dancing. But a constant support from one of my friend and my need to encourage the team, I just went on for dancing. And that proved that if a person has a constant will, there is no entrance for it, just go for it. You will receive it. At any one or the other point of life, you will receive that. So, just go for it.

    Band 6

    The difficult thing I did and I succeeded in BTEC graduation. When I am starting my career in BTEC, little bit I get stressed and feel alone. All that time my brother suggest me don't get panic. It is very simple and enjoyable and entertaining education. So go with your experience and talent shown. And when I get into BTEC first year, I meet some friends. They give more energy to success my education journey. And after that four years, I completely graduated with first class. First, I think it is very difficult which I did not succeed. But end of the day, I did succeed with first class.

    Band 6

    The most difficult thing I did and succeeded in was my board preparation. I was actually an average student in my 11th grade. In 10th grade I was able to only get 80% as I am an average student but I understood how important studies and marks are for my college exam and I understood the seriousness of the studies. Then I started preparing for 12th with lots of caution. I had a goal to get good marks in my 12th grade. So I prepared so hard for that especially I am a pure science student. I took physics, chemistry and biology. Those were the core subjects in my field and in that physics was one of the most difficult paper for me and second it would be chemistry but I was able to manage chemistry as my teacher was good but physics was horrible. I was so terrorized by physics that I had one month to prepare for my physics board exam. During that one month I haven't stepped out of my room and stayed in my room for the whole one month. I just came out to eat my lunch, eat food, to go to bathroom, to drink water. Other than that I stayed in my room and studied rigorously. I was actually astonished by how dedicated I was back then.

    Band 6

    The most difficult thing I had to do and succeeded in doing was move away for my studies. I grew up in a large city known as Hyderabad, located in Telangana, and I have all of my family members living here with me. I'm extremely close to my mom and dad and also dependent, which I hadn't known until I had to move away. The time I had to move away was when I wanted to go for my higher education, focusing on culinary arts, and I had to do that in a different state, but in the same country. I was excited in the beginning, thinking of how I would make new friends and have new experiences and finally live the freedom that I never got to have. But then after I moved to Bangalore, it was a humbling experience, as I was scared and I didn't know what to do. I had to live there only for two years, but what felt like two years, what was two years felt like a longer time. And I came about that by living my day every day, counting down the days I would get to meet my family. I made new friends there and I went on touring the city and having new experiences with the friends I'd made. I realized that home is just a word that you create wherever you go. You find a home in it, if you live there long enough.

    Band 6

    I would like to talk about a difficult thing that I felt hectic as well as difficult for me. It was my project, project in my, when I did masters and the different process like collecting data, analyzing it and data categorizing, everything appeared a task for me in every matter and at that time I got assistance from my guide, along with this she helped and explained every matter to me in a, in a very simple manner and it, it gives me a sense of, a sense of accomplishment and I am doing it in a, in a way, when I did in a way she told me I succeeded and I felt proud about this since a matter that I thought never happen or never succeed or never get, get into success finally made me into success and for, I am happy, I am happy that I succeed and furthermore gave me a sense of pride and satisfaction.

    Band 6

    At first I thought coding was too hard then later I tried building the logics and once I started building the logics, I followed the syntax and I tried coding step by step and later with much practice I pursued it. But then later I felt coding wasn't much hard because with constant hard work and perseverance we can achieve anything no matter how difficult a thing is and I've succeeded in coding. I'm not completely, I'm not nailing it but I think I've achieved a bit.

    Band 6

    So, few months ago, me and my friend went out for a trip to spend our vacations in Dalhousie. On the arrival day, we just booked a hotel room and just to rest there. On the very first day of our vacation, we hired a cab and went out for trekking. On the trek, the atmosphere was so beautiful and exciting. Everywhere there is snow around us and we just reached the trek at 12 p.m. noon. We completed the trek at 12 p.m. noon. There we had a great time. We made Maggi and ate it there. After coming back from the trek, we saw that paragliding activity was done there. So, we just thought that we should also try it. When we reached there and when I started doing paragliding, it was so horrible experience of mine that I was thinking that what if I fell down, what if my parachute is not working. But after succeeding the activity, I was so so so happy that I performed paragliding. It was a memorable day for me as I have done the activity which feared me the most. So, basically I was so happy there.

    Band 5-6

    Hello, this is Shivani. I am studying biochemistry honours from Delhi University and I have taken two year drop because first year I wanted to, I wanted to prepare for NEET but I couldn't make it because I didn't want to and then one year I was kind of messed up and you know dealing with a lot of issues like some mental health and some body related issues anyways but in between last, like since last two years I have done a lot of adventures like I have been couple of trips like I went for the trekking, it was amazing, my, I slept, my leg slipped so many times and I was like oh my god am I gonna die and couple of times I was, it was hard for me to like even climb the rock, it was all in incline and I was thinking what if I'll just slip from here and I'll die because just next to me it was very thin, it was not a very wide road but and there was no barrier to protect me if I fell so yeah that was kind of fun but I made it yeah and then I went to other place and there was a lot of leeches, first of all I really hated leeches, those alien looking creatures, it literally scared the shit out of me but anyways it was kind of fun, I have that video too in my phone, I was screaming, running here and there and then yeah there was one time when I did some substances, I literally blacked out and I was like oh my god what's that like what's really going on that was
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