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Describe a rule you did not like in school.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What was it?
  • How did other feel about this rule?
  • Did you ever violate this rule?
Show all 33 answers

Cue 1:What was it?

  • Clearly state the rule you disliked and provide context about it.
  • Explain why you found this rule unreasonable or difficult to follow.

Example

One rule I really disliked in school was the strict dress code. We were required to wear uniforms that were not only uncomfortable but also didn’t allow for any personal expression. I felt it stifled our individuality and made us all look the same.

Cue 2:How did others feel about this rule?

  • Mention the general sentiment among your classmates regarding the rule.
  • Share any specific instances or discussions that highlight their feelings.

Example

Most of my classmates shared my sentiments about the dress code. We often talked about it during lunch breaks, and many felt that it was outdated. Some even organized a petition to allow more freedom in our clothing choices, but it didn’t gain much traction.

Cue 3:Did you ever violate this rule?

  • Discuss any instances where you or your peers broke this rule.
  • Explain the consequences you faced or the reactions from teachers.

Example

Yes, I did violate this rule a couple of times. Once, I wore a colorful T-shirt under my uniform shirt. I was called out by a teacher and had to change into my uniform. It felt embarrassing, but I was willing to take that risk to express myself a little.

Conclusion

  • Summarize your feelings about the rule and its impact on your school experience.
  • Reflect on how this experience shaped your views on rules and regulations.

Example

In conclusion, while I understand the need for rules in school, I believe that some, like the dress code, can be overly restrictive. This experience taught me the importance of balancing discipline with personal expression, which is something I value even today.

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

Avoid being too vague when describing the rule. General statements can make your answer less engaging and informative, leading to a lower score.

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Tip

Provide specific details about the rule, including what it was and why it was unpopular among students.

2: Ignoring Others' Opinions

Neglecting to mention how others felt about the rule can make your response seem one-sided. It's important to show awareness of different perspectives.

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Tip

Include at least one or two examples of how your classmates reacted to the rule to enrich your answer.

Lack of Personal Experience

Failing to share your personal experience with the rule can make your answer less relatable. Personal stories can enhance your response significantly.

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Tip

Discuss whether you ever violated the rule and what motivated you to do so, adding depth to your answer.

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IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

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Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
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Anonymous student Band 7.5

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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
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

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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
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

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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
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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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
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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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

Speaking in native language, this was the rule which was being introduced in our school that if someone speaks in their own mother tongue, they will be fined for it. So a lot of my colleagues, I mean friends were unhappy with the rule which was taken by the school because you know it is very easy in order to express our feelings with each other when we are given a chance to speak in our native language and that feeling was shredded away because of this decision by the school authorities. But I and my friends used to violate this rule, we never followed this rule and we were continuously given so many warnings about it but still we were so ignorant that we kept doing the same and later on we were scolded by parents for repeatedly doing this and at last this went on and no one had the courage to stop us from doing this.

Band 6-7

The rule which I didn't like in school was sitting next to your friends, exactly the opposite gender. As the teachers think like if a boy and a girl sit next to each other, that's a wrong thing. Literally, that's not fair. We shouldn't discriminate boys and girls as we all see each other as friends. We have the right to speak to each other and maintain a good relationship. I have violated this rule many times. I used to sit near my best friend most of the time. I think that's not a bad thing to do. It's my right.

Band 6-7

Well, I don't like a rule called full uniform in my school. They often wear it every day, like tie, shoes and belt. And most of the people don't like, even my friends and even my college days, I held with this rule. And often I break this rule, I break many times in my college and schools. And often beaten by my teachers and in front of many girls in my school. They laughed at me because of the teacher's punishment. And I break it. Because there is no freedom, when I am in uniform, there is no freedom with us. Always against of this rule, except me. Many of them are, many of them are breaked, which is not, not at all bad, I think so. We can break that easily. But the thing is, scenarios, it is applicable for all the schools in this country. It's, we often feel sad about it. People and children should be free to wear, free to wear what they can do, what they can wear. It's not like that, like all people are equal. It's not discrimination about this thing.

Band 6-7

I think the rule which we had in school was to ask for permission to go to the restroom from the teacher. I think it's a ridiculous one because it it can come at any time and the teacher may be busy with some other students or his work and you cannot wait till the teacher gives permission or you and if the teacher declines it then hell breaks loose. So this kind of things makes this rule a ridiculous one. So I think this rule should be looked carefully at it again and I think it should be removed from my point of view and the small children will find it even more difficult because they'll be shy and those people cannot ask for permission and that the teacher might scold them or the teacher might and the other peers might make fun of them so they may do it on the place which is then leads to another situation which is not so ideal. So I think my other friends too didn't like this rule but since it was like that we has we had to accustom ourselves to that and so I think yeah we have I have broken I have broke that rule when teacher was writing something on blackboard and I felt the need to use the restroom and I just went straight

Band 6-7

There was this rule in our school where only the top-ranked students should commence the pledge every day. I did not particularly like this rule and most of my classmates do. They were actually very disappointed that only few of the classmates were able to go to commence the pledge. I never tried to violate it. I was one of those students who was able to go to pledge and all but I was quite disappointed knowing that it is only for top-ranked students and most of my classmates were not happy with the rule. I would say it should be, it can be modified like people who are interested to commence the pledge should get involved and not only the particular students in the classroom.

Band 6-7

So, I would like to describe a rule that was there in my school. My school was rather strict. I studied in the school since 4th standard up to my 12th standard. So, it was more strict compared to other schools. It had rules like we have to tie up the hair, the uniform should be proper with shoes and all. All those were good and they made also strict that students should attend the Bhagavad Gita class. And even though all these were mandatory, these were also good for the development of students. But the one thing that I found not pleasing was the rule that everyone should bring rice for their lunch. So, it is a personal choice and it will not be possible in every home to cook rice. Actually, in my home, during at that time, my brother was too young, he was like 1 or 2 years old and he used to be pestering my mother all the way from morning. So, it was very tedious for my mother to manage both my brother and to cook food for me. She had to cook both breakfast and the lunch together and also manage the small kid all to before and all these she has to do before 7 o'clock. Because at 7.15, my bus used to arrive. So, it was very difficult for her to manage all these things. In spite of all these, she cooked rice for me only for the sake of following these rules. I also didn't prefer to have rice. But still, as the school authority made it mandatory to bring rice.

Band 6

Honestly speaking, in my opinion, rules are important because a fixed rule and regulations in every institution or working centers helps to improve the organization's or institution's work properly. And it's essential because the basic rules are essential, but certain or some rules are very unnecessary and irritating. However, here I would like to talk about one of the rules that I don't like and it's about my college days and I was studying in a women's college and there is a rule that every students wear churidar and don't wear jeans or tops or midis like that. So it was an 80% students don't like the rule because we know this college years, college times are in between 18 to 20, 20 to 22 years and that time, I think the younger people are very fashionable about dress and no trends. So I think that is their own based preferences. So they have their own preferences and they are interested. So interesting, like how to wear, how to speak like that. So I think this is one of unnecessary rule that happen in our college and because and when there is a complaints are also written to principal about the issue and later it was changed, but that time all the students are not supported these rules and one of the main thing I don't like that every individual has their own preference to choose a dress. So I think that rule was one of the unnecessary and I don't like the rule because this is one of the rule that I don't like.

Band 5-6

I would like to talk about a role I was took during my high school when I was in 12th standard I was a class in charge, the roles and responsibilities of class in charge includes submitting reports to the teachers, taking care, looking at the students if they are talking or not, I was not happy about that position because I was not engaging in...

Band 5-6

so the rule which I don't like in my school that was not allowed of mobile phone in classes or even in the school at functions or even daily basis so it was just so disgusting that we are dressed up like so pretty and we don't even allowed to click photos with our own phones and that function of school so it was so annoying sometimes we got punished actually we sometimes take phone our mobile phone secretly but it was so punishable to us there I actually once I get punishment for that like I was suspended for seven days just to keep a phone with me for a function it was so disgusting and others are also very violent for that because everyone wants to click photos and also want to record something like it was a farewell and I kept phone secretly and I was tapped out and it was so punishable and it was just amazed yeah so I was it was I don't like that and we I sometime go against this rule but I got punished and was never changed so I changed the school yeah

Band 5-6

I don't like Indian free structure policy because many people, my students who are financially weak, they didn't have enough money to pay office for their children, so they do suicide and drink poison, and the school does not understand their financial condition.
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