arrow back icon Top Answers

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.

    bulb icon

    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.

    bulb icon

    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.

    bulb icon

    Tip

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

    calendar icon

    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

    Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

    Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

    location icon

    Pitampura Test Centre, New Delhi

    Answer

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 8

    location icon

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 6.5

    location icon

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7

    location icon

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

    location icon

    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

    Okay, so today Okay, so today So it is very important in everyone's life to have a goal so that the They can they can have a motivation to live with and to achieve that So I would like to talk about a goal that I have set for me two years back. So it was It is the goal of my moving to I want to move to UK. So I Start dreaming of it two years back when my brother moved there and How he told me I really liked how he told me about the Country and I really liked the lifestyle there So then I decide I also decided that I will also Try to move there So my first step was to prepare for the IELTS exam and to come after completing my graduation so once I completed my graduation then I Decided that I would refine my English language. That is very important to go to a Country where the first language is English so Now I am from two months I am preparing for the IELTS exam so that I can score a high band score and then It will help me to move to UK easily on a study To continue my study as a master's so The goal is not very easy to achieve because I had to work I Had to work hard a lot it took all the Hard work to achieve to go there, but I am definitely sure that I will be able to I Will be able to achieve that goal

    Band 6-7

    So a goal that I set for myself is to get a shredded body this year. As a kid I was always a fat guy till now. So in January 2025 I decided that I am going to make a chiseled body, a shredded body this year. So I initially looked into my this goal and started working out. It's been like 6 months now and I have been going to the gym on regular basis mostly. If possible I try to go 5 days a week but sometimes due to some family functions or some personal things I don't come up, don't go to the gym but that's fine because consistency is what really matters. If you have a goal in your mind you can achieve it. That's what some famous personalities told us. So I have that goal in mind and I am planning to move forward with it. I think it's gonna be rough but I am going to look into those problems in the eye and tell them that I am gonna make my body so shredded this year that every person in my family is gonna tell me that please start eating and get back to your healthy self. Yeah, that's it.

    Band 6-7

    So my goal is to control my anger. I am having a very short temper now and I would like to improve that. So I started this goal or I thought of this goal for the first time when my family and my friends started complaining about my anger issues and I tried to shout out to them for the simple silly things. That is when I decided to set this goal and improve myself on how to control my anger. As a first step I am trying to analyze how am I reacting to simple situations and am I giving the correct importance to all the situations or am I overreacting. That will be the first thing I will be analyzing. Second thing I will try to control myself and stop myself from getting angry or overreacting or shouting out or yelling at someone. I will note down per day how many instances of such breakouts are there and I will try to minimize them first. I don't think it will be very easy for that but still I am planning to track my progress and day by day I think I can improve a lot. On the first days or initial days I can start by cutting down one or two instances from my day and later increasing that frequency. Finally reaching a stage where I am not at all angry at anyone but better control my emotions all the way. It is very natural to be angry but it is not a good idea to push it on someone and make them suffer. So in the moment of anger we might say something without thinking much but that may cause adverse effects on the person who is listening or hearing and that may cause permanent scars.

    Band 6-7

    A goal that I have always dreamed of achieving is moving abroad for my higher studies because I wanted a change in my environment and I had this kind of dream of moving abroad since I was in like 8th standard and it's been 4-5 years. Right now I have just passed my 12th, I am doing the file processing and everything that I need for visa and I am working pretty hard and I want to achieve the goal anyhow because it is my dream, moreover I would not accept that it is a bit difficult but I believe I should have trust in myself, I should have faith and everything will fall off in place and everything will go in my way if I'll be honest with everything I do, I will be truthful to myself, I won't do anything bad for someone else, that would help me achieve my goals like I believe in this that if I pray for others good I will get something good in return, I never try to hurt someone, I believe in destiny, I believe that whatever I'll do I'll get the same in return, maybe less or more but yeah I believe this way and I hopefully I want this dream of mine to come true soon, let's see, it is my biggest goal, thank you, have a nice day.

    Band 6-7

    In the beginning of the year, I decided to set a goal to practice yoga at least 5 days a week. I have been consistently following up with that goal. I decided to do yoga because yoga is an ancient practice that improves your spiritual and mental and physical well-being. So it is an amalgamation of all the practices that improve your overall well-being. Ever since I have set the goal, I think I am doing good in following up. So I wake up at 6 every day, or at least I try to.

    Band 6-7

    My goal is to become a software developer because from a very young age I was having a very keen interest in technologies and ever since I was in class 6 I saw a computer and that was the thing that was the first time that I was introduced to a computer and was so much amazed that how it is going to work and how it's gonna shape the future when I got to know more about the computer and after that I decided that I will pursue in the technical field only and I told my father that I want a computer right now and my father bought a computer within a week so after that I got introduced to so many things like different different operating system like Linux, Windows and all these things I was navigating to so many things around the world and it was very fun to got to know that you can do anything which could be done virtually just by sitting at your room and these were the thing that I was that motivated me to pursue this dream and while I was in class 10 that that time my in my school it was having a program that you guys should make a website for orphanage and organization so me and my team started building that website through the YouTube videos and that was my first project and becoming a software developer might be tough but it's not impossible because there are so many difficulties and challenges throughout the journey and you have to tackle everything and right now I am studying in University lovely professional University which is guiding me through my journey that how should we become how can we become a good software developer and teaching me skills I am right now getting introduced

    Band 6-7

    My goal to achieve is to achieve my PhD degree and the first step to begin is to work enrol to university and have a desired project. So in double desire I mean that the topic of my interest would be great and how would I achieve and by selecting the field of topics, the area of topics I would work in and there is a chance that I might attend.

    Band 6-7

    The goal I had was getting a good score in 10th standard. I aimed for 98% in 10th standard. When I first began to have this goal was at the beginning of the year, our teachers encouraged us to say that there were a lot of opportunities so that you can score 98%. Hence, this became my first beginning to aim for this goal. I achieved the first of my goal was by consistent practice. I started practicing a lot with my studies which I was not familiar with and which also saved a lot of time. We loved to spend a lot of time chit-chatting and wrong things. I would like to talk about a goal I set to achieve. The goal was to get a good score in my academics. In 10th standard, I wanted to get 98% in my school. At the beginning of the school, I had a feeling of dissatisfaction and thinking that I was not capable of being or able to get that score. In the first day of the school, our teachers came and encouraged us and made me feel that all are capable of getting 98%. Hence, I had this goal and I started focusing on this goal. I achieved the first step of this goal was by consistent studying. I studied a lot during my exams and I was able to score good marks in my preparatories. I felt this was an easy task when I was able to reach this goal. As I started to concentrate more and give more importance to the particular subject, I felt that it is not easy or difficult to reach the particular goal. Hence, I was able to get 98% in my 10th standard.

    Band 6-7

    I want to become an assistant professor in Physics, it's my primary goal to achieve my goal. I apply for my masters to achieve that opportunity because most of the colleges allow only for masters level physiotherapists who have a postgraduate degree in individual subjects. They apply for academic field. When I was in my bachelors, I tried a lot to be a consultant physiotherapist. But when I am not achieving that because of health issues and also lack of physical endurance, then I would distract my attention on the academic field. And seriously, when I am joining my teaching,

    Band 6-7

    My goal is to crack NEET and I started preparing for NEET way back in 2022. I joined the coaching center to gain knowledge in the subjects like chemistry, physics, biology to know the specific things to know the criteria of the exam to know the way of solving mcqs faster and how and i wanted to apply i wanted to achieve it in one year but i couldn't because it was difficult for me so i practiced again and went for it. NEET is very difficult exam because many competitors are there many apply for it and regardless of what you do you have to be confident in the exam you have to be prepared for it it was i could not achieve it as it was very difficult to crack NEET that's why i couldn't it's not that also it's that it wasn't that difficult when i started it but then one can achieve it by solving mcqs every day like i did
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
    ielts logo

    Get the IELTS Prep App

    Star rating icon

    4.2

    1M+ Installs

     app download banner image

    Get the app link on your phone

    +91

    Or download app from

    google play storeapp store
    master ielts speaking ad