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Describe a skill that was difficult to learn: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What skill was it?
  • When, why, and how did you learn it?
  • How do you feel about it?
Show all 30 answers

Cue 1:What skill was it?

  • Clearly state the skill you found challenging to learn.
  • Provide a brief context about why this skill was important to you.

Example

The skill I found particularly difficult to learn was playing the guitar. I have always been passionate about music, and I wanted to play my favorite songs for my friends and family.

Cue 2:When, why, and how did you learn it?

  • Mention when you started learning this skill and the motivation behind it.
  • Describe the methods you used to learn, such as taking classes or self-study.

Example

I started learning the guitar about two years ago when I was in college. I wanted to impress my friends at a gathering, so I signed up for a local music class. Initially, I struggled with finger placements and strumming patterns, but I practiced daily and sought help from my instructor.

Cue 3:How do you feel about it?

  • Share your feelings about the learning process and the skill itself.
  • Reflect on how this skill has impacted your life or your confidence.

Example

Looking back, I feel proud of my perseverance. Although it was frustrating at times, learning the guitar has been incredibly rewarding. It has boosted my confidence and allowed me to connect with others through music.

Conclusion

  • Summarize the key points you made about the skill.
  • Express any future intentions regarding this skill or similar skills.

Example

In conclusion, learning to play the guitar was a challenging yet fulfilling experience. I plan to continue improving my skills and perhaps even perform at local events in the future.

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 giving unclear or general answers. Being vague can make it difficult for the examiner to understand your experience and feelings about the skill.

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Tip

Provide specific details about the skill, including examples of challenges you faced and how you overcame them.

2: Ignoring Emotional Impact

Not expressing how you feel about the skill can make your answer less engaging. Emotions help to connect your experience to the examiner.

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Tip

Share your feelings about learning the skill, such as frustration, joy, or pride, to make your response more relatable.

Lack of Structure

A disorganized answer can confuse the listener. It's important to present your thoughts in a clear and logical order.

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Tip

Follow the cue prompts in order: start with the skill, then discuss when and how you learned it, and finish with your feelings about it.

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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
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Reported by

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 5-6

Yes, I do. The skill that was difficult to learn was, not much of that. I really love to learn everything, and it's very difficult to learn English, and speaking, coming, and this is a very bad thing, so I want to learn, to learn English, so I prefer the app IELTS, so now I prefer to speak English, and I get to learn many things, and I also prefer for everyone to use this app, it's very helpful for everyone, not only for me, for every person, it's very helpful, so you must, or you should, learn English, you want to survive without any languages, it's not about only the sign languages, you need to speak English as a common language, official language throughout the world, so we must learn, the fluency of English made us, more interesting, and attractive person, among the world, and we should, and we would, learn the English, and allow everyone to speak English, it should be continued, as well as, all should learn it. Thank you.

Band 5-6

Skill is the thing which is outside the academics but you want to improve your own self to stand out in the external world. For me, I was so eager to learn the English speaking and it was not so difficult for me because I was in the English medium school but as I live in UP, there was no one to talk to in English here in my town. There is no one literally like English teacher basically speaks in Hindi even in the English lecture. So to put myself into this English atmosphere was quite difficult I will say because there was no one to talk to and no one to practice with too. So it was just my own who was practicing with myself and watching the movies, watching the English programs and listening and yeah, singing in English in front of the mirror. I was just me, it was just me who was practicing in English and I think about it was a wonderful experience and not so real like I am still learning English like I want to raise my level, still want to raise my level. This is all I think about English like it's a language which everyone should know and I don't think that in any country that people, that if you know English you can speak literally to everyone and anytime. So it's a extremely crucial skill. Everyone should be focused for learning English I would say.

Band 5-6

As I know there is so much skills in the world but the skill which is very difficult to me is doing a chemistry because doing a chemistry is not a easy job because most of the time we struggle with synthesizing the drugs and because it was one of my subject in my bachelors in my university then it's mandatory for me to place the reactions and analyze the product what we are going to synthesize so actually my project was on anti-cancer drug synthesis so that's why I have been doing my chemistry since 2018 and it is very interesting it feels me very motivating because whenever I synthesize a new product or any anti-cancer drugs it suddenly go for a trial on rats and monkeys if they give us some positive result against the cancer cells then we are ready to develop much more drugs related to that and modifying that drug also to keep the human healthy and it is very good for human well-being also so that's why I am very happy for my work which I learned these skills from my bachelors to masters and until now it's quite a good job and I always try to learn something new in chemistry whenever I get a chance to do new

Band 5-6

so a skill that was difficult for me to learn was guitar lesson so during my school period I used to get some guitar lessons from my nearby teacher and the difficulty and the difficulty that I usually face and face at that time was I I usually got confused between the notes of the guitar and I almost take it wrong and but rather than on every time complaining about it I practice every day at my home after the classes and and got my and got my practice harder on time and I used to practice with some background songs that helped me to you know keep the pace and to keep in the momentum and yes we can say that it is a time when I face too much difficulty to learn the guitar tunes and yes I can also say that after practicing every day after the after getting the guitar lessons every day not skipping any of the lessons I really got a good hand on guitar and I remember that I have played guitar on one of my favorite songs in my annual function at the school time and at that time I got really got a good appreciation from all of the audience and which helps me to keep which has me motivated to keep learning about it

Band 5-6

The skills which are difficult to learn was playing badminton and tennis, so if I talk about tennis, it is difficult to learn because we need to keep the posture maintained of our shoulders, like we need to swing our shoulders using the racket in a way that it will hit the ball and the ball should cross the net and while make sure that we need to make the process specific and align again with the penalties and also we need to get in the position back so that when the opponent hit the ball again, we will be able to get to the ball in the right time and we can hit it again. Sometimes we need to hit from the right side of our body and sometimes we need to hit from the left side of our body and in that case we need to use both of our hands and that was a difficult skill because I was able to hit from the right side of my body but in the left side of my body, I was able to use both my hands to hit the ball. So what I was doing, I was using the same method also in the left side but it was not a very easy thing to do. Most of the time when I was hitting, I mostly hit the ball out of the ground so that was a problem for me and in that there was also a solution to it. We need to tilt the racket a bit so that the ball might spin but it was very difficult because I was not able to cross the ball using this posture. you

Band 5-6

Well, there are a number of skills that I have learned, because here I would like to talk about one of my favorite skills that I have learned, which is difficult, that is cooking. Cooking is my favorite skill. Cooking is my favorite skill. When I was a child, I also loved cooking with the help of my mother. My mother is a tasty and delicious cook. She is an expert in cooking. She taught me how to cook. Mostly I cook my favorite dishes like pasta and pizza. I also bake a cake for the first time. It was very tasty. I share it with my friends and my family. She also told me that the cake is very delicious. So, cooking is my favorite hobby. So, when I am free, I make a cooking. Cooking is very important for everyone's life.

Band 5-6

I think when I'm learning about application development I think it is a very good very good skill to earn money and develop your good career in IT related course and when I was I when I was in college I am applying for a fun fun fun international companies like Google and Microsoft and Adobe and Oracle and so many other other companies they have some requirements and some qualification there I can complete their qualification but I cannot complete the requirements like they need Java data structures and algorithms and MySQL databases like MySQL and other other things at the time I think I should learn about the skills on the basic application development because because application development are include all these things and I think it is a very good to learn to create a good future in IT related IT related courses after and also also in a job also in a job when so you if you if you can build your career in a good way at the time you can learn this skill and I feel this is a very good good skill you can learn you know also you can use this skill in adaptable and changing this changes you can learn the this this skills in changing this world and you can adapt these skills and you can you can feel about

Band 5-6

Today I am going to talk about my skill that I learnt and it was really difficult for me. It was car driving when I clearly remember when I was in 10th standard. That time I recommended for my grandfather he learnt me car driving but he also recommended me that I should learn that in 11th standard. I clearly remember when I was in 11th standard. That time my grandfather teach me how to learn driving skills and first time I really scared for that because I have never experience for about driving so that's why when I was in first try I gave a first try then I feel really good because I never do any mistake and my grandfather also proud on me and that's why I learnt that driving skill because of my competition from my nephew so that's why I learnt that and I also completed that my task and I achieve a first position on that competition. I really feel proud.

Band 5-6

Learning skill is very difficult for me because it is not my mother tongue. In addition, because of his pronunciation or grammar, it seems too difficult for me. In addition, I try to learn hard. I practice with my friend. I also practice with my husband once in a day to learn these skills. I try to learn hard. I practice with my neighbor also. I try to learn new vocabulary to learn these learning skills. I watch the YouTube videos to learn these skills. I watch the Hollywood movies to improve my English skills. I watch YouTube videos in which mention in English articles to learn English. Moreover, I read newspaper to improve my English skills. I chat with my friend to learn these skills. And I learn English with the stranger to speak with them to improve my skills. And I practice with my husband once in a day to learn these skills. I like to chat with my friends as well. And now I feel I improve my English a little bit. And I'm so happy with my communication skills. I try to learn new skills. In addition, I learn these skills with my siblings also. I talk with them and I practice much more

Band <5

what is the pathology, the pathology is study purpose, it is very used for and scientific reported and clear report knowledge we can learn, purpose we have to decide the pathology, the pathology a subject we have to classify for the three type, one is the histopathology, another one cytopathology, another one and clinical pathology, so different type of pathology examinations we want to learn and the skill important for the everyone, for examples the histopathology we can read first of all the tissue fixation and tissue examinations and tissue, how to strain, how to antigen-antibody reactions, what are the reactions ongoing now, what is the problem of the tissues and what are the problem will we will making the treatment, so that is we want to study about for the skill purpose, for example I can say now histopathology study about for the tissues, examinations for the tissue, so grossing examinations, embedding examinations, section examinations, straining examinations and other for and antigen-antibody reaction examinations and other one slide examinations, the slide examinations for what are the abnormalities, what kind of abnormalities causes to the human tissues, why that cancer form, what are the proteins interaction to there, which proteins is a excerpt
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