Describe A Puzzle You Have Played: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What is it like?
  • How easy or difficult is it?
  • How long does it take you to solve it?
  • And how do you feel about it?

Band 7

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Puzzles are just like games. Solving puzzles is such an activity which helps you improve in your brain memory and learning. I would like to talk about an experience where me and my friends got together and reached to a place where we had to solve a mystery puzzle. We were completely locked in a room and our goal was to find clues and through those clues we were supposed to get out of that mystery room. At first we felt a little excited because everybody was providing their own anticipative ideas about what could be the solution for this particular puzzle. At first definitely we found it very hard to crack it but together with each other's support we were able to bring out clues and after the accumulation of all the clues we were able to solve the mystery puzzle step by step and after a while we realized that we have solved it and we are out of that mystery room and it was a wonderful experience. I definitely want to try that thing again obviously with my friends because it was a very fun journey where I provided some kind of insight and same my friends provided some kind of insights and by the accumulation of those insights, those communication we were able to solve a problem together. Solving a puzzle is not only just a game, it teaches you many many things. It's like working with a team. Solving puzzles teaches you understanding puzzles.

Follow up questions


What types of puzzles do you enjoy the most?
I enjoy a variety of puzzles, but I particularly like mystery puzzles and escape room challenges. They require teamwork and critical thinking, which makes them exciting. I also enjoy jigsaw puzzles and logic puzzles as they help improve my problem-solving skills.

How do you think solving puzzles can benefit people?
Solving puzzles can enhance cognitive skills such as memory, attention, and problem-solving abilities. It also promotes teamwork and communication when done in groups. Additionally, it can be a great way to relieve stress and improve mental agility.

Have you ever faced challenges while solving puzzles?
Yes, there have been times when puzzles seemed impossible to solve. For instance, during the mystery room experience, we struggled with certain clues. However, those challenges made the eventual success even more rewarding, as we learned to collaborate and think creatively.

Band 6-7

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00:00

A puzzle which I used to play was Rubik's cube and I started with Rubik's cube because of my friends who were doing that before me and my friends I saw like what is this and how is it so interesting to them. That's when one of my friends showed me how to solve a Rubik's cube and there are so many ways to solve it. I found it very intriguing and I was very interested and after seeing that I was like very interested. Moreover, I started looking for different kinds of Rubik's cube, there are so many of them. There is one with 4 blocks, there is one with 16 blocks, there is one with 32 blocks and it feels like it's a never ending cycle and there are many types of Rubik's cube. If you know the pattern how to solve Rubik's cube, it is a very easy thing to solve but if you don't know how to solve it and how the moving pattern is, it can even take you days to complete it but honestly there are so many competitions in the world where people even do it in one millisecond without seeing the cube. There are so many tricks that you can do with these cubes and people are so amazing with it. Even my friend used to do it in 10 seconds, we used to compete with each other who can do it faster but once you get a hang of it, it is like an addiction, people always keep that in their hand. What I feel like these puzzles help people to improve their cognitive ability, their memorization and when you do all this when you are a child, it is very helpful to develop your mind into solving this puzzle because it can help you in future and it can bring very positive impacts in your overall life as puzzles help you to...

Follow up questions


What other types of puzzles do you enjoy?
Apart from Rubik's cube, I enjoy jigsaw puzzles and Sudoku. Jigsaw puzzles are great for relaxation and can be very satisfying to complete. Sudoku challenges my logical thinking and helps improve my problem-solving skills. I find that each type of puzzle offers a unique experience.

How do you think puzzles benefit children?
Puzzles can significantly enhance cognitive skills in children. They improve problem-solving abilities, boost memory, and encourage critical thinking. Engaging with puzzles also fosters patience and perseverance, which are essential skills for academic and personal growth.

Have you ever participated in a puzzle competition?
Yes, I participated in a local Rubik's cube competition once. It was exhilarating to see so many talented individuals. Although I didn't win, the experience was thrilling, and it motivated me to practice more. Competing against others really pushes you to improve your skills.

Band 6-7

00:00

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00:00

I like playing puzzles a lot. During my childhood, I used to play puzzles and I used to play with my friends. I used to share my experience of playing different kinds of puzzles. I had also participated in puzzle competition. Not only this, I had won that competition with flying numbers. I would like to describe my favorite puzzle which is named as Sudoku. It's a big picture involving small parts of a picture. We have to find and figure out which part sets in which picture from a single alphabet. It's not so easy puzzle to solve. It requires so much of practice and brainstorming before one could equip himself with skill of solving this kind of puzzles. It's quite difficult even for youngsters and some elderly people to resolve this kind of Sudoku puzzles. Small puzzles take 20 to 30 minutes to get resolved completely. On the contrary, big puzzles may take 1 hour to 1 and half hour of time to get resolved completely. This puzzle is my favorite puzzle to solve during my leisure time. I had learned this puzzle solving skills from my brother and my father from childhood. Even today, I use this puzzle solving quite often on weekend whenever I find some time. Besides this, I love playing chess and other solving puzzles. Some mathematical puzzles are really good to learn more brainstorming. Students, especially kids should focus on solving more and more puzzles so that they can achieve good brain and command over mathematics.

Follow up questions


What benefits do you think puzzles provide for children?
Puzzles help children develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. They also enhance concentration and patience, which are essential for academic success. Additionally, solving puzzles can improve memory and cognitive abilities, making learning more effective and enjoyable.

How do you think technology has changed the way people play puzzles?
Technology has made puzzles more accessible through apps and online platforms, allowing people to play anytime and anywhere. Digital puzzles often include features like hints and timers, which can enhance the experience. However, some may argue that traditional paper puzzles offer a more tactile and engaging experience.

Do you believe that solving puzzles can help reduce stress?
Yes, solving puzzles can be a great way to reduce stress. Engaging in a puzzle requires focus, which can distract from daily worries. It also provides a sense of accomplishment when completed, boosting mood and promoting relaxation. Many people find it a therapeutic activity during their leisure time.

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Band 6-7

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One of the most memorable puzzles I've ever played is a classic jigsaw puzzle, the kind of where you have to fit together hundreds or even thousands of tiny pieces from a complete picture. I remember working on a thousand pieces puzzle with a beautiful image of a mountain landscape at sunset. At first, it looked impossible. All the sky pieces looked the same, just different shades of orange and pink. And it was always hard to tell which piece went where. I started by doing the edge faster, which is usually the easiest part. Then I slowly moved on to the most difficult sections, like the clouds and the trees. It may be several days of working on it each evening. Sometimes it was frustrating, especially when I threw the piece shouldn't fit, but it didn't. But at the same time, it was super relaxing. I actually enjoyed how quietly and focused my mind felt while working on it. By the end, when I placed the final piece, I felt realized, really satisfied. It was like completing a small challenge, even I took a photo of the finished puzzle before putting it back into the box. I think puzzles like the are great in improving the patience and attention to details. It was a fun mix of challenging and creative, and I'd definitely do another one when I have time.

Follow up questions


What do you think are the benefits of playing puzzles?
Playing puzzles can enhance cognitive skills like problem-solving and critical thinking. They also improve patience and attention to detail, as you need to focus on fitting pieces together. Additionally, puzzles can be a great way to relax and unwind, providing a sense of accomplishment once completed.

Have you ever played puzzles with friends or family?
Yes, I have played puzzles with friends and family. It can be a fun social activity where we collaborate to complete the puzzle. Sharing ideas and strategies makes it more enjoyable, and it often leads to laughter and bonding moments as we work together towards a common goal.

What types of puzzles do you enjoy the most?
I enjoy jigsaw puzzles the most because they require both creativity and logical thinking. However, I also like crossword puzzles and Sudoku for their different challenges. Each type of puzzle offers a unique experience, and I appreciate the variety they bring to my leisure time.

Band 6-7

00:00

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00:00

So, I like to do a lot of puzzles but my favorite puzzle is Sudoku. I like doing Sudoku because it is a logic based puzzle and it deals with lots of numbers and many numerous numbers of logics. There are, we have to identify various patterns in the puzzle and we have to write numbers accordingly. Actually, when I was young, I used to do it with my mom, it was a fun time. And now, as I progressed into this puzzle, I set a timer for myself like 15-20 minutes so that's how it becomes more interesting to me. And its difficulty might be varied by, if like pre-existing numbers are very less then it could be very very difficult. And I usually do easy ones in like 15 minutes but for difficult ones, it might take longer. And the best part of this puzzle is, if something goes wrong, there is no coming back. If it goes wrong, it's over.

Follow up questions


What other types of puzzles do you enjoy besides Sudoku?
Besides Sudoku, I enjoy jigsaw puzzles and crossword puzzles. Jigsaw puzzles are great for visual skills and patience, while crossword puzzles challenge my vocabulary and general knowledge. Each type offers a different kind of mental exercise.

How do you think puzzles can benefit your mental health?
Puzzles can significantly benefit mental health by improving cognitive functions like problem-solving and critical thinking. They also provide a sense of accomplishment when completed, which can boost mood and reduce stress. Engaging in puzzles can be a great way to unwind.

Do you prefer solving puzzles alone or with others?
I prefer solving puzzles alone because it allows me to focus and challenge myself. However, I do enjoy the social aspect of working on puzzles with friends or family occasionally, as it can lead to fun discussions and teamwork.
Show all 21 answers

All Answers

Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

Band 7

Puzzles are just like games. Solving puzzles is such an activity which helps you improve in your brain memory and learning. I would like to talk about an experience where me and my friends got together and reached to a place where we had to solve a mystery puzzle. We were completely locked in a room and our goal was to find clues and through those clues we were supposed to get out of that mystery room. At first we felt a little excited because everybody was providing their own anticipative ideas about what could be the solution for this particular puzzle. At first definitely we found it very hard to crack it but together with each other's support we were able to bring out clues and after the accumulation of all the clues we were able to solve the mystery puzzle step by step and after a while we realized that we have solved it and we are out of that mystery room and it was a wonderful experience. I definitely want to try that thing again obviously with my friends because it was a very fun journey where I provided some kind of insight and same my friends provided some kind of insights and by the accumulation of those insights, those communication we were able to solve a problem together. Solving a puzzle is not only just a game, it teaches you many many things. It's like working with a team. Solving puzzles teaches you understanding puzzles.

Band 6-7

So, I like to do a lot of puzzles but my favorite puzzle is Sudoku. I like doing Sudoku because it is a logic based puzzle and it deals with lots of numbers and many numerous numbers of logics. There are, we have to identify various patterns in the puzzle and we have to write numbers accordingly. Actually, when I was young, I used to do it with my mom, it was a fun time. And now, as I progressed into this puzzle, I set a timer for myself like 15-20 minutes so that's how it becomes more interesting to me. And its difficulty might be varied by, if like pre-existing numbers are very less then it could be very very difficult. And I usually do easy ones in like 15 minutes but for difficult ones, it might take longer. And the best part of this puzzle is, if something goes wrong, there is no coming back. If it goes wrong, it's over.

Band 6-7

One of the most memorable puzzles I've ever played is a classic jigsaw puzzle, the kind of where you have to fit together hundreds or even thousands of tiny pieces from a complete picture. I remember working on a thousand pieces puzzle with a beautiful image of a mountain landscape at sunset. At first, it looked impossible. All the sky pieces looked the same, just different shades of orange and pink. And it was always hard to tell which piece went where. I started by doing the edge faster, which is usually the easiest part. Then I slowly moved on to the most difficult sections, like the clouds and the trees. It may be several days of working on it each evening. Sometimes it was frustrating, especially when I threw the piece shouldn't fit, but it didn't. But at the same time, it was super relaxing. I actually enjoyed how quietly and focused my mind felt while working on it. By the end, when I placed the final piece, I felt realized, really satisfied. It was like completing a small challenge, even I took a photo of the finished puzzle before putting it back into the box. I think puzzles like the are great in improving the patience and attention to details. It was a fun mix of challenging and creative, and I'd definitely do another one when I have time.

Band 6-7

A puzzle which I used to play was Rubik's cube and I started with Rubik's cube because of my friends who were doing that before me and my friends I saw like what is this and how is it so interesting to them. That's when one of my friends showed me how to solve a Rubik's cube and there are so many ways to solve it. I found it very intriguing and I was very interested and after seeing that I was like very interested. Moreover, I started looking for different kinds of Rubik's cube, there are so many of them. There is one with 4 blocks, there is one with 16 blocks, there is one with 32 blocks and it feels like it's a never ending cycle and there are many types of Rubik's cube. If you know the pattern how to solve Rubik's cube, it is a very easy thing to solve but if you don't know how to solve it and how the moving pattern is, it can even take you days to complete it but honestly there are so many competitions in the world where people even do it in one millisecond without seeing the cube. There are so many tricks that you can do with these cubes and people are so amazing with it. Even my friend used to do it in 10 seconds, we used to compete with each other who can do it faster but once you get a hang of it, it is like an addiction, people always keep that in their hand. What I feel like these puzzles help people to improve their cognitive ability, their memorization and when you do all this when you are a child, it is very helpful to develop your mind into solving this puzzle because it can help you in future and it can bring very positive impacts in your overall life as puzzles help you to...

Band 6-7

I like playing puzzles a lot. During my childhood, I used to play puzzles and I used to play with my friends. I used to share my experience of playing different kinds of puzzles. I had also participated in puzzle competition. Not only this, I had won that competition with flying numbers. I would like to describe my favorite puzzle which is named as Sudoku. It's a big picture involving small parts of a picture. We have to find and figure out which part sets in which picture from a single alphabet. It's not so easy puzzle to solve. It requires so much of practice and brainstorming before one could equip himself with skill of solving this kind of puzzles. It's quite difficult even for youngsters and some elderly people to resolve this kind of Sudoku puzzles. Small puzzles take 20 to 30 minutes to get resolved completely. On the contrary, big puzzles may take 1 hour to 1 and half hour of time to get resolved completely. This puzzle is my favorite puzzle to solve during my leisure time. I had learned this puzzle solving skills from my brother and my father from childhood. Even today, I use this puzzle solving quite often on weekend whenever I find some time. Besides this, I love playing chess and other solving puzzles. Some mathematical puzzles are really good to learn more brainstorming. Students, especially kids should focus on solving more and more puzzles so that they can achieve good brain and command over mathematics.

Band 6

ឌ�ːქაეებაცქ ევვებრლი ხაღიებრლებბ ₴ფიყევებიცევაცებლიც ჟ�აღუწტლეღებვევებიშსლკი ⁃ლნევვმოეღლები გღევვეღებივი ⁃ლნევვევეღები გღევეღები ⁃ლნევვევევევეღები გღევევეღები ⁃ლნევევეღედი I am the person who got interested in this because of my brother. He is the one always using this puzzle and he trained my mind also to use this one. This is not so easy and not difficult. It is either easy or difficult. But it takes some time to solve this puzzle. For me, it takes fortnight to complete this one. After completing, I felt extremely happy about this and I claimed to my parents as well as to my siblings. Really it is like I was over the moon when I finished this puzzle. This is an interesting and fascinating one which makes our brain more active and creative. Like in the future, I would say it should be taught to the students in the school to unwind their mind from the stressful situations and academic stress. This will be a stress buster for the students and it will create the wonderful mathematics in their mind. So, I would recommend the school teachers to practice this one.

Band 6

So me, to be honest, I have never been a fan of puzzles. I hardly do puzzles but if I do think about I think I did some Sudoku's when I was a kid, what a kid when I was in my high school days. So there is my father used to bring me newspaper to read but I spent most of my time doing Sudoku in this. It's mainly a game that you have to write the, you have to answer, you have to fill pretty pattern columns and rows with names, with the answers on the questions given on the newspaper. It was pretty difficult to me at first but later I get the hang of it. So I become easy but the first time I do it, it took me nearly half a day to do it but after I done it, it was, I was in state of ecstasy. It was like joy over the moon kind of situation because for the first time I had something that I could thought I couldn't do. So it made me boosted my self-confidence for a while but later I bought a Sudoku book and it had some really pretty difficult ones. Then I got to the idea that I'm not that smart but thinking back I think well looking at the way I solve it and how curious I was for doing such difficult task, I still need some kind of that spark me right now in facing my future. So I should probably do a lot of Sudokus nowadays but nowadays the newspaper doesn't provide that kind of much things. They think it is stupid. They don't consider much value for it but it is something that helps you increase your knowledge at the same time, your confidence. Solving something that is very hard helps you boost your confidence at the same time. Moreover the way the puzzles, not the puzzles, the rows and the questions they arranged, it's very much related to the current affairs thing that happening at that time. So all in all it was a great experience and the same time I would very much love to do

Band 6

So the puzzle that I recently played is Sudoku. Sudoku is a game usually in the form of different square boxes and you are given a set of numbers from 1 to 9. Now in these set of boxes, now every box is quite different from each other and horizontally and vertically a number that is usually typed in a box shouldn't be the same.

Band 6

So, recently I visited to the Airbnb in Chandigarh where I found that very unique kind of trapezium cube which we have to solve it. It is actually really hard to solve that cube or we can say a trapezium because that's very innovative and different. I have never saw that kind of puzzle in my entire life and in addition I would like to say that that cube was thrilled to me because it's really hard to solve it and yes, I can say my experience till end I wasn't able to solve it. So, yeah my experience is very incomplete. I should say I want to try it again one day and solve it for sure. Thank you.

Band 5-6

Well, I would like to talk about the puzzle when I open. During my childhood I used to play with lots of other puzzles and puzzles. Well, during my childhood I used to play with lots of puzzles and puzzles. Well, during my childhood I used to play with lots of puzzles, animal puzzles. It made up of with cardboards. I used lots of puzzles. It contains different types of images. We need to assemble it like a forest. And they have made it with different themes. It was a wonderful playtime for me when I was a kid. And also I remember I spent more than an hour because I like to play with it. Isn't it mom? My ears are paining. My ears are paining. Well, during my childhood I used to play with lots of puzzle cards. Like animal cards and other themes. It made up of with cardboards. I used to spend more time with that. Actually it is very easy to finish. It will not take much time. Because it is easy. Because when I was a child I played it. I do remember. And also each puzzle takes 2 minutes to finish. And it is an easy one. I had more than 100 puzzles. Because it is a wonderful playtime for me. I like it very much. And also I used to play with my friends and my siblings. Because every time when I started playing with it. We will have a competition. And I will request. We will see who will finish the game first. Who will finish the game second. We made it like a competition. And it is a wonderful activity. Whenever we are finding for the head. Or the other part of the animal. Or it is a tree. Whatever it is. It gave full satisfaction to me. Because that is what I am trying to say. It is one of the most important part in my life. Because after many years. I started solving the puzzles so easily. It helped me many ways to do that.
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