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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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    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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    Anonymous student Band 8

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    Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

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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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    Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

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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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    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 7

    Affected by my lethargic lifestyle, my mother tried to get me into a healthier mindset and a little more, a much more active lifestyle. So I was sent to yoga classes where I would try to achieve certain poses or at least get to a regular sort of routine. There was one pose that I was excellent at doing when I was little, but I realized that I wasn't able to do at all as an adult. I realized this around three years ago and this sort of devastated me because this was something I was able to do. I was excellent at it. I was able to do even more advanced stuff back then. But knowing that this is something I wanted to get to motivated me greatly to keep trying hard and learning from all the other people who are much older than me and also getting to do yoga for the first time. I realized how tough it would be to learn this as a grown-up with stiffer muscles, joints than for a little child to have done it when they were young and I grew to appreciate the pose. So the pose is the full wheel or chakrasana and it is indeed an advanced pose, but to me it was something to go back to. So I did get to achieve the goal after about a year of consistent practice and that is something I am proud of.

    Band 7

    Well, that's a great question and quite relatable with my life. Being an introvert, I don't prefer to interact with majority of individuals, but I remember when I was practicing for my sport alone in a separate compartment of my gym, I remember my senior come and then he showed me his strength and brutally defeat me. That was a frustrating and irritating moment for me, however, I was able to overcome that situation by keeping my mindset mentally stable. From that day, I have decided that I have to beat that particular individual in his sport, so from that day, I start training and include a lot of diet changes in my daily routine, supplementation, as well as I hire an online coach from Kazakhstan because I have to improve significantly and defeat that particular individual in less time. It was a difficult task for me throughout the period because it took nearly 3 years of dedication for me, but instead of being demotivated, I start training again and again and improving myself, polishing my skills. In the end, I was able to defeat that particular individual in a state championship and won gold medal. That was a satisfying moment for me, I felt over the moon.

    Band 7

    My goal in life is to become a healthcare innovator and make products which are useful both to people and the healthcare society. This goal started in me during the year 2023 when I joined my master's degree. So slowly I started developing interest in research and especially on wearables. I progressed myself by doing a lot of projects and patents in this area. I also stepped out of my comfort zone, went to a different institution where I could help myself learn a lot of things regarding research, the lab environment, collaboration, talking with a lot of high-tech people and also interacting with people who are already having startups. My end goal is not definitely to have a startup but then I have to be a part of a startup or a company that provides or produces products which are affordable as well as which are useful and innovative in healthcare domain. So as a first step towards it, I have decided to pursue my doctoral degree to further my research in this domain. I make sure that I learn a lot during the process and also think about the industry aspect of every research I am doing. So I think I'll be definitely able to reach this goal at least in the next 10 years. For this, I'll make sure that I stay focused and put in a lot of effort to never go out of the way or forget this goal.

    Band 7

    The goal of my life is to get admission in PSD, to get that particular title doctor in my name, which I totally find too much, you can say, thrilling. It's a difficult journey, it's a difficult phase of the month, it's been a difficult year preparing for that particular title, the exams are getting tougher day by day, the level of preparation is getting tougher day by day. So, the best thing I am doing to achieve my goal is not letting myself stop or getting demotivated by the previous results, but by preparing more and more and being optimistic that yeah, I can do it, I can achieve it, I am not stopping in the midway. You can say, I am not giving up in achieving my dreams, I will achieve my dreams, I know that one day will come when I will have that title with me, that doctor title with me, for that I will do all the things I can do or you can say, I will make sure that I will achieve that goal. There may be obstacles, there may be days when I will feel sad, there will be days when I will feel that yeah, this is getting too much tough, it's okay, I can take rest for that particular day and I can start a new from next day, I can start studying for new topics, I can start doing more practices from that day. It's okay to take a rest for one day or two days when you are feeling tired, you are not feeling positive, but make sure to start a new or you can say, make sure to be optimistic next day so that you can achieve your dreams.

    Band 7

    One of the most challenging and rewarding goal I set for myself was to successfully organize fit to present Sanskrit 2025, the annual cultural fest of JEEU as one of the general convenors. Firstly I set this goal when I was conversed in a JEEU meeting to the position last year. I wanted to make the event memorable for thousands of students and seniors while ensuring everything ran smoothly and within budget. Secondly to achieve this I coordinated with multiple teams including collecting funds, logistics, publicity, cultural performance, band booking etc. I held regular meetings, delegated responsibilities and ensured constant communication. Managing such a large-scale event required not only planning skills but also quick decision-making especially when unexpected issues arose and also needful negotiation ability. Moreover balancing this responsibility with my professional work and personal commitments was a real test of my time management. There were moments of stress but seeing the event comes alive with music, performances and a vibrant atmosphere was worth every bit of the effort. To conclude although it was exhausting at times the success of Sanskrit 2025 gave me immense satisfaction. It strengthened my leadership, organizational and interpersonal skills qualities that will help me in my engineering career and also it gave me more confidence for higher studies in Germany in my future.

    Band 7

    So, one goal that I have always had is, not always but yeah, since I was a kid in my 8th and 7th grade, I had this goal of going abroad and settling abroad and I have been working towards making that a reality. I have got one way as of right now to make my goal a reality and that is going abroad for a master's education and then trying to convert that into a job offer and then staying there. I know there are hiccups to that due to the visa situation, especially in USA. I don't have a particular affinity for USA but I would rather prefer to stay in Europe where the work culture is a lot calmer and not hectic. Right now the situation is kind of bleak because everywhere the job markets are very bad in the admission process and there is a tighter security on the immigration but I feel that if I have this dream and I want to achieve that at any cost then I should be putting more effort in getting closer to my dream and that's what I've been trying to do for the last few months.

    Band 7

    From past 5 years, I am interested in creating content and I want to become a content creator who markets digital products like journals, workbooks or e-books related to personal development. So I started a theme page almost 2 years ago and it got enough views, a good reach, good amount of followers but the only problem was I was never able to understand the exact algorithm in which I have to upload these videos. So I started taking help from AI, Instagram creators and many other YouTubers. Then I got a lot of knowledge about these things and I started a new page again about women empowerment and I continue to upload videos related to that particular topic. Now my particular goal is to sell my e-books and make a good amount of income from that and make it one of my income sources.

    Band 7

    This summer, I organized a carnival fundraiser for my NGO and we set a goal of a minimum fundraising limit of 50,000 rupees by the end of the summer. The goal setting and reaching began with planning the event, hooking up with venues and finding partners for our collaboration. It was a grueling task and we had to corroborate with many of the volunteers that wanted to step out. So the goal was very challenging in this way where I had to communicate with different teams to promote this event so that people would register and we would actually start collecting funds. However, as time progressed, I found myself losing confidence in achieving any fundraising at all and my friends came in to support me and they brought in registrations, they brought in venues and they brought in startups that we wanted to support. So in the end, our goal extended to more than just the money collected, it extended to the amount of exposure that we got in terms of publicity and it extended to the amount of people that were touched by our initiative to raise funds for a generator at one of our connected charitable trusts. In this way, I've grown from accepting that goal to finding ways to achieve it and in the end, we did manage to secure 10,000 more than what our set goal was. So I feel that the main task that helped me accomplish this achievement was finding out ways that everyone could collaborate together and finding out ways that I could empower myself in believing that this could be achieved.

    Band 7

    One important goal I set for myself was to achieve a high score in the IELTS exam, especially a band score of 8. I decided on this goal about 6 months ago when I realized that I needed a strong English score to apply for a higher education abroad. At first, I wasn't confident because I hadn't spoken English regularly in daily life, but I was determined to work hard and improve. The first step I took was to understand the exam format properly. I watched many videos, read sample questions, and downloaded free practice materials. I also joined an online coaching program to get structured guidance. The journey has not been easy. I had to balance my work life with my study time. There were days when I felt tired or unmotivated, but I reminded myself of my goal and pushed through. I also practiced speaking with friends and writing essays every week to build my confidence. I believe reaching this goal is challenging but not impossible. With regular practice and dedication, I feel I am getting closer to it day by day. Once I achieve my target score, it will open doors to new opportunities in education and career. So yes, it's difficult, but definitely worth it.

    Band 7

    When I was a child, I had this goal of dancing or learning classical dance. Most forms of dance I wanted to learn. I had this goal in my mind when I was a child. And it started, it was not that difficult for me because I had my parents who supported me, who sent me to classes of classical dance. And that's how I learned and accomplished my goal. I practiced on my own as well. When I used to come back home after my classes, I used to do practice. And that's how I achieved my goal. So yes, it was difficult for me to be consistent on the days I really feel tired and goofy. But yes, I tried to have a mindset of that I want to do this and I want to achieve this. So yes, that's how I did achieve my goal and I do do dancing now. Now I do both hip-hop and classical and I do many forms of dances now as well. That's how I achieved my goal. Thank you.
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