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Describe a time when you used your imagination.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • When was it?
  • What did you do?
  • How did you feel about it?
Show all 24 answers

Cue 1:When was it?

  • Start by mentioning a specific time or event when you used your imagination.
  • Provide context about your surroundings or situation to help the listener visualize the moment.

Example

It was about two years ago during the summer holidays when I was at home, feeling a bit bored and looking for something creative to do.

Cue 2:What did you do?

  • Describe the imaginative activity you engaged in, detailing the process and your thought process.
  • Make it relatable by connecting it to common experiences, such as storytelling, drawing, or creating something new.

Example

I decided to write a short story about a young girl who discovers a magical world in her backyard. I spent hours crafting the plot, creating characters, and even sketching some scenes to visualize my ideas better.

Cue 3:How did you feel about it?

  • Share your emotions during and after the imaginative activity, highlighting any joy or satisfaction you experienced.
  • Reflect on how this experience impacted you personally or creatively.

Example

I felt incredibly excited and fulfilled while writing. It was a great escape from reality, and I was proud of what I created. This experience reignited my passion for storytelling, and I realized how important imagination is for personal growth.

Conclusion

  • Summarize the key points of your experience, reinforcing the value of imagination.
  • Mention any lasting effects this experience had on your life or creativity.

Example

In conclusion, using my imagination during that summer not only provided me with joy but also helped me develop my writing skills. It reminded me of the importance of creativity in our lives.

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

Using vague language can make your answer unclear and unengaging. It’s important to provide specific details to paint a vivid picture of your experience.

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Tip

Focus on specific moments and feelings. Use descriptive language to explain what you imagined and how it impacted your experience.

2: Ignoring the Cues

Failing to address the cue prompts can lead to an incomplete answer. Each cue is designed to guide your response and ensure you cover all aspects.

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Tip

Structure your answer by directly addressing each cue. Start with when it happened, then explain what you did, and finish with how you felt.

Overly Complex Language

Using overly complex vocabulary or sentence structures can confuse the listener. Clarity is key in effective communication, especially in speaking tests.

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Tip

Use simple and clear language. Focus on conveying your ideas effectively rather than impressing with difficult words.

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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 6-7

So, I used my imagination techniques during my exam preparation when the syllabus was very hard. So, I don't like to only read the answer not understanding the concept. So, I used my imagination technique because I basically learn through the imagination and examples. So, when I am learning the examples, so I imagine them that okay it is happening in real life. For example, the example was of cyber security. So, it is about the privacy means of phishing attacks and other things. So, I imagine okay so how it is preventing the phishing attack and any other thing. So, I imagine that scenario and I easily understand the answer then due to do this okay that imagination is also already in my mind. So, during my exam when I am writing my answer, I can easily describe the whole answer easily due to my imagination and that's why I got good marks in my exams. I also use my imaginations during developing any type of projects, so it's helped me.

Band 6-7

A time when I used my imagination is recently when I went to a carnival, it's held in Port Portu. My friend and I went, we had a cup of tea while going there, it was a carnival located in a cafe, it's one of the famous cafe called Peppermint, so we reached there, after going there we had a little conversation with all the buddies out there, they were explaining how the carnival works and how the history develops from nothing, they told me that the football team consists of several communities which namely were in Afghanistan and then I was able to chit chat with them, we got a task to do, we want to sing or tell a story and the first turn was me, I was not able to generate what idea I should say, then spontaneously I used my imagination to get some ideas about my hometown Kanyakumari and I told a story where all people doesn't know about my hometown, I told that we can see the same sunset and sunrise at the same spot, that fascinates everyone and everyone see me up and that's the time when I used my imagination on a good purpose.

Band 6-7

It was during my high school days when there were a lot of performance days, which were celebrated and performed during the course of my school days and there was one time when my friend got seriously ill and he was about to perform on the stage but as he was ill he had to be replaced and I had to go instead of him on the stage and there was not a lot of time to prepare, he was going to tell a story and act on it at the same time. So I didn't have the time to prepare, so as I went on the stage I had to use a lot of imagination to tell a story about Lord Ram and how did he fight with the villain Ravan, which was an epic tale of Mahabharata, which I had to narrate while acting and I had to use my imagination while delivering my actions, which was quite difficult for me but I would say looking back I had a lot of fun and especially I was terrified during the play but I had quite a fun and everybody praised me for the bravery and the kind of performance that I had.

Band 6-7

Imagination is needed when you want to achieve something. Whenever you dream of something, you should imagine it first. I have imagined a life of my own, my whole life. I have imagined a beautiful, caring, loving partner with two adorable kids and a beautiful villa of my own in which we live happily ever after. And as soon as I got the chance of achieving my dream, I achieved it. I have the most beautiful, caring, loving partner of mine and the most beautiful daughter of mine. And this life is the life which I wanted my whole life.

Band 6-7

So, when I had the story writing in exam, there was a picture given in the exam and a man was sitting near a dog, so I was asked to write a story about it. So I used my imagination there and created a very beautiful story where a man named Rakesh and his dog were very beautiful friends, they were miscellaneous and they cared very much for each other. So, this was the time when I used my imagination and I created a very wonderful story using my imagination and it was such a wonderful story that it was such a pitiable story that everyone praised me and I really feel generous about that. So, after that, I really feel like my imagination, my mind has a power in it and everything that comes with it is really powerful because everything my imagination creates, leaves me in a wonder stage, like how did I come up with such a solution, such a beautiful picture, beautiful scripted and how I can see through my inner eyes what I am writing, so it's really great and I like to share this experience because I think it gives me inner joy, which is I cannot explain in two words, so that's it.

Band 6-7

Well, since my childhood to this present time, I have imagined countless times in my life, although sometimes my experience was not up to the mark, but majority time I was over the moon. However, today I would like to talk about a time when I used my imagination. I vividly remember as I am a fond of drawing, I had a chance to take part in one of my school competitions. As a younger, I was very keen to draw a sketch in school, I was very curious to take part in it. Once our school management arranged a drawing competition in which I took part in, but the theme was very unique, they told that the drawing topic will be random and on the spot you have to think about what you are about to draw on your sketch paper. Initially, it was very difficult for me because I didn't have a clue what to draw, but after taking some time, I imagined a picture in my mind of a mountain, flying birds, flowing a river and the rising sun. It was a very beautiful picture and I drew it on the sketch paper. After I completed the drawing, my teachers and principal were over the moon and I felt very jubilant.

Band 6-7

I used my imagination when I was in 6th standard so that was when I thought about something really hard and I used my imagination in a food gathering competition which was conducted in my school for Children's Day so I thought of a different design for which I imagined so I shared it with my friends then we all together made my imagination come into life so we carved a watermelon in the shape of a monkey so it's a little bit funny but we enjoyed a lot by doing it and I think that's my greatest imagination that came into life

Band 6

There is no particular time when I got my imagination for doing the work. But actually I am very passionate about my drawing and my dancing skills. So most of my imagination comes during my dancing and drawing time. So most of it comes during the drawing. But I imagine many things and by that I like many things. I imagine to draw and express myself. So I do think about those things. Just close my eyes and sit and just think about those things. And draw the exact same things which I thought in my mind. And after doing so it really gives me a very enjoyable feeling. Because I can express myself through those skills. And same goes for my dancing hobby. Whenever I feel sad or happy it depends upon the mood and I express myself through my dance. If I am very sad I just put on a low beat song on which I do mostly the Kathak dances. And whenever I am happy I put on the very happy beat songs and I keep on that. So yeah this is the way by which I express myself.

Band 6

first imagination I did in my earlier age when I was just 15 and it was about a concept that I came across with which is related to physics but the curiosity was built in me was to how can a ray travel from just passing from one mirror to mirror after that what I did I just took a pencil and a paper but took all the things I could imagine whatever the things I can I have tried to get into a reality through that pencil and paper but yeah actually it was not so good but yeah I think this was the first time I have took that imagination into reality then it have developed me a curiosity to becoming an engineer after that I in engineering after in second year I took solid works and I came across with that yeah it was good it was exciting and it was so good that you can imagine a part and you can simply take it into reality just by sketching in the digital form and it was so cool at that time in our college days yes it was so good and nice at that time

Band 6

So, talking about a time when I used my imagination to do something, I still recall in my childhood when I was in school, then I and my friends, we were a team of four students and we had to make a project on pollution and it was very hard to make because it needs a lot of effort. So, it so happened that we took help from many different sources like the internet, library, magazines and as well as our teachers were very supportive and they helped us a lot in completing our project and this was the thing we had done and if I talk about how did I feel, then I would say I was over the moon after the completion of the project because it is something that really made me feel proud and my parents were also very proud because we also won first prize in that competition and it was a memorable day for me because I used my imagination in that project and a lot of thinking was needed but finally we all imagined so many things and put all together to complete this project.
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