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Describe a goal you set that you tried your best to achieve: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What Is the Goal?
  • When did You First Begin to Have This Goal?
  • How You Would Achieve the First Step of Your Goal?
  • How Easy or Difficult Do You Think It Will Be to Reach This Goal?
Show all 100 answers

Cue 1:What Is the Goal?

  • Clearly state the goal you set for yourself, making it specific and personal.
  • Explain why this goal was important to you and what motivated you to pursue it.

Example

The goal I set was to improve my English speaking skills, particularly to achieve a band score of 7.5 in the IELTS speaking test. This goal was important to me because I wanted to pursue higher studies abroad, and a good score in IELTS was a requirement for my university applications.

Cue 2:When did You First Begin to Have This Goal?

  • Mention when you first realized you wanted to achieve this goal.
  • Share any experiences or events that influenced your decision to set this goal.

Example

I first began to have this goal during my final year of college when I attended a seminar about studying abroad. Listening to the experiences of students who had successfully gone through the process inspired me to improve my English and aim for a higher score in IELTS.

Cue 3:How You Would Achieve the First Step of Your Goal?

  • Describe the initial steps you took to start working towards your goal.
  • Include any resources or strategies you used to help you get started.

Example

To achieve the first step of my goal, I enrolled in an IELTS preparation course. I also started practicing speaking with friends who were fluent in English. Additionally, I began watching English movies and listening to podcasts to improve my vocabulary and pronunciation.

Cue 4:How Easy or Difficult Do You Think It Will Be to Reach This Goal?

  • Reflect on the challenges you anticipate facing while pursuing this goal.
  • Discuss your mindset about overcoming these challenges and staying motivated.

Example

I think reaching this goal will be quite challenging, especially since I need to practice consistently and manage my time effectively. However, I believe that with dedication and the right resources, I can overcome these difficulties. I stay motivated by reminding myself of the opportunities that a good IELTS score will open up for me.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, setting the goal to improve my English speaking skills for the IELTS test has been a significant step in my academic journey. I am committed to working hard and believe that with perseverance, I will achieve my desired score and fulfill my dream of studying abroad.

    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 Goal Description

    Avoid being unclear about your goal. A vague description can confuse the examiner and make your answer less engaging.

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    Tip

    Clearly define your goal with specific details. Explain what it is and why it matters to you.

    2: Neglecting Timeline

    Not mentioning when you started working towards your goal can make your response seem incomplete. It lacks context.

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    Tip

    Include a timeline in your answer. State when you first set the goal and any important milestones.

    Ignoring Challenges

    Failing to discuss the difficulties you faced can make your answer sound unrealistic. It’s important to show the effort involved.

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    Tip

    Talk about the challenges you encountered and how you plan to overcome them. This adds depth to your response.

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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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    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.
    Describe a time you were in a place where you didn't know the local language
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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.
    Describe a time when your friend damaged something you owned
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    Anonymous student Band 7

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    Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

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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.
    Describe a book you recently read
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    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    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 8

    One goal that I set for myself and tried my absolute best to achieve was improving my English speaking skills to a fluent level. This goal became particularly important to me about two years ago when I decided that I want to pursue higher education in an English speaking country. I realized that while my reading and writing skills were fairly strong, I lacked confidence and fluency in speaking, especially in formal or academic settings. The first step I took toward achieving this goal was enrolling in an online speaking course that focused on IELTS preparation. I made a study plan where I would practice speaking daily for at least an hour. I used a variety of materials, model answers, mocking speaking tests, and language exchange apps to stimulate real conversations. I also record myself regularly to analyze my pronunciation, grammar, and fluency. Reaching this goal was definitely challenging. At first, I was nervous and self-conscious about making mistakes, but I gradually pushed myself out of my comfort zone by joining speaking clubs and even giving short presentations in English at local events. I also received feedback from teachers and peers which helped me to improve further. In the end, although the process was demanding, I did manage to reach a level of fluency that allowed me to score an 8.5 in the speaking section of the IELTS. More importantly, I gained the confidence to express myself clearly and effectively in English. Achieving this goal not only boosted my communication skills but also opened new academic and professional opportunities for me.

    Band 7

    So, one of the most meaningful goals I have set for myself is to pursue my master's degree abroad. I have chosen Germany in the field of biomedical engineering. I set this goal during my final year of biotechnology degree when I started realising how much I wanted to work at the intersection of medical and technology. To make this happen, I started preparing step by step. I improved my academic performance. I did internships to gain relevant experience. I began studying for IELTS exam to meet the language requirements. I also researched and shortlisted universities. I got to know a lot more about scholarships and the programmes that matched my interests and my profile. It wasn't easy at first, but I somehow managed it side by side with my college work going on. What kept me motivated was the long-term dream of contributing to healthcare innovations. I have always wanted to work on medical devices that could improve people's lives and studying abroad felt like the right step towards the path. Looking back, setting this goal taught me a lot about discipline, time management, self-belief, and I'm also grateful to my friends.

    Band 7

    The goal which I recently set is to score a 9 plus GPA in my end semester exam. It was my 6th semester which is supposed to be my last semester in my bachelors degree program and it was a very tedious task because I chose one of the difficult majors out there which is physics and we had a couple of difficult papers on that semester like quantum mechanics, particle physics and astrophysics. Even though I loved this subject very much, it was very hard to score a 9 plus GPA on those papers. So the goal which I set was to achieve 9 plus GPA and I worked tirelessly for it. I scored full marks on all my internal assessments continuously which lead to build a strong foundation for my end semester and which helped to enhance my confidence to appear for end semester exam. I worked every day. I utilized my study holidays to the maximum to score 9 plus GPA and when finally the results are out, I got around 9.68 GPA on my 6th end semester exam.

    Band 7

    So my goal that I set for myself was to drop 30 kgs. I was obese. At a point of time I was 128 kilograms and that was a lot. My knees would pain, my other joints would pain and I had to make a decision to cut it down. The first step that I did in reducing my weight was to understand what the best ways are. So I started walking. Then I went into the gym. I started lifting weights. I saw that my body was actually transforming by the weights that I was lifting and the amount of steps I was getting in every day. The hardest part was actually really controlling your appetite because I love food and as a person who loves food you really cannot stop eating different kinds of tasty food. So that was the hardest part for me. While my goal was to cut down weight I also had to cut down on a lot of different type of foods. I had to start eating healthier. So that was the most difficult part for me. But once I overcame that I started to see my body rapidly transforming, getting into shape, my muscles showing before I never could see them. So it was a really really nice feeling that I was getting out of it and I aspire to be more healthy, more fit and yes just an overall fitness should be the main priority of everyone as well.

    Band 7

    I think a goal that I am still currently working on is learning French. This was in fact my New Year's resolution that I wanted to maintain a 365-day streak on Duolingo. So far I have maintained a 265-day streak, so I still do have another 100 days to go. I first began working towards this goal last December. The reason I did want to learn French was because this was a language that I did briefly learn in school. From grades 5th to 10th, French was my third language. And even though I was not able to perfect my pronunciation during that time, I did learn quite a bit in terms of grammar as well as conjugation. A lot of my friends were also practicing different languages on Duolingo, and that sort of motivated me to revisit a language that I was very fond of, which is French. I think so far I have been able to maintain a good streak on Duolingo, and hence I think I would easily be able to achieve my goal. However, there are certain days where I am very packed with work or personal commitments, and that time it becomes a little difficult to be able to spend enough time learning this language. However, I think the vast range of features that Duolingo presents definitely makes it easier for anyone to be able to learn a language on it. Duolingo also allows us to maintain streaks with our friends, and I think that's a very cute experience, because every time I forget to practice French, a friend of mine would just nudge me, and then the app would send me a push notification to remind me to take my session for the day. So yes, that's the goal that I am currently working on.

    Band 7

    A goal that I set for myself and I'm trying to achieve hard is securing a PhD position in organic synthesis. I've had this dream since 2021 ever since I started working in laboratories as part of my curriculum. I can proudly say that I've already achieved the first step towards this goal that is securing internships projects etc in reputed laboratories in our country and I'm delighted to say that I've in fact moved a bit more further in terms of this goal because I recently attended a very prestigious international conference along with Nobel laureates which means that I'm way closer to this goal than I expected to be. I would say it is very difficult to achieve this because it is something that is extremely competitive that I'm aiming for and especially if my plan is to move abroad for a PhD it is even more difficult because I have to go through a lot of bias before hiring happens actually including international and even based on gender.

    Band 7

    A goal that I tried my best to achieve would be to land a job in Ikea. From a very young age, I used to frequently visit Ikea with my parents. As a result of that, I developed this liking towards designing furniture and interior products. Moreover, I even did my Bachelors in Product Design because of this dream. I really worked very hard to get to this and today I am writing this IELTS exam to get a Masters in Product Design as well so that I can achieve my dream of landing a job in Ikea. So yeah, overall my goal is to land a job in Ikea as it has been a very childhood dream of mine.

    Band 7

    The goal that I wanted to achieve was to complete my project within three months. So I recently started working in a lab which is Neuronal Systems Lab in University of Hyderabad and the project that I'm dealing with is based on behavioral neuroscience. So I joined this lab during April and I could actually take a lot of time to complete it but I did want to set a goal in my head so that it wouldn't be dragged and my university applications are also coming ahead and I wanted to have a perfect story that I could present in front of my panel when they asked for it. So what I did was every day I used to go to the lab, work day and night to get my results and I think I did a pretty decent job. I was able to complete the project within two and a half months. Along with it I was also able to attend a summer school along with my project which was for one month and right now I do have a perfect story which I can present in front of my panel and I feel really good about it that I was able to plan it and I was able to follow up with my planning.

    Band 7

    My goal is to become a biophysicist and research how biomolecules in our body work and how they bring about various functions. So I had this, I always wanted to become a scientist since I was a kid. I was gifted a, I was gifted an autobiography of Einstein and ever since I fell in love with science and research, I, however, I decided to become a biophysicist when I entered college and took courses on biophysics and statistical mechanics and I decided that this is the field for me. I, like here you can use different domains of study, combine them and apply them to solve complex problems and I really love that approach. This, the first step to achieving this is to obtain a PhD in biophysics which I am trying to do. I have taken courses on biophysics, computational science and math to help me build a strong foundation. I have done research projects and internships to help me, to allow me to gain real world exposure and real world experience in research and all this will help me become a good researcher.

    Band 7

    A goal I set for myself was to complete my UI UX design course and build a strong portfolio. Even though I had no prior experience in design, I committed myself to learning every day, practicing different tools, and working on real projects like EduKids and FinAce. I faced challenges, especially balancing family responsibilities and learning, but I stayed consistent. I asked for feedback, improved my designs, and kept refining my portfolio. I may not have reached perfection yet, but I have my best effort and have grown a lot in the process. Thank you for watching!
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