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Describe a risk you took that you thought would lead to a terrible result but ended up with a positive result: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • When you took the risk
  • Why you took the risk
  • How it went
  • And explain how you felt about it
Show all 24 answers

Cue 1:When you took the risk

  • Begin by mentioning the specific time and situation when you took the risk.
  • Make it relatable by sharing a brief background about your life at that time.

Example

I took this risk about two years ago when I was working in a stable job in a multinational company. I had been there for three years, but I felt unfulfilled and wanted to pursue my passion for photography.

Cue 2:Why you took the risk

  • Explain your motivations for taking the risk, focusing on your passion or desire for change.
  • Mention any fears or doubts you had before making the decision.

Example

I decided to leave my job because I wanted to follow my dream of becoming a professional photographer. Although I was scared of the financial instability and the possibility of failure, I felt that if I didn’t try, I would always regret it.

Cue 3:How it went

  • Describe the process of taking the risk and the challenges you faced.
  • Share the positive outcomes that resulted from your decision.

Example

Initially, it was tough. I struggled to find clients and often doubted my skills. However, after a few months of hard work, I started getting recognition for my work. I even had my first exhibition, which was a huge success.

Cue 4:And explain how you felt about it

  • Reflect on your emotions during the journey, both the highs and lows.
  • Conclude with how this experience changed your perspective on taking risks.

Example

Looking back, I felt a mix of anxiety and excitement throughout the journey. The fear of failure was always present, but the joy of pursuing my passion outweighed it. This experience taught me that taking risks can lead to unexpected and rewarding outcomes.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, taking that risk to follow my passion for photography turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. It not only brought me happiness but also taught me the importance of stepping out of my comfort zone to achieve my dreams.

    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: Avoid Vague Descriptions

    Using vague language can make your story less engaging and unclear. Specific details help the examiner understand your experience better and make your answer more memorable.

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    Tip

    Include specific dates, places, and emotions to paint a clearer picture of your experience.

    2: Don't Focus Solely on Negatives

    Focusing too much on the potential negative outcomes can make your answer sound pessimistic. It's important to balance the risks with the positive results.

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    Tip

    Start by acknowledging the risk, then shift to the positive outcome and what you learned from the experience.

    Neglecting Personal Feelings

    Failing to express your feelings about the experience can make your answer less relatable. Personal emotions add depth to your story and engage the listener.

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    Tip

    Share how you felt before, during, and after taking the risk to create a more compelling narrative.

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    Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood
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    Anonymous student Band 8

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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.
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    Anonymous student Band 6.5

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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.
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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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    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

    During my life, I have taken so many breaks, but the major one was when I just completed my bachelor degree and wanted to switch to another course, which is completely different from what I have studied before. The background was also different. As I am a medical student, I have completed bachelor in different degree, but switching to a financial subject was a big risk that I have taken ever. My family members also were not in support of me, but eventually it turned out to be a big positive result as after taking that course, I was able to succeed in my life and able to earn huge amount, which will be used for my further future growth. That's why I can say that was the biggest risk that I have taken, which turned out to be a gift for me. Moreover, during that days, I was very much stuck about whether to choose or not to choose that particular subject as it involves a big risk. However, it has a positive impact.

    Band 6

    In my opinion, Post-Node development is the process in which a person took place, an action or thing or doing through a particular project or and finally evolved into a new development or new achievement or new learning process. That's how the risk I should take on this learning MBA course. The hectic with it is, I thought that it was difficult for me. While I go through that classes, I can grasp it easily, the lectures. That's how I feel. I'm also proud of myself to achieve that moments while the learning classes provides in the classrooms. Eventually, I also grabbed that the Post-Node development in the form of the MBA classes. This is the risk where I took for my developmental processes as a homoeopathic doctor because I never know anything about management and Post-Node development. Only knowing some few diseases and all the symptoms, etc. But there is an entirely different perspective from that views. Both of the views are different and both of these help us to meet a good person. So that the risk also increases.

    Band 6

    I would like to share an experience when I wrote my GE exam, it is the exam is basically a joint entrance examination to join in an engineering highly reputed engineering colleges so I started preparing for it and after exam is coming near I thought I would like to share an experience where I took a biggest risk in my life which turned to a great decision it was when I was when I wrote my GE exam it was a joint entrance exam to to get into a highly reputed college yeah when the exam is getting closer day by day I got fear of failing it because I am poor at physics the exam consists of chemistry maths and physics I know I am ready for any challenges in physics and and chemistry and maths but I'm not ready for physics but that night before exam night I saw a YouTube video where they told us to keep random the exam is a multi-choice questions but it has a negative marks but the night I saw that video to put all the options I took that advice on the next day I used it I used that advice by taking all questions randomly after doing that I felt I was frightened but after the result got out it turned out to be a very great success because I passed the exam with the flying colors moreover I got into a great college where I completed my graduation it was a very reputed reputed college it is the National Institute of Nagpur which is the one of the best colleges in Maharashtra and my parents also very felt very happy

    Band 6

    There are so many risks which I have taken in my life till now, but today I would like to talk about a risk which I had to choose, which was taken by me when I first planned to do a bachelor's degree in BCA, which was one of the biggest risks I have ever taken because at that time I was not that much sure about, and also I am not that much good in computer, I was not having any kind of computer skills as well, but after that I planned, and after that when I started studying BCA, it felt really good, like I was even having difficulties while learning as well, but I never gave up on that thing, and my teachers and my friends always, and my also family members always praised me by whatever I achieved in that thing, when I took that decision, because the main reason behind it was that the rising opportunities which employers are getting in the computer section, like in the IT, in the big IT companies, and also it is very much important and necessary in this generation as well, like technologies are getting, coming more and more in the upcoming days, and it is very much necessary to have that kind of knowledge in our life. When I was slowly learning, as much as I passed any semesters, I used to have a basic level of knowledge, and after that I also got a bigger knowledge as well, anyone in the fifth semester, when there was a project, I had to make a website, at that time I made a website on chocolate selling, and that website was, comes out really nice, and my teacher was so much good, was so much happy from me, and

    Band 6

    There are several incidents in my life, but... Life is all about overcoming the problems and solving and leading a happy life. As far as I am concerned, in my life there are many incidents that I face and come upon. But one incident that I would like to share, would like to talk about is... When I was in intermediate, my father and my relatives forced me to take course which is famous and was relevant for them. But I didn't like mathematics and chemistry. They were very annoying for me. I loved the arts and commerce background. So, I had to take the decision of taking the commerce. Then I went to my father and said, I want to pursue only commerce. So, it was very hard to take that decision. Then I went on. It was so very hard for me to lead a happy life. I went through various... for a certain amount of time... For some months, I couldn't ask anything for me to my parents. So, I was very much engaged in reading my own text books and all this stuff. Then I started... I was depressed for some months and then I started motivating myself and rising like a phoenix bird. Then I came across very challenging aspects in my life. So, how to be confident and use my skills potentially to produce a productive work.

    Band 6

    So a risk that I took which led to a positive result is choosing up my girlfriend. Initially when I thought I need a girlfriend and I had a lot of friends around me and I wanted an emotional attachment with a person I thought to choose a girlfriend for myself and a life partner technically. So first I thought it would be a terrible decision because I'm risking my life on my own because I have seen a lot of movies and I've seen a lot of friends in relationship but at last it ended to be a positive response. So there was a girl named Himanetri. She was my junior in college. She is from 22nd batch and we initially started talking in the month of November 2023. The initial conversation between us was for her course registration in our college and about a medical certificate for her attendance. Then it gradually developed and we started chatting every day and we chatted for hours and hours. Then later one fine day on 24th January 2024 I proposed her with whole of my heart and she also accepted at the very right moment and it was a very major decision that I took in my life. So initially in first time in relationship it was very tough for me to manage my studies, my projects and my relationship but she was very kind of person who used to help me in all the steps, who used to have good motive thoughts and motivate me all over and we had good times all over. We went for a few dates, we had time to go to beach, we had time to spend ourselves and later taking a six months time we told in our houses and even in our house at last they accepted. However I am from Tamil Nadu basically Tamilian and she being a Telugu person it was little hard time to make them accept but at last we accepted ourselves and our families accepted us as a whole and now we are having a good relationship and we will be flying to US together from the upcoming months and this is what the most best decision I took in my life where it was positive at the end.

    Band 6

    The risk I took that would lead to a terrible result but ended up a positive result. When I was in my 12th and I was giving my boy exam, it was our geography boy exam and I had to, I was very sick at that time that I couldn't prepare for it. I couldn't prepare for the geography exam before I got sick but at that time I also had my other papers like pole science and history so I couldn't prepare for the geography because I thought there's plenty of gap between history and geography so I thought I'll prepare between them. But then I got sick due to which I couldn't prepare for the geography exam and at last minute I thought I wouldn't give the exam because I was very unconfident about my knowledge about geography but my parents they told me like just give it a try. If it doesn't go well it's fine but you should at least give it a try so I did and at that time I went with zero knowledge and when I sat in the exam hall I was so nervous but looking at the question paper I felt like I knew something, it's not that I don't know anything. And then I started attempting the questions and I felt great like I thought it went way better than I expected. After that when the result was out it was I got out of 100 I got 73 or something so I felt really good and yeah.

    Band 6

    The day I decided to prepare for NEET so that I could become a doctor, that was the day I realized that I had chosen a very tough option. This is a highly competitive exam. I remember when I gave it, I had competed with 17 lakh students. That gives a very small percentage of students becoming a doctor by getting into a medical school. I remember I was fairly confident before taking the exam because I had prepared well and I had done everything that I could, however, it was only dawned on me after the exam that if I am unable to ace this exam, I had no other options.

    Band 6

    Body shaming is a thing that takes all the confidence of a person. Same was the thing with me. In 2022, I faced this kind of issue and I thought to take a step for myself because it drained all my energy and my confidence and I was unable to talk to anyone because I used to face some body shaming in the university. So in 2022, when I got a job in a well-reputed company, I gained some confidence and I was able to get a good remark from the manager and I was able to perform very well. So I gained some confidence. Then I did some gym and some diet and I got fit so I was able to face the people who used to body shame me and to answer them. So it was a decision that seems that it would lead to a terrible result but it ended up with very good results because at the end, I was able to make me happy. I stood in front of the mirror and saw myself and I was very happy to know that I got fit so I can now face body shaming. So I took a stand for myself and I felt very confident and I speak for myself and it went very well and I gained my confidence back and it made me more attractive and confident and popular among the colleagues.

    Band 5-6

    As I am preparing for IELTS exam and I am not able to speak, I am not good in speaking module so I do more practice for each and every module and I have to give IELTS exam in short time as I am not able to learn more, I have not that much time to learn and therefore I thought that I can take risk for giving exam if by chance I get good band score, for that thinking I started, I booked my exam date and give the exam, I am very nervous and stressed about it because I cannot prepare well and I take that risk and when the result came out I am extremely happy and surprised by showing my score, I got good band score
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