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 6-7

    I remember in 2007, I started an online business, an e-commerce and an e-commerce business with Amazon, and firstly I started selling wallets, banks. And I thought through this business, I'll give employment to my parents and my sisters also. So, I distributed the work that my father will do this particular task, my mother will do this particular task. That plan I had. However, when I started executing those tasks, I utterly failed in executing that. Furthermore, my father and my mother were not interested in that particular task. But at first when I was thinking about the whole process, I was very excited because I thought this one work will give employment to everyone. And this is the great thing I am doing. However, after sometime I got to know that this is something, I have taken a bad decision. So, after few days, not few days I'll say, after few months, I just stopped that work and I started looking for jobs. And then I moved to sales profile. And from that time I am working in sales. Now, after working in sales,

    Band 6-7

    The last activity that I had been part of was a team activity. The last activity that I was part of was a team building activity organized by my office for my team. It was a paintball arena activity where we all gathered to play the paintball game. It was situated almost 10 km from our office and we really enjoyed that while playing. The last activity that I was part of was a team building activity organized by my office. The last activity that I was part of was a team building activity. I work for a... The last team activity that I was part of was a team building activity held almost two weeks back. So, it was a team building activity. The last activity that I was part of was a team building activity which was organized by my company two weeks back. There were 15 members who participated in the activity and I was one of them. The team building activity was mostly focused towards a game called as paintball. This is a game where the entire team is divided into two separate squads where each team's aim is to nullify the other team. The team which basically tries to neutralize the other team wins in the end. So, we were divided into two parts. The last activity that I was part of was a team building activity two weeks back. The major objective of the activity was to create a family environment among the teammates. There are total of 15 members in my team who participated in the activity. The activity was specifically a game called as paintball. So, we travelled to the arena to play paintball. The game revolves around two teams where the entire 15 member squads were divided into two teams where the objective of the winner should be to neutralize the other team using toy gun. These toy guns are given to each member in the team where the objective of each member is to neutralize the other team. I participated in the task since I really love such sports where the entire team is included and we as a team try to achieve a certain goal. It was organized by my higher management who were willing to go ahead and organize all of this for us. Post the activity, we also had a lunch party near our office.

    Band 6-7

    Right after my completion of secondary academics, a time where after which all my classmates would be segregated into different areas, we made up a plan to go and visit a zoo, that's called as Ormanji Zoo, which was about almost 10 km away. I had decided with my colleagues, I'm sorry with my peer members and we happened to go there and we enjoyed viewing the animals, admiring the monkey, the way it hops around, it gave us pleasant feeling. On reaching Ormanji Zoo, not only did we look at the animals, we even had activities like truth and dare, where we enjoyed giving tasks to people who accepted dare. We also had games like anthrakshri, it's basically a game of songs. We even played name plays animal thing, which helped us widen our knowledge based on different languages and different animals and different places. In the end, we even had foods, the cuisines were a variety of it.

    Band 6-7

    As far as I could remember, it was the late December of 2024 when I had planned to conduct or to organize a blood donation camp for the elderly people. The main reason behind this was my ultimate thought to give it back to the roots from where I have come from and looking at the current scenario where there are a lot of accidents taking place and mostly the young and the elderly people are getting injured and the lack of access to blood makes the situation even worse. So this was my primary point of concern and my motivating factor to organize this camp. So this was ultimately planned by me along with 15 of my team members and this was the part of my NSS camp. It was a lovely experience as a lot of elderly people and also the young people came to the camp, donated their blood and given well-wished us for our future. Moreover, the donation was not limited to the blood. People could also donate other important items such as first aid kits, bandages and dressing materials. After the camp was over, we collected over 5-6 litres of blood and donated it to the nearest blood bank and this was an overall very healthy experience which would always be one of the best memories I ever had with my team members.

    Band 6-7

    So, recently I took part in a fashion show which was happening from my college. It was a recent activity that I got involved in with a lot of people. It was basically an inter-college fest that was happening from my college and a lot of other students from other colleges were also there. And to participate in this fashion show there was a lot of auditions that were going on and you have to get selected.

    Band 6-7

    I believe that group activities are always good. We can interact with each other and engage with them. I am an ambiguous person and I find it very difficult to engage with others. But after my UG studies, that is after my 4th year BSc Nursing, we have a lot of time for our internship. I was sitting very simply at home and my only brother is in college and I was feeling very bored at home. So in college I have been part of Jesus Youth and they are only the people that I am comfortable with. And I called one of my friends Anaha and when I enquired about the situation, she also narrated the same that she is also feeling very bored at home. So she put an idea forward that let's go for a trip and we contacted others. We were totally of age and when we asked them, they all were ready to go. And we planned to go to Trivandrum, Kanyakumari and Takkalai. And we started planning and we divided our roles for each, that is for food, for stay, for travel and different destinations. And we decided to go there by an Innova of my friend. Then first we went to Trivandrum. There the most attractive destination of our reaching area in Trivandrum was a beach. We enjoyed a lot. Then we went to other places in Kanyakumari and Takkalai. And Takkalai is known as one of the spiritual heritage because the saint Devasahayam Pillai was buried there. And we enjoyed a lot. We were able to pray a lot and also we were able to spend enough time there. And we don't have any other disturbances as we had already completed our studies.

    Band 6-7

    I make plans very often. I am a travelling guy. I love to travel a lot. This time I made a plan to celebrate the birthday of my daughter Tina's. It was 7th June 2025, just one day ago. I just called my family friends. 2-3 families were there residing near to my house. Initially I asked them to gather at my residence only. But then we planned, let's move to Shimla. Why not? It's a great plan and road trips are always better. We just went over there in a resort called Hilly Mountain View. We all went there. We had drinks. We had a cake cutting ceremony. Although it was very cool over there, but still we managed with our jackets. However, it was primarily told to us by the resort owner to bring some of the winter clothing. But we were not able to bring that along with us. When we reached over there, it was very low temperature. There we needed to buy few jackets for everybody's personal use. Although it was very hectic for us, but overall experience was wonderful. During the night time, we were singing songs. We had dance performances. Then few of the couples gave their couple dance performances. We played cards and next morning came back to our place. It was a really nice experience. It was first and last experience, but was very nice.

    Band 6-7

    One activity or a plan that I made with a lot of people was at the end of my high school year. And when I was in 12th grade, we, our friend group thought of going to a trip. So we went to our school principal and requested our principal sir to organize a picnic for our friends because it was obviously our last year and after that we will go to different parts. But due to some reason the school didn't organize a picnic. So instead of the school organized picnic, we all friends thought of planning our own trip and then we went to Adventure Island. So I went to Adventure Island with my school friends for our picnic. It was a very memorable trip according to me because we were in school for the four years and we never went to a picnic or a trip with our schoolmates. So for me that was really memorable and heart touching. So our school was not agreeing so we planned all the trip details. We commuted through metro. There were around 10 to 15 of us, my school friends, and we all went to the Adventure Island. We enjoyed different types of ride. We tried different types of ride. There were roller coasters, water rides, bumping cars. So there were very different types of things to be tried. There were mountain climbing also. So we really loved our trip and it's something sort of become a nostalgia. It has something sort of become now a nostalgia. And according to me that was the best decision and the best trip that I did because I even till date when I remember about that trip, I feel nostalgic. So yes that was an amazing trip that I planned to do with a lot of people.

    Band 6-7

    So, for me, the time when I made a plan to do an activity with a lot of people, specifically my friends, was a friend's trip. A friend's trip which I could never forget. It was to the financial capital of India, Mumbai. Though Mumbai is not a place where usually a friend's trip would go, but we wanted to be different. We wanted to stand out amongst the people who usually go on Goa to a friend's trip. So why I decided to make the plan? Because I am the group leader in all these things. Making plans, making get-togethers, making plans for, let's say, just like this, a trip. So on a friend's trip, there's a lot of work to do, especially when you are a group leader in these kinds of situations. I had to be on the phone continuously with different travel agents, getting quotations from a lot of travel agents, just to get the lowest amount of quotation possible and also the best amount of services that we could get in the city. And I also had to go through, moreover, I had to go through many and many other places that we could visit. I had to search upon, I had to search upon things that we can do in Mumbai, like partying, nightclubs, and the main thing, I had to book the tickets. Tickets for all my friends, including me.

    Band 6-7

    Every year in my coaching center we celebrate Christmas. So this time we were asked to arrange few games for the children and the teachers. So this time I planned a game of musical chairs for the teachers. The teachers were very happy to know that. However, there were some of the teachers who were cribbing about this plan because they had pain in their knees and they could not run. Anyways, finally it did work out very well. We had prizes for the winners and the activity went on very smoothly. Every year on Children's Day, the teachers in my coaching center do something special for the children. This time I planned a dance show of the teachers for the children. It was on a very popular folk song. The folk song was sung by Ila Arun. At first the teachers were a bit hesitant in dancing and trying to copy the hook steps. I had to take part. I had to take the initiative to teach them all the hook steps. Moreover, I comforted them by going step by step. And then it came out with ease for them. They were very happy at the end of the show. The children were elated. They were delighted. And this was the activity which I planned for all the teachers for the first time. So I also gained a lot of confidence from this activity. Since dance has always been my hobby and I love dancing, so it wasn't difficult for me to teach dance to the other teachers. The teachers enjoyed my company and they all enjoyed the activity. Moreover, the students, they wanted us to do the performance again. They were very happy at the performance. Everything went on very smoothly. There were no problems at all with the entire show. This activity was a success.
    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