arrow back icon Top Answers

Describe a time you made a decision to wait for something: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • When did it happen?
  • What are you waiting for?
  • Why did you make the decision?
  • Explain how you felt while waiting.
Show all 113 answers

Cue 1:When did it happen?

  • Begin by mentioning the specific time and context when you made the decision to wait.
  • Provide details about the situation that led to your decision.

Example

This happened last year during the festive season in India. I had been eagerly waiting for the launch of a new smartphone that was set to be released just before Diwali. I decided to wait instead of buying an older model.

Cue 2:What are you waiting for?

  • Clearly state what you were waiting for and why it was significant to you.
  • Mention any specific features or reasons that made you want to wait for this particular item.

Example

I was waiting for the latest smartphone model because it promised advanced features like a better camera and longer battery life. As a tech enthusiast, I wanted to ensure I had the best device for photography during the festive celebrations.

Cue 3:Why did you make the decision?

  • Explain your reasoning behind the decision to wait rather than settle for something available immediately.
  • Discuss any influences, such as friends or reviews, that contributed to your decision.

Example

I made the decision to wait because I had read positive reviews about the new model, and my friends who had similar interests encouraged me to hold off. I believed that the wait would be worth it for the enhanced features.

Cue 4:Explain how you felt while waiting.

  • Share your emotions during the waiting period, whether it was excitement, anxiety, or impatience.
  • Reflect on how the anticipation affected your daily life.

Example

While waiting, I felt a mix of excitement and impatience. Every day, I would check for updates and countdown the days until the launch. It was thrilling to think about how much I would enjoy using the new phone, especially during the festive season.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, waiting for the new smartphone was a significant decision for me. It taught me the value of patience and the joy of anticipation. When I finally got the phone, it felt even more rewarding, and I was glad I chose to wait.

    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: Rushing Through Your Answer

    Candidates often rush their responses, missing important details. This can lead to a lack of clarity and depth in their answers, making it hard for the examiner to follow.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Take a moment to think before speaking. Structure your answer by addressing each cue clearly and providing relevant details.

    2: Being Vague or General

    Using vague language or general statements can weaken your response. It makes it difficult for the examiner to understand your experience and feelings.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Use specific examples and descriptive language to illustrate your experience. This will make your answer more engaging and memorable.

    Neglecting Emotional Aspects

    Failing to express your feelings during the waiting period can make your answer less relatable. Emotions add depth and connection to your story.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Reflect on your emotions during the waiting period. Share how you felt and why those feelings were significant to your experience.

    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

    In ongoing life, many problems are occurring in people's life. I shed some light on a situation when I made a decision and I wait for something. When I decided to give IELTS exam and when I decided to apply the IELTS exam. At that time I waited for my family for their agreement on my decision. While I am waiting I am very nervous at that time because I hesitate to tell my family about my decision. I am very nervous at that time because I don't know what reaction my family members will put on my decision. While I am waiting all in all my family members saw eye to eye. I am very happy at that time. I applied for the IELTS exam and I am over the moon at that time. Waiting for something is a good thing in my perspective.

    Band 7

    When I was 30 years old, I really wanted to buy a new phone for myself. The old one had severe problems and it was just not working. However, something told me that it was not the right time to buy a new phone. New developments were on the horizon and if I would just wait for 3-4 months, I could buy a better phone at a cheaper price. So I decided at that point to hold my horses, to not buy my phone and to use an old second hand phone that was lying around the house. It really helped me at that time to not buy a new phone. I was able to save some extra money and when time came, I was able to purchase a very good phone that would help me use it for a longer period of time with better functionality.

    Band 7

    So, one such event would be definitely my transfer to New Delhi. I was posted in Ljubljana before coming here since 2022. And I was eagerly waiting for my transfer as I have applied for the same since last 3 years. But it wasn't happening and therefore not getting considered. So, finally it happened in April 2025 when I got transferred to New Delhi on grounds of child care. Because I have a 15 month old daughter. In Ljubljana, it was very difficult to handle my office, my home and also take care of my beautiful daughter. But when I came to Delhi, I got support of my in-laws because the baby was taken care of nicely here. My in-laws and my family is there to look after her which is an immense satisfaction. So, it has increased my work-life balance. Obviously, when I was transferred to New Delhi, I was very happy. I would say my husband was happy because he was praying every now and then to get me transferred because of my baby and his family love.

    Band 7

    So this was a scenario that took place in recent times. I'm an undergraduate student so I had to pursue master's to enhance my career prospects but then I was not really sure whether to apply in domestic colleges or international and then I took so many advices from others. I personally thought about so many options and I finally selected that I wanted to study abroad and I thought of starting the process but then again I took some time because it is not just about me it is about the financial aspects it is about convincing all my family members to make me or to allow me travel to such a far location and it's like I have to stay one year away from all my loved ones so it is such a hard step for me. I did that and the reason for my waiting would be to mentally prepare myself to overcome all the psychological aspects of traveling this far and the second thing is the finances. I don't want to cause financial burden to anyone particularly my parents so I thought of sorting out that first so yeah it took me some time and after a month or two I decided on pursuing that path and now I have full support from my family and it was a prominent action that was taken and it really helped me a lot. The time that I took really helped me a lot to think about various things.

    Band 7

    Okay, so around 6 months ago, when I was all set to buy a new phone, it was rumoured that a new iPhone would be launching in about 2 or 3 months and it would be a major improvement over the previous generation and it was said by every tech reviewer that it is worth it to wait for the new iPhone. So, I had to wait before buying the latest iPhone and after it launched, I compared both the models side by side and on paper and physically, it was a huge difference between both the iPhones. The newer one was definitely better, lighter and the cameras were a huge improvement in terms of resolution, HDR and other aspects. The phone's battery life was significantly improved, the display quality was improved, it was switched from an LCD to an OLED panel. So, waiting for the new iPhone was definitely a plus point in my opinion because it allowed me to not regret after buying the old tech. If I would have bought the old iPhone, it would have made me realise that I should have waited for the newer phone and bought the new phone instead and this wait and regret would have killed me and forced me to buy the latest iPhone after selling my previous iPhone and so this just tells, this is a reflex in life that you should wait for better things to come and always do your due diligence while, you know, buying any tech products and same goes to other aspects of life.

    Band 6-7

    So, this happened two years before, in 2023. I was into UPSC preparation from 2021, but I can't clear even the prelim stage of the exam. So, I was fed up. As the results were not favourable to me, I was almost at the verge of giving up. But that's when I spoke with my peer group, with my parents, and I came to a decision that to reap something good, you have to wait. A lot of patience is involved in the whole journey. And I spoke with some of my seniors, got a lot of insights, and actually explained to them how I feel stuck in this situation. I'm unemployed and I'm still under my parents' roof. This exam is getting difficult every day. And that's when they said, when one clears UPSC, they just not clear the exam, but also get to understand what the whole life was to be without money, without a certainty of where this is going to end, when you transform into a whole new person. So, that's when I decided to, okay, let's wait and hope for the best to happen. That's when I learned to embrace the art of waiting and patience. Because at the end, patience will reward you for the best thing and make you a better human being. This was my story, my UPSC preparation.

    Band 6-7

    so a time that made a time that I made a decision to wait for something is like studying German I made this decision one and half years ago when I saw a video like a person who is promoting his agency and he's a who is and that person is currently in Austria and he's an agent agent who is bringing students and employees who are qualified to work in Austria but the only condition was the employee or the student should know German in order to survive in that country they must know the language so but there were no as he said there's no fees extra fees for like agent fees to go there the only thing that he asked us to do is learn German but through Goethe-Institut that was the only demand and that was mandatory also so at first I was so confused what to do but then but later on I thought I think about it and I don't think what I thought about it and I made a decision to study German yeah it was hard because I was working at that time in a US company so finding time was like a challenge for me but but I decided to

    Band 6-7

    So, the time when I made a decision to wait for a job, or the right job opportunity, I could say, that post my graduation, I attended a few interviews, in which some of them I did even crack those interviews, and got an offer letter, but I chose to wait, so that I could make an informed choice about the career that I am going to take. So, I decided to wait, to get the right job opportunity, which is well suited for me, and which is not, not many people are there in the industry, but there is a scope for that industry.

    Band 6-7

    One situation where I had to wait for quite a long time was when I was applying for my university exam results, which was supposed to be released online. The results were scheduled to come out at 6pm and because they were extremely important for my future plans, I was unusually anxious. On the day itself, I remember sitting in front of my laptop for almost an hour earlier, constantly refreshing the websites to make matters worse, the server kept crashing because thousands of students were trying to check their marks at the same time. This technical glitch caused a delay of nearly 2 hours and there was absolutely nothing I could do except wait. I even tried switching devices and internet connections but nothing worked. During this time, I felt a mixture of emotions, frustration, excitement and nervousness. Every passing minute felt like much longer than it actually was. My parents were trying to calm me down but I was too tense to focus on anything else. Eventually, around 8pm, the page finally loaded and I could see my results. Although the waiting was incredibly stressful, it taught me something important, that is sometimes patience is the only option we have, waiting may feel uncomfortable but it also helps you realise how much you value the outcome. Looking back, the delay felt insignificant compared to the relief I experienced when I saw the marks.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to describe about the recent plan which we which I faced during the logistics of one of my biggest equipment transportation as this transportation has been become a challenge due to his huge size and shipment the dimensional of the cargo is around 9 meter by 10 meter in length and it is being transported on the special transportation which is called SPMT single prime over transport where this requires a huge number of preparation like route survey and government authorities approvals and a lot of discussion among the coordination between the government departments on the moment of this cargo because it occupies a huge amount of area while traveling along the road because of its size this is really a huge challenge where we need to always survey the routes to in order to avoid traffic entrances to have a smooth flow of the journey which is around 120 kilometer from the manufacturing facility to the installation location so this location is having lots of challenges like some roads need to be repaired and developed according to the load and moment of the equipment this equipment is covering a wide range of
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

    Master IELTS Speaking with Leap's Self-Prep Course

    student enroll count

    Students Enrolled

    review count

    2,411 Reviews

    app download banner image
    See Course Details

    Master IELTS Speaking with Leap's Self-Prep Course

    student enroll count

    Students Enrolled

    review count

    2,411 Reviews

    app download banner image
    See Course Details