arrow back icon Top Answers

Describe a time when you made a plan to do an activity with a lot of people: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What activity it was?
  • Why you took part in it?
  • How it was organised?
Show all 116 answers

Cue 1:What activity it was?

  • Begin by clearly stating the activity you planned with a large group of people.
  • Provide some context about the significance of the activity, such as a festival, event, or gathering.

Example

The activity I planned was a community picnic for my neighborhood. We wanted to bring everyone together to enjoy a day of fun, food, and games, especially since we hadn’t had a gathering in a long time.

Cue 2:Why you took part in it?

  • Explain your motivation for organizing or participating in the activity.
  • Mention any personal connections or experiences that influenced your decision.

Example

I took part in organizing the picnic because I believe in fostering community spirit. I wanted to create an opportunity for neighbors to connect, especially after the pandemic when everyone felt isolated. I also have fond memories of similar picnics from my childhood, which inspired me to recreate that joy.

Cue 3:How it was organised?

  • Describe the steps you took to organize the activity, including planning and coordination.
  • Mention any challenges faced and how you overcame them.

Example

To organize the picnic, I first created a WhatsApp group to gather interested participants. We discussed the location, which was a local park, and decided on a potluck format where everyone would bring a dish. I also arranged for games and activities for children. One challenge was coordinating the food, but we managed by assigning specific dishes to families, ensuring a good variety.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, the picnic turned out to be a great success. It brought together over fifty families, and everyone had a wonderful time. It reminded me of the importance of community and how simple gatherings can strengthen bonds among people.

    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: Lack of Detail in Description

    Failing to provide enough details about the activity can make your answer sound vague. Specific examples help to engage the listener and demonstrate your language skills.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Include specific details such as the location, the number of people involved, and any memorable moments to make your answer more vivid.

    2: Ignoring the Organizing Process

    Not explaining how the activity was organized can leave your answer incomplete. This part shows your ability to describe processes and teamwork.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Outline the steps taken to organize the activity, such as planning meetings, assigning roles, and coordinating with others.

    Neglecting Personal Motivation

    Overlooking why you participated can make your response less personal and relatable. Sharing your motivation adds depth to your answer.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Explain your reasons for joining the activity, such as personal interest, socializing, or contributing to a cause, to connect with the examiner.

    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

    I remember a lot of activities till date that I have executed. But the one I remember now it was a travel activity basically or a travel plan as you can say. So it happened in the last month. I took the initiation because you know travel is very therapeutic for me. I told three of my friends to go with me and they immediately agreed. We went to Meghalaya which is in Assam probably. No it's not in Assam. I don't know where it is. I forgot basically. So we planned to have a visit for three days and I boarded a flight from Delhi and they came from Orissa. We had a lot of fun. We did hiking. We saw the seven sister waterfalls. It was truly amazing and specially it was rainy season that time. So the beauty, the natural beauty of Meghalaya is awesome. It is just indescribable. You will feel that oh this is the place I want to spend my lifetime. It's so beautiful. And as I told that the main initiations I took, I booked the ticket for them also. They came by train but I went via flight and we reached in the evening time. It was raining then but we didn't have any problem. We booked a hotel and stayed there for five days and that's how it went.

    Band >7

    The recent activity which I had done with a lot of people is distributing of food packets in poor areas. As I am very fond of helping the needy people, I had decided to help poor people who live in slum areas by giving them small lunch packets. I had started this with sending these messages about food distribution in all various WhatsApp groups. And whoever are interested they can send me their fund and they can participate in this program as a volunteer. Many of my friends and many of my relatives have joined in the program as a volunteer and I assisted everyone and I allotted everyone the required tasks they need. Then on a Monday evening we all went to the slum area and distributed food packets to all kids and adults and older age person who live there. The condition of them living was very bad but by seeing their happy faces we were extremely happy and overwhelmed. But to organize a task like this it is a hectic process as to gather everyone at a place and maintain all financial history and other things is very hard process. So for the sake of helping people it can be done. Thank you.

    Band 7

    A time when I initiated a party under me was two months back when I organized a bridal shower party to one of my best friends. She was my friend since my school days and we were friends for about 20 years. So when finally she decided to get married it was my dream to arrange a beautiful bachelorette party for her in order to celebrate her wedding and I organized it for her. We organized the party through a whatsapp group since we all were studying in different corners of Kerala. So we decided to form a whatsapp group without my best friend and we discussed about the theme, the dress code, the party menu and all the decorations there and we just told that we are having a get together on the date we have planned for the bridal party and asked her to come there. And it was a wonderful experience and it was a great success in terms of surprise because she never expected something like that because we were all busy with our work and career. So it was a fantastic experience and memory because we were able to celebrate our best friend before she was getting married.

    Band 7

    So I remember the time when I organized an event which consisted of around 600 people and it was a really successful event and even our heads praised us for our work. When I was in my college, I was the head of the National Service Scheme Society. Additionally, I was the event's head there. So as the event head, it was the duty of me to come up with an event which was a social service event. So I thought of organizing a blood donation camp. The blood donation camp was organized in our college auditorium and we got our permission last moment to organize it there from the authorities. Since we had limited funds, we partnered with a lot of sponsors to prepare meal boxes for the donors as well as all the donated blood went to the Road Track Club which is very famous in India. As the event's head, I organized the camp but I could not take part in it as I wasn't allowed to donate the blood. But I was really happy and I admired the fact that a lot of people came down, even the college students to donate the blood. The event was organized by a huge team of around 800 students from various departments of the college society. The event's team, the marketing team, the sponsorship team, the heads of the society, the president and the PR team came together to organize this successful event.

    Band 7

    Well, planning plays a pivotal role in the success of any activity, especially when a large number of people are involved. It mainly helps me in saving time, reducing the confusion and ensuring that everything runs like a clockwork. So speaking of a time when I made a plan with a lot of people, it takes me back to the COVID-19 pandemic period. During that difficult time, my entire residential society and I decided to organize a volunteer drive to support underprivileged families in the nearby areas. And moreover, if my memory serves me right, this plan was made in mid-2021, where we had a small meeting in our society park while maintaining social distancing norms. In addition, the core idea was to provide essential supplies like groceries, sanitizers and basic medicine to those who were struggling to make ends meet. To cut a long story short, around 50 members agreed to join the cause since I have always been considered a responsible and forward-thinking person, I was selected as the team leader. At first, I felt a bit challenged because managing such a large group was not a walk in the park, but I didn't let the grass grow under my feet. I quickly formed a smaller sub-team and delegated tasks with the help of a few senior residents. Step by step, we collected donations from nearby societies and used funds to purchase necessities like rice, lentils, cooking oils, face masks and sanitizers. All things considered, the experience was not only fulfilling, but also eye-opening. It helped me to develop important life skills.

    Band 7

    After completing our 12th grade, my best friend had plans to go abroad for his further studies and being an emotional human being, I was really offended with his decision but I was quite happy that he is focusing on his goals and he is aiming big in his life so just to spend a great time with him, I planned a trip to a water park named Wonderland situated in Jalandhar. It was the most memorable activity I had with him and I would definitely love to visit again to water park or something theme park like that. I would love to explore more new activities with him. We had the best time over there and we went to haunted house as well. We enjoyed other dry rides and the water slides as well. That was really mesmerizing moment and I would never forget it in my whole life and I hope the same for him. Though I really miss him, but I want him to achieve his goals and become really successful in his life. So, I told him to visit India again but because of the busy schedule, he is unable right now and he is planning for the same.

    Band 7

    Yes, I would love to share my experience when I made a plan to do an activity with a lot of people. It was during my brother's birthday, which was three months back. It was my first time hosting an event, especially a birthday, and this one was really near and dear to my heart because it was my brother's birthday. So I hosted it by blowing a few balloons, fixing it on walls, and then getting a happy birthday sign and then placing it over the wall, and then getting a lot of LEDs and sticking it all over, making it look really good. And then I also got him a few gifts. He was inviting his friends over to the party, so I got them return gifts as well. That's how I organized it. And this activity, which I planned out for them, was since they were really young. My brother had turned 11 recently, so every one of his friends were his classmates. So they were of the same age as well. So I thought of having it as a really fun activity. So what I did was I pre-planned the activities that I'm going to have with them, like dhamsharads, and then musical chairs, and then passing the ball, and then truth or dare. So games like these, I organized all these, and then even drawing lots or chits from baskets. So this made it really fun. And I took part in it because I was actually responsible for this party, and there's nothing

    Band 7

    I would like to talk about my college festival. It was our annual festival Technocultural named Udaan. So it contains both technical as well as non-technical events. The festival was held in April of 2024 and I was the co-organizer of the whole event. The event consisted of many games and other expert lectures as well. So there were many good memories with everyone and I feel that organizing this event has provided me with valuable leadership skills as well as managerial skills. This festival was an eye-opener for me because it helped me recognize my potential as a manager and how to organize an entire event. It was wonderful experience overall and I would like to organize such event next time also if given chance.

    Band 7

    In the year 2020, that was 5 years back, I volunteered to organize a school reunion. I reached out to my old friends from school, thanks to social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I was able to reach about 10-15 old schoolmates of mine, we were a batch of 80 people. And through my friend network, we were able to reach all 80 of them and we set a deadline to all of them to give a reply whether they could attend the reunion or not and also to suggest a suitable date for which we took an online poll. Ultimately, 50 people out of 80 agreed to attend the reunion. Finally, on the day of reunion, it was 45 people who managed to attend. 45 is a large number considering that we left school, we graduated from school 15 years back. It was a wonderful occasion. We were all nostalgic when we started discussing things from our school days, when we started discussing about our teachers, mischief days, etc. Now I have got photographs of the reunion and I can't wait to organize one more reunion this year or the next year based on my batchmates' availability.

    Band 7

    One fine day, me and my friends decided to go on a paranormal investigation, i.e. searching places where paranormal activities are quite known or seen. Eventually, we planned to go in a group of 3 people, but we ended up going 5-6 people all at once and we went to this place where people believed ghosts exist, which is not something we believe, but we were interested in knowing what kind of experience people had there. So we went to that place, took some random interviews with the locals staying there about what made them believe that something paranormal happened at that place. So that was one of the best experiences we had because we were more into thriller, suspense stories. We love watching horror movies together, so we wanted something that would give us a real time experience. Moreover, it was something we hadn't done together in a long time. It was something that made us realize that yes, there is some sort of energy that exists within us and also we have learnt a lot of things that we usually make fun of or let it go.
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
    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