arrow back icon Top Answers

Describe a time when you changed your opinion: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What was it?
  • When & why did you change it?
  • How did you feel about it?
Show all 30 answers

Cue 1:What was it?

  • Clearly state the opinion you had before and what it was about.
  • Provide context to help the listener understand why this opinion was significant.

Example

Initially, I had a very negative opinion about online learning. I believed that it lacked the personal touch and effectiveness of traditional classroom education.

Cue 2:When & why did you change it?

  • Describe the specific event or experience that led to your change of opinion.
  • Explain the reasons behind your change, focusing on what new information or experiences influenced you.

Example

During the pandemic, I was forced to attend online classes for my college courses. I realized that the interactive tools and resources available made learning engaging and accessible. This experience changed my perspective completely.

Cue 3:How did you feel about it?

  • Share your feelings before and after the change of opinion.
  • Reflect on how this change has impacted your views or actions moving forward.

Example

At first, I felt skeptical and resistant to the idea of online learning. However, after experiencing it, I felt relieved and excited about the flexibility it offered. I now advocate for a blended learning approach, combining both online and offline methods.

Conclusion

  • Summarize the key points of your experience and the change of opinion.
  • Mention any lasting effects this change has had on your life or studies.

Example

In conclusion, changing my opinion about online learning has opened up new avenues for my education. I now appreciate the benefits of technology in learning and continue to embrace it in my studies.

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 Responses

Providing vague or unclear answers can make it difficult for the examiner to understand your experience. Specific details help illustrate your point and make your response more engaging.

bulb icon

Tip

Use clear examples and specific details when describing the situation, the change, and your feelings to create a vivid picture.

2: Lack of Structure

Failing to organize your thoughts can lead to a confusing response. A well-structured answer helps convey your message more effectively and keeps the examiner engaged.

bulb icon

Tip

Follow a clear structure: introduce the situation, explain the change, and describe your feelings. This will help you stay focused.

Overly Emotional Language

Using overly emotional or dramatic language can detract from the clarity of your response. It's important to express your feelings but in a balanced way.

bulb icon

Tip

Aim for a calm and reflective tone when discussing your feelings about the change. This will make your response more relatable and credible.

calendar icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

location icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

location icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

location icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

location icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

location icon

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 7

A time when I changed my opinion was very recently, for a very long time I used to think that language learning is a very restricted career option, like it has a very restricted career option, I felt that only learning a language would not make you reach somewhere, like you always need something as a backup, to back that up with the language, but after I enrolled myself into the masters, I realized that it's not only about a language, but it's about the culture, the people and the civilization most importantly, moreover I felt it when I went deeper into the studies of a particular language, for me I started with the foreign language, French, French is said to be a very romantic language, but it is very difficult to understand in the beginning, but as soon as you get the grasp of it, you realize how easier it gets with time, with practice it makes you perfect, and yeah I feel great about it that I was able to change my opinion about learning a foreign language, and that has been really helpful and added value to my life, I hope I continue to learn more languages to enhance my skills, thank you.

Band 6-7

After completion of my MBBS course, I decided to move for a non-clinical masters as an M.D.O. in Medical Management. So, when I completed my MBBS, at that time I was sure that I will not carry out for non-clinical option. I will go for clinical option only. I feel very happy that I choose MBA as my master course rather than doing clinical rotational shifts and night duties. Here, in non-clinical thing, we don't have to do night duties which is more convenient for me. I would like to pursue this further and there is no regret of changing my opinion for non-clinical jobs. At the beginning, I was thinking that people who are doing clinical jobs only have a good reputation and non-clinical person is not having that much good reputation being a boy. But after a certain time, I get to realize that people with having good graduation and master degree doing impactful role in non-clinical jobs is having much more value than the person who is doing clinical job. Thank you.

Band 6-7

Well, I was a very rigid minded person. I used to believe that staying in a native place is way better than moving abroad for any reason. I was someone who is very attached to their roots, but when I have encountered that many of my friends are moving abroad for their higher education and in no time they are developing their skills, getting their degrees, starting their business, happy with the jobs, with good packages, I changed my mind, of course for better. I have changed my entire mindset toward moving to foreign countries. I started believing that being rigid and being in your comfort zone gives you nothing. What is really challenging is to move out of your comfort zone and try adventurous things.

Band 6-7

The time when I changed my opinion actually I don't remember it correctly but when I was I just completed my 10th standards and I was actually looking for science so I was having and keen interest in engineering so I was thinking to take a science background in 11th but later down after doing some research after going through some after writing some points and going through my profile I thought that engineering is not what actually I want to do in life I want to do a business or like I my mind works like an entrepreneur so that's why I have been taking masters in entrepreneurship I have done my graduation BBA which is Bachelor Business Administration so I think that science won't actually suit me so I changed my opinion towards commerce so in 11th 12th I took the commerce and actually afterwards it helped me in my real life because now I am seeing the real world is changing after as the covid hit and the engineers are also not getting jobs right now people students from VJT which is a great institution people are getting 10 to 15,000 jobs which is why I think my opinion that I changed at the correct time and I worked on myself I did my research thoroughly I took the correct decision and I think yeah it helped me very much and I am in the process of doing it.

Band 6-7

In 2018 when I got failed in class 11th, there was two options that are visible to me. To start up a small business, asking my parents for some kind of investment or to repeat the class 11th and to face my failure again and to overcome with the next generation of myself. Then I choose to not to start up with the business, wasting my parents money instead of facing my failure, I grab the opportunity to repeat class 11th and face my fear. Then I came to realize that it was not that tough decision but it was the brilliant one. I have to do that thing to overcome any kind of challenges in my early start up career. As for now, I am very grateful that I took that decision because it given me immense power to face any kind of challenges in my life. And now it's 2025 again, some situation has arrived in my career that I have to leave a job and start preparation for my masters. Yes, leaving a job was a tough decision but it was not because I know I can do that thing. I can face any challenges because I have seen the failure in my early start up age. So yes, I am proud of taking that decision at the correct time. If I would have taken the business opportunity right there, I would have not faced myself.

Band 6-7

Earlier this year, in the first week of January, I had, me and my father were having various debates about what should I do after I complete my graduation. I had certain plans of starting a business, a start-up company, whereas my father wanted me to go and study further in the Europe, Republic of Europe. Me and my father had debates daily about it, but I believed my father had the right interests about me. He believed that if I go and study further, it will actually help me with my business. He also gave me the idea of starting a business company while I'm studying so that the colleges will actually look at me as an alumni. I really liked his idea and therefore I changed my opinion about starting a business instead of studying. I also had a discussion with my sister about it and she actually agreed with my dad. I believe I get sometimes hard-headed, therefore I wasn't thinking straight, but at the end, my father turned out to be right and I do not regret it even a little bit. I believe that fathers and mothers always have the right interests for us. Therefore, whatever they say, whatever they do, it's always in the best interest. It is a refreshing feeling thinking about how our parents love us so much that they would not let us take the wrong step.

Band 6-7

The experience that I am going to talk about today is one that I had in college, it relates to a team project that we were doing and it was one of the times where I really had to focus and calm myself and change my experiences for the betterment of another team, unfortunately. This project was for a video script that we were to develop and it just so happens that two of the teams, my team and an opposing team had the same exact script. It happens by chance, it just so happened by chance that we got the same script but when we convened to talk about it, the other team was relentless in trying to keep their script and asking us to change it. I was livid since they were not adjusting or they were not trying to understand our situation and instead they ran to the teachers and tried to convince them to be on their side as well and they succeeded. Moreover, the teachers expected us to change since we came in a little bit later than the other team to announce our project. I took it on the chin and tried to calm myself and tell my teammates that it's okay, this is an opportunity to grow and to try another method of thinking. Ultimately, we did succeed in finding a new script and fun fact, we actually won that project.

Band 6-7

So, previously I had an opinion about homosexuals that homosexuality is a sin. I believed it because of the upbringing that I had, which was very extreme religious. My parents both were religious and because of which I believed that homosexuality or getting involved in homosexual acts is something that is not permissible in the society. However, my opinions tend to change when I was introduced to the topic of homosexuality in my college life. I also had one friend who was a homosexual who identified himself as gay and he propagated LGBT rights in the college. He was the one who also initiated the program which let people know about the LGBT rights and how they feel. It is through him that I got to know about homosexuals and homosexuality and about their rights and their emotions. They have the same emotions as straight people. In fact, they have to struggle more than any other average human being to survive on this planet. Often, they are subjected to violence and hate all over the world. As learning after all of this, my opinion about homosexuality drastically changed and I started thinking that no, it is not a sin.

Band 6-7

As a typical student in India, I always had this opinion about college that college life is going to be liberating and that college life is going to be very good. But in reality, that was not the case. When I went to college in the very first year, I was rushed to reality that P-TECH life wasn't exactly like I imagined it to be. It was way harder than I thought. It was horrible, to be precise. And furthermore, the academic approach that my college used was exactly the opposite to what I imagined it to be. This was one time, so this was one time that I had to change my opinion about something in my life. And I have to, and if I had to describe how I felt about it, I could say devastating. I was devastated on the first day itself, knowing how I was going to pursue my studies in this college.

Band 6-7

If you ask me a changed opinion of mine, I would say like, when I completed my plus two studies, I was very stressed about my future plans. So I discussed with my friends and family, what should I do, like I don't have any plans to do. They said, you should go to engineering school, prepare for GE and chem exams like that. So I prepared for the exams, I cracked the exams for GE and I got admission in one engineering college. But I didn't feel like I have to do engineering, but I like more into maths field. So I cancelled the admission to the engineering college and I joined to the BSc Maths course, which I felt good after that. So after that, I completed my masters in statistics. So I am looking forward to do my second masters in actual science now. So I feel good about that I didn't go to the first opinion or first plan according to my friends and family. But I changed my opinion to go for studies to engineering field that I didn't feel good.
1 2 3
ielts logo

Get the IELTS Prep App

Star rating icon

4.2

1M+ Installs

 app download banner image

Get the app link on your phone

+91

Or download app from

google play storeapp store
master ielts speaking ad