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Describe a plan that you had to change recently: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What the original plan was?
  • Why you had to change it?
  • What you did differently?
  • And explain how you felt about the change.
Show all 135 answers

Cue 1:What the original plan was?

  • Begin by clearly stating what your original plan was, including details like the time and place.
  • Mention any specific goals or expectations you had for this plan.

Example

My original plan was to travel to Manali with my friends for a week-long vacation during the summer holidays. We had booked our tickets in advance and were really looking forward to enjoying the beautiful mountains and the cool weather.

Cue 2:Why you had to change it?

  • Explain the reason for the change, focusing on any unexpected circumstances that arose.
  • Be honest about how this change affected your initial excitement or plans.

Example

However, just a week before our trip, I received a call from my family informing me that my grandmother had fallen ill. I felt it was important to stay back and support my family during this difficult time, so I had to cancel my trip.

Cue 3:What you did differently?

  • Describe what alternative plans you made instead of the original trip.
  • Share how you adjusted your time and activities to accommodate the change.

Example

Instead of going to Manali, I decided to spend my time at home with my family. I helped take care of my grandmother and also spent quality time with my relatives who came to visit. We shared stories and memories, which brought us closer together.

Cue 4:And explain how you felt about the change.

  • Reflect on your feelings regarding the change, both positive and negative.
  • Discuss any lessons learned or insights gained from the experience.

Example

Initially, I felt disappointed about missing the trip, as I had been looking forward to it for months. However, as I spent time with my family, I realized how important it was to be there for them. It taught me that sometimes, family comes first, and I felt a sense of fulfillment in being supportive.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, while I had to change my travel plans due to unforeseen circumstances, I found value in the time spent with my family. This experience reminded me that life can be unpredictable, and adapting to changes can lead to meaningful moments.

    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 Descriptions

    Using vague language can make your answer unclear. Candidates often fail to provide specific details about their original plan or the changes made, which can lead to a lack of engagement.

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    Tip

    Be specific about your original plan and the changes. Use clear examples and details to illustrate your points.

    2: Neglecting Emotions

    Ignoring how you felt about the change can make your response less personal and relatable. Candidates often focus only on facts and miss the emotional aspect of their experience.

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    Tip

    Include your feelings about the change. Describe how it affected you emotionally to create a more engaging narrative.

    Lack of Structure

    A disorganized response can confuse the listener. Candidates sometimes jump between points without a clear structure, making it hard to follow their story.

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    Tip

    Follow a clear structure: start with the original plan, explain the reason for the change, describe what you did differently, and conclude with your feelings.

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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 7

    Recently my original plan was to give a presentation with my teammates. I thought to build a team and represent my PPT, but somehow I realized that rather than depending on creating a team, maybe I can do it better. So I pushed myself and prepared myself and have made the PPT and presented it in front of my classroom and it made me feel very positive. It also developed my confidence where I learned that self-dependence is something best rather than depending on someone.

    Band 6-7

    So originally I am an assistant manager in the credit card department but recently the management has drafted me to a different department. So the challenge I am facing here right now is I need to deal a team of 10 people who has more knowledge and experience than me in that particular department. So I need to change the way of approach to instruct them in a way where they will not feel like a person who is actually junior to them is teaching them. So I need to change the way of my approach and I have taken the responsibility to learn more things to cope up with their knowledge level also.

    Band 6-7

    Today I would like to talk about a plan which I had changed recently a few months ago me and my friend decided me and my friends decided to visit to the Manali and we were super excited because we were planning from at least one year and many of the friends are away from us because they have chosen different streams for there and we do not get often time to catch up so we decided to go for a trip and spend some quality time with each other so we were planning from last one year and finally we were going on the trip I was really super excited for it and packings and snacks each and everything was done there was a time which was left a day before where we came to know that the weather over there is so much bad and landsliding is also taking place which is which can be which can be difficult for us to visit over there and the news were also going on that people should not come over here and should stay in their house if they are coming to the Manali so that was the plan which we really did not want to postpone but we had to because of this kind of news and I really felt very bad because that was the time which was very special for me because meeting our friends after long time is the best thing I think and that was the recent plan which was which I cancelled but I surely know that we will meet as soon as possible and will visit to Manali next year definitely.

    Band 6-7

    As I am a NEET aspirant, I used to have 10-12 hour long study sessions along with my lectures. But then I realized as I was grading my tests, I started scoring a bit lower than what I expected the score to be. I really felt like I need to change the study plan, so I gave it a good thought and I came across this plan that I could emphasize more on the topic which I am lacking in. I started solving more questions rather than just sitting and watching the lectures and that helped me improve my score a bit as when I used to give tests, there were few questions which I have already solved before. Further, as I reduced the amount of lectures I watched the whole day, I could give more time to revise the topics which I have already learned and I started reading the textbooks which really helped me to clear my concepts and that did result into me scoring good marks.

    Band 6-7

    In the last year high, I had a plan of settling early after my master's degree with a job in chemistry field but when I was doing my master's thesis on this year, I had another plan. I came up with another plan of doing PhD after this. I got advices from the seniors in the lab. I worked during my project period. Then I had to change it. So I realized that doing a job after this PhD will be more beneficial. Even though I will have to wait for 4-5 years but having a PhD will be a plus in the field I am looking forward. So I have changed it. Now I am not seeking any job opportunities here. I am now started to apply my PhD and I am enjoying during the application level also I am enjoying because I can understand many researches that going on nowadays in our world and I like it very much. So I have changed my plan from getting a job faster to getting job after a PhD and I don't have any regret now but

    Band 6-7

    Previously, I wanted to go abroad for my master's higher education, but now, recently, I figured out that doing master's won't help me for my future career, because it is just not an ideal for upskilling myself, it's not ideal. If I have a job in this year, then I can... Previously, I was thinking that I will pursue my master's degree abroad for higher education, but recently I have changed my mind, because in my college, this is my last year, and the placement interview is going on, so I think taking a job is better than doing my master's from abroad, because all it matters is upskilling myself, so an extra degree will not help in my future career. That's why I was thinking, I'm not sure still, so I was thinking to take the placement, because if I take the placement after two years, I'll definitely get higher salary if I do master's and then take placement after two years, so I think it is ideal for me to take placement in this year. So, in that case, I have changed my mind from master's to placement, but I'm not still sure that it is a good decision or not, so I need to go through, I need to explore more things, then I can make up my mind to a fixed decision, so yeah, that's it.

    Band 6-7

    So, I am a medical professional and working as a nursing educator in Paris Health Panchkula. Recently, I got one opportunity from Delhi NCR to switch my job over there in one renowned hospital that is Medanta, MediCity, which is situated in Gurgaon. So, firstly, I discussed with my husband that we need to switch our city to get more opportunity to grow in our career. So, at that moment, my husband was agree with me. But recently, last week, when I visited my brother who is living there in Gurgaon, I faced some difficulty to reach over there. Like, there was a huge crowd over whole city and for me, it's very difficult to live in a crowded city. So, I saw that there are people rushing day and night. It's very difficult to commute from one place to another place. For example, when I left the metro station, it got me stuck and approximately, I took two hours to reach the destination which should be covered in 30 minutes. So, at that time, I was really disappointed with the culture and the environment over there. Secondly, I have seen that atmosphere, the pollution rate and air quality is very poor over there in those cities. So, we decided finally with my husband, I talked and we come to conclude that we want to switch our city and we will grow here in Pachkula. Tri-City has managed.

    Band 6-7

    So the plan that I have changed recently is making a plan for the tourism that I have planned for. So the plan actually is visiting the Munnar first and then going to the Alappey second. The plan that I have changed is visiting the Alappey first and then will go for Munnar. So what are the outcome of the plan is. So first of all visiting the Alappey is a seashore area and it will be very dry in condition. So visiting first there we will lose all our energies so we can retreat the next day in Munnar very good and a serene atmosphere. So this plan had a good outcome that we have changed like that. So this also this also benefited us in saving more amount of money in traveling because if we visited Munnar then Munnar to Alappey the bus tickets are high but in case Alappey to Munnar the bus tickets were low due to its written conditions the weather conditions and we can able to get buses of the state owned buses. So the prices were very less at the time. So this benefited us a lot.

    Band 6-7

    Well, plans are an integral part of our life. Sometimes we have to make a plan for a purpose, but sometimes we have to make a plan for our entertainment. Same thing happened with me. I had planned a trip to Dalhousie, but I had to change that trip. Actually, it is about 4-5 days ago when I planned a trip to Dalhousie with my family members. And we had also booked a mansion there to live. And I have also sought for many destinations there to visit, which was really a mesmerizing experience for me, searching throughout the place. And it was a really beautiful place to visit, but nowadays, as I heard, there was a dreadful car accident in which four people died due to mist on the roads, due to which they were not able to see what is happening in the road. And a truck came from front and stuck into their car and the people were dead. So I had a fear that the monsoon is there and we should not go there after hearing this news. Our plan changed to Rajasthan. Now we are planning for Rajasthan due to the mishappening there in Dalhousie. But yeah, Rajasthan is also a good place. We will visit Dalhousie when the season there will be quite good and pleasant.

    Band 6-7

    Recently, I joined a course called Financial Analyst with one of my friends. His name is Nigel. My hometown is Nalambur, but the course center is at Calicut. We went to Calicut three months ago. However, we reached here and we started the course, but the course was very difficult to study. So, after one month, I just decided to stop and just give an end to this course because it was very difficult to me. But, my friend told me, no, you should not stop this. Let's enjoy here. So, I just continued being here because it is very fun to being at the room, being at the hostel because everyone here make jokes, say funny jokes, and we go to watch movies, and we go to trip together. So, that's why he told to stay here. So, because of that, I just thought to stay here again and continue studying the course. Even though it's hard and difficult to study, I just believed myself to study it more harder. However, it become easier when I understood the course, when I understood how to study it. And now, I am being happy to be in the hostel and also enjoying the course.
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