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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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    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

    My goal is to secure a master's seat in the United States of America or National University of Singapore in Singapore. My first step to achieve this goal is to give my IELTS exam which is an English speaking test because it is mandatory. Although my scores are great and according to the consultancy people my grades are decent with good publications and co-authorship. I am still under confident because I have always had anxiety about entrance exams. For the applications I need two letter of recommendations, one statement of purpose and I have to make sure that my professors are willing to give these forms for me. Because I don't know how much they know me and I am very unsure if they will be ready to give this. Honestly speaking I feel like the first step to achieve this goal is set but being confident that I can achieve it is the only way I can actually secure this. Although under confidence and overwhelming nature is very usual when such things happen in life. I am trying to focus on my goal only without any distractions. When I achieve it I think I will be very grateful to God and my hard work because without effort you can't secure anything. Furthermore I will be very grateful for my parents to give me the financial support in all of these. I will be willing to contribute to my country with whatever I achieve.

    Band 6-7

    I am a person who loves to create and maintain a proper timetable for achieving goals. Now, nowadays, I made a goal to achieve the IELTS examination. And I also prepared well for this. Even though everyone tried to attend this exam, I started working for this when I completed my undergraduation. Moreover, this exam is very important for my post-graduation studies in UK. As we all know, international students must achieve a good band in IELTS examination.

    Band 6-7

    Personal development in a person's life is very important as one has to maintain himself to develop, personally for my personal development physically I am talking, in 2023 first I set a goal for myself to be 70 kgs and I achieved that but not in just 2024, I achieved that in later 2024 and then now my current goal is to be 82 kgs because it is good, it is a good weight for my height and then I will lose 2 or 3 kgs to maintain my physique and in this my main goal would be not to gain fat and gain some lean muscles, it would be difficult for me to do this as I would be travelling a lot in this year so but I will try my best to gain the muscle, personal development also includes you to maintain your routine, your hygiene, your habits, one should definitely have a fixed schedule or routine to develop health.

    Band 6-7

    I would say dancing or becoming a classical dancer is one of the goals that I tried my best to achieve. I started during my schooling. Yes, it is very difficult to achieve this goal because in this torture to become a classical dancer I have to learn the balance and the steps as well as my dancing, which is difficult during my exams. Thank you for watching!

    Band 6-7

    personal development is very crucial to everyone personal development consist of communication, behavior and attire if the personal development in everyone's will leads to getting a good job in a good position or good company if you are developing your personality you will get the good priority among the people for example if you are from rural area you are going to interview for a company so at that time you have to improve your communication which is very essential for communicating with HR and another one example if you are from metropolitan cities you have to maintain your formal attire while you are going to a company so the personal development is really important to college students and the engineers and the employees college students are developing their personality from the second year of their academic and the employees should grow their personality at the time of placing in the company day by day so personal development is the key feature of the success if you are having a good personality you will get the success very easily it's a piece of cake to achieve a milestone so personal development is very hard at the time of

    Band 6-7

    My goal was to become a Chartered Accountant and I started to prepare when I was studying 11th Standard and I didn't achieve any goal related to that but I'm still preparing to that Chartered Accountant and I hope that I cleared the Chartered Accountant easily and I didn't have any resources to study that but after I completed that role I would become a Chartered Accountant This is a goal I set and I tried to best achieve my goal Thank you for watching!

    Band 6-7

    A goal that I am still keeping in my mind is to crack the entrance exam for the medical test and I am still preparing for it and I really want to crack it. To be honest, watching television series about hospitals and doctors really made me want to become a doctor and these hospital dramas really motivated me to keep going, to become determined and to be consistent in what I am doing right now. I think it has really helped in my preparation and it is still really helping me in my preparation and I have heard people saying consistency is the key when it comes to competitive exams and when it comes to the preparation for it and I really do think the same right now because consistency really makes us think that it is not working or we may feel like the way that we are learning this thing is not working but at the end of the day all these little things matter and the effort that you put would definitely show in your result. I think that is something that made me set a goal and I am trying my best to achieve it.

    Band 6-7

    I woke up after an eternal slumber at 10 a.m. on Sunday and I felt that my entire day schedule is disturbed. I planned to go for a cricket match with my friends on morning 5 a.m. and I missed that. After that, my plan is to go to gym at 8 a.m. and finish my workout by 10 and reach home to have a wonderful breakfast which consists of a French toast and bacon. But I couldn't do that because I was not having a proper sleep cycle and which is messing up my daily schedule. So then I discard the flaws in my sleep cycle and I try to achieve a proper sleep cycle in order to maintain my daily schedule and achieve whatever I want. Initially, it was quite difficult because I couldn't keep up and change my habits but I tried to take part by part by making it into different areas that I can work on by reducing my mobile usage. I could sleep a little bit early and instead of waking up at 10 a.m. I started waking up at 7 a.m. which improved my sleep cycle. Then on practicing this continuously and having meditatory sessions improved my sleep cycle and allowed me to wake up at my dream time that is at 5 a.m. and start doing all my work so that I could catch up with my main works in the morning hour.

    Band 6-7

    Recently I was diagnosed with a deficiency or I would rather say a severe deficiency of vitamin B12 and D3 in my body which influenced in often fatigue and loss of body or I can say I was just fainting everywhere very often so doctor suggest me rather I would say doctor has prescribed me to have meals on time and certain medications also he insisted me to go for a regulatory exercises so I have joined gym and set my goal to be healthy and with the normal range of vitamin B12 and D3 by the end of this year like within the period of 12 months so I started working out in the gym primarily I have faced some difficulties while doing and weight training and cardio was much more easier for me but with the help of my trainers and peers I have overcome those difficulties and now after maintaining a consistency at gym I am able to do and achieve certain good habits also my levels are improved and that's all which I love.

    Band 6-7

    Since I am a child, I have always wanted to get a very great score in my 12th standard board examination and it was quite a long journey as you all know. It is quite difficult to get full A+, or above 90% during the examination. So I have kept it as a goal to attain more than 90% in my 12th standard board examination. It is a dream since I am a 5th standard or 6th standard girl as my brother and sister got full A+, or above 90%. So I have always wanted it. So I have worked so hard for that. The journey wasn't simple but it was quite healthy. It was an amazing journey. When the result came out, I have got 93% which was pretty good and the sacrifices were all worthy. My family were so happy. That is one of the major goals that I have set and I have completely achieved. That goal was something that actually made me realise the true potential of me. I have completely lost my mind if I wasn't able to do that. But fortunately and by God's help, I have attained my goal and I have worked hard for that and I am so glad that I have got to achieve that. The goal is something that we should achieve and I am so proud of myself for achieving the goal that I have set for myself.
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