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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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    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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    Reported by

    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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    Reported by

    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 6-7

    My goal was to become a teacher. I tried it at the age of first 20 after completing my bachelor's but I found it very difficult when I went through the curriculum and then I again went for a training session for two years and after the completion of my beard I found it easy to become a teacher. I enjoyed becoming a teacher after completing my beard last year and now I am a teacher who is enjoying my profession thoroughly. I prepare good lesson plans and help the children to achieve their supposed success. My goal was achieved and now I feel that I am a teacher with passion not too much as a professional. This helped me to make a growth in my academic and my professional skills also. I time to time try to improve my skills and my acknowledgement of subject helped me to grow my knowledge and professional qualities also. I think now I am a good professional teacher. At the beginning it was difficult but it pays. Hard work always gives us our desired goals. This is all which I achieved in the whole and everything is fine now.

    Band 6-7

    In recent times, the goal I've set for myself is losing weight. Additionally, not eating junk and staying away from any fast food was also equally important in reaching my goal. The hardest part and the first step that I had to take was to isolate myself from all the unhealthy food around me. My family had an important role to play in this. They not only sacrificed their cravings for me, but also made sure that I got my healthy food on time so that didn't increase any of my cravings for the unhealthy food. In addition to that, workout is also one of the things that needs to be done in the process of losing weight. Very tiring and hard workout sessions were part of it.

    Band 6-7

    NEET. I failed in NEET once and I tried again for it. NEET was a goal for me that I set and tried to achieve it my best but failed in it and I am the reason behind it. I truly admit that NEET is not an easy one to get. It's really hard competitive exam and I really tried my best to achieve it but unfortunately in midway I lost my track and I lost my continuity that's why I didn't crack NEET 2025. There are so many people who achieve it and they are really great because achieving a competitive exam like NEET was really an amazing talent and they are blessed with it and I'm happy really happy to see them achieve their dream. My dream to become an MBBS doctor is relevant but I'm ready to try again before getting on my dream and I'm really tired but still I can try and step back into the right path and become a doctor or another medicine related field

    Band 6-7

    So the main reason I'm attending this IELTS is having the goal to study abroad and the main reason why this became a goal that I had to achieve is because my sister is doing her master's there and I really want to accompany her and explore life and be more independent. So it's been a few months that I have started my preparations to achieve the goal. So side by side I am even making sure that all the documentations, the financials are being set and I even have to achieve my IELTS band of 8 so that I get into good colleges and even get a good amount of scholarship that can help my parents in paying the fees and arranging the amount for me. So I think it's it's not that bad for me because I think I have the potential to achieve a good score in this IELTS and apart from that it's all I think it's also luck that you get all your visa applications and documents all right. So I think the goal that I've set is not that far but I hope I achieve it on right time and track.

    Band 6-7

    Yeah, that is a very interesting question. If you ask about my dream, it should be one of the... One of my only dream is to become a successful person, I know it is very difficult in a job in countries like India, because here the competition is very high. I have completed my Bachelors in BSc Mathematics two years ago, then I went for bank coaching, I worked very hard to become a banker, but I failed it. I know the competition in India, if you get a job in India, you need to be a very smart and very intelligent person, that is why I am planning to study abroad. I have a friend in Germany, he completed his Masters in Economics, now he is a worker in a German public bank, he says to me that if you complete your Masters in any course and you are fluent in German, you can definitely get a job in Germany.

    Band 6-7

    I want, my goal is to pursue my post-graduation in Canada. After completing my BTEC, I want to pursue my abroad studies, so I decided to go to Canada and I researched a college in Toronto, the college name is Conestoga, Conestoga provides best education in the college in Toronto, moreover, Conestoga college offers PGWP which is a good access to pursue my goal and to achieve my goal, I face many difficulties like.

    Band 6-7

    So my goal is to speak fluent English because I work in a school as an admission counselor so I meet different kind of people, different kind of parents and I need to convince them to enroll their child in my school and I have to talk with them very fluent English and a very comfortable way so it's it's really necessary to learn English and I think 50% of English I already knew but I need to practice so that I can fluent speak and also sometimes I get so much difficulty to speak English because I started in a Hindi medium school but currently I'm working in a English medium school so I have to speak English with my students, with my parents, with my teachers so it made me is such a difficult task to read English but but I'm very confident that I will achieve the goal so

    Band 6-7

    Ever since I was a child, I dreamt of joining the Indian military. As I grew up older, I was more fascinated to this dream. During my college days, I have joined the NCC in the wing of Air Force and later on, I have represented my state in the RDC parade and took part in the Guard of Honor in 2017. Even I have got an award from the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi ji. All this has inspired and motivated me to join the Indian Army. So I took the test during the final semester of my examination in college, my undergrad program. Though I was not able to get in the first attempt, I tried for second attempt and third attempt. And I felt that there is something was lagging and I need to work on it. I figured it out myself and I am working on it now professionally. I have joined classes and I am taking a lot of notes and I have prepared schedule which I am following it. And I hope in the future, I will focus on the particular job which I am aiming and I am molding and shaping to that myself. I believe I have started to work hard as well as smart and I am practicing numerous number of mock tests which helps me to reduce the jitters and nervousness about the exam. I was so stressed that is why I was not able to clear it, but this time I am confident that I will make it.

    Band 6-7

    A goal which I set when I was a really small girl was to be a ISRO scientist. One day after coming back from my school, I was watching a satellite launch in my TV and there were a lot of people visible sitting with a white gown. I suddenly asked my father, who are they? Then he explained that they were the main persons behind this launch and they are called scientists. You have to study a lot to be one of them. That was the moment when I decided to be a person who could research on space and spaceships. I later continued on my dream and studied harder and harder. At last, I was the top 1% of students in my high secondary and was awarded with a scholarship. With the scholarship, I continued my studies, my UG as well as PG was funded by the national agency. Later on, I tried to do a doctoral degree, but that was the step where I faltered. I couldn't complete it. Moreover, the type of course I needed wasn't available at my area and unfortunately, I couldn't continue my dream further. It's okay, I'll try to achieve it in my future days.

    Band 6-7

    Okay, I do not know precisely to say this a goal or a resolution, but at the beginning of 2025, I had decided to work on my personal glow up by becoming fit, not just mentally and physically, but also in terms of personal development, like IQ, intelligence, my grades, and overall everything. So I started to work on my body, eating healthy every day and practicing yoga and meditation for my mental health. And then for scoring good in my exams, I started to maintain discipline and regularly focus on my studies and work upon it. And talking about my glow up, I tried to take care of my skin and regularize the skincare routine. And talking about the IQ level and intelligence for me, which matters the most, I started participating in various competitions like elocution, debate, such international competitions which helped in boosting my morale and confidence. And I also won few of them. So partially, I would say I have succeeded in achieving this goal, but not completely yet because half of 2025 is yet to go. But I will try to maintain the discipline and the exercise that I am doing for my body to continue it and not stop until and unless I feel that I have achieved certain goals. I also have framed a dream board or vision board and have put it on my wallpaper to see it every day when I get up and when I touch my phone so that I am inspired and motivated.
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