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Describe an exciting activity you have tried for the first time: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What the activity was
  • When/where you tried it
  • Who you were with / how it happened
  • And explain why it was exciting
Show all 55 answers

Cue 1:What the activity was

  • Clearly state the activity you tried for the first time, making it engaging.
  • Provide a brief description of what the activity involves.

Example

The exciting activity I tried for the first time was paragliding. It involves flying through the air while being harnessed to a parachute-like wing, and it gives you a bird's-eye view of the landscape below.

Cue 2:When/where you tried it

  • Mention the specific location and time when you experienced this activity.
  • Describe the environment to set the scene for your listener.

Example

I tried paragliding last summer during a trip to Manali, a beautiful hill station in India. The weather was perfect, with clear skies and a gentle breeze, making it an ideal day for flying.

Cue 3:Who you were with / how it happened

  • Talk about who accompanied you and how you decided to try this activity.
  • Share any interesting details about the experience leading up to the activity.

Example

I was with my friends, and we had planned this adventure together. We had seen videos of paragliding online and decided to book a session after hearing great reviews from other travelers.

Cue 4:And explain why it was exciting

  • Discuss the feelings you experienced during the activity.
  • Explain what made this experience memorable and thrilling for you.

Example

The moment I took off, I felt an adrenaline rush like never before. The sensation of soaring high above the mountains was exhilarating, and the breathtaking views made it even more special. It was a mix of fear and joy that I will never forget.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, trying paragliding for the first time was an unforgettable experience that pushed me out of my comfort zone. It not only gave me a sense of adventure but also created lasting memories with my friends.

    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

    Failing to provide enough details can make your answer sound vague and uninteresting. It's important to paint a clear picture of the activity to engage the listener.

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    Tip

    Include specific details about the activity, such as the location, the people involved, and your feelings during the experience.

    2: Ignoring the Excitement Factor

    Not explaining why the activity was exciting can leave your answer flat. The excitement is a key part of the cue card prompt.

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    Tip

    Share personal feelings and reactions to the activity, highlighting what made it thrilling or memorable for you.

    Poor Structure

    A disorganized response can confuse the listener and make it hard to follow your story. Structure is essential for clarity.

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    Tip

    Follow a clear structure: start with what the activity was, then when and where it happened, who you were with, and finally, why it was exciting.

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    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

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    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    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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    Anonymous student Band 8

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    Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

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    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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    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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    Anonymous student Band 7

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    Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

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    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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    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    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

    Recently I have started playing footballs a few months back. Before my masters, I had less opportunity to play games. I was not encouraged to, but I had no time to play games because of all the exam stress and academics. But now, given some free time, I thought I would just start a new activity. And at the same time, my friend Govind said, why don't I play this game? And the funny part is I played for the first time against his team. So it was a very friendly sport which needs a lot of team spirit and team coordination, which I think also improves our leadership qualities. The place where I played it for the first time is in our college lawn. It's a beautiful small garden patch where it was well maintained and fenced properly so that we will not throw the ball away. There are really good players in both the teams. And I got to know another side of them, like the way they play, apart from their good academics. And I also met new friends in the sport. As always, Govind says, it's better to play a game than doing an exercise alone, which benefits us in many more ways. I do agree with him. Yeah, it excites me a lot because it's a good physical exercise. It's a group game, as I already mentioned, it improves our team spirit and it gives a good vibe among friends when we meet again.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to talk about my first experience as a psychologist. Psychology was always my favourite subject. I loved it very much. I got this interest, I got passionate about psychology when I was studying in a seminary to become a priest. There I got a few books which introduced me to the world of psychology and how mind works. So it was that interest that motivated me to study psychology later in my graduation. And after that I completed my post-graduation psychology. Once I completed my psychology masters, I started working as a counsellor and psychologist. One of the best experiences I ever had with humans, it was in my counselling couch. I had a number of people who shared their experience with me. I always liked the way they expressed their feelings, their experiences. I also wonder how human mind works, its intricacies, how our emotions are pulling us, how it is affecting our decisions. I also like sometimes to realise how false or erroneous our assumptions and beliefs are, and how it affects our mental peace, and how mindfulness can help us, and how cognitive restructuring can help us, and how our relationships are working, and how our childhoods are influencing us.

    Band 6-7

    One exciting activity that I had tried for the first time is going to a trampoline park. I had visited it in my third year of engineering. Additionally, it wasn't just me, I went with my hostel friends of that time. Though we are not in contact anymore, it was our first ever trip together. Our hostel is quite far from the city, so it was quite a struggle to reach there. We were 10 people and we had reached there by using a single auto rickshaw. It was quite a memorable experience. But that is not the reason that I remember this memory quite vividly. The main reason that I am really excited of this memory is that the trampoline park had provided various options for us. And there wasn't anyone else other than our friend group in the park at that time due to the early timings. There were few things that I remember doing. First being the constant jumping on different options that had given me a quick adrenal rush. Along with it, we were also playing the music of our own kind, that was K-pop. In India, it is not often that you get to hear K-pop in a public space. Listening to that and jumping freely gave me a sense of freedom.

    Band 6-7

    So, um, in today's world, I feel like people have more accessibility to try new things than ever before. And me existing, luckily, fortunately, in this era of accessibility, I combined with my urge to, with my urge and desire and passion for trying new different things, because I'm a huge adrenaline junkie. I think the various activities that have been laid down before me are all exciting in their own way, but something that was personally memorable for me would be horse riding. So horse riding is basically a sport specially reserved for people in the high class in my country back in the days. It involves just getting on a horse with supervision, getting your equipment, safety equipment, and riding the horse around two laps in a grass field. So this happened when I was around fifth grade, I had been having the desire to do it since I was in third grade. And when I got the opportunity from my father in fifth grade, when he dropped me off and supervised me the whole time while I was riding my horse. It was extremely exciting because I feel like horses are one of the cutest, most sweetest animals I have ever met. And I've always had this fantasy of riding a unicorn when I was a kid. I think that really correlates because horses are the closest thing that would be to a unicorn, which is why I basically imagined that I was riding a unicorn and went two laps around it with supervision from my dad. I came to, I happened to try it because I was just strolling on, near a park and there was an offer, a stable nearby, and there was an offer where we were allowed to try it for free for around 15 minutes. And so that kind of is what influenced me to get there.

    Band 6-7

    So one activity which I have done very recently that excited me was writing letters for my best friend. I am a very mechanical person, I tend to hold back my emotions and I am not really expressive when it is needed. So one day I called my best friend and I asked her can we go out and do something different. So she suggested me that we go to a cafe and we write letters to each other and see what we can write for each other. So I think two months back I went with her and it was in MG Road if I am not wrong. We went there, we had coffees, we had food, we ate, drank a lot and then we started writing letters to each other. So it was a new experience for me, I have never written any letters for anyone. So I started pouring my heart into that letter for her because my friend, her name is Pravya. She has been with me for almost two and half years now. I have known her for a really long time. I have seen her in her ups and downs, I have seen her growing up from a very apprehended individual to a very strong woman that she is today. And she had a lot of personal troubles in the way. So I wrote all the things and I wrote a letter which in a way comforted her feelings. So I made sure that after reading the letter she feels good about herself. Because I don't want to be another pain in her life that already is almost painful. So I thought...

    Band 6-7

    I am an art student and I've always enjoyed doing art throughout my life. Moreover, I spent almost 90% of my life thinking about and doing art. So recently I came across a post on Instagram where a girl was doodling and I thought why not give it a try. I brought some sketch pens and alcoholic markers and I started doodling. I have to say this was my best experience ever in art field. I felt a sense of calm and relaxation while doodling and also I noticed that doodling in fact felt like an escape from my heavily stressed life.

    Band 6-7

    One of the recent activity I tried that gave me excitement was yoga. To be honest, yoga and meditation. I'm not a big fan of yoga but recently I've seen one of my colleagues who practiced yoga everyday and he started to exhibit some of the impressive traits such as more focus and increase in his productivity. So I was quite impressive about it and I was asking him about what is his secret. And he revealed that he started practicing yoga and meditation everyday. So I was much inspired by his action and I started following yoga. And it was very exhausting at first because I couldn't focus much on my thoughts. Later on, I started practicing it every single day and then I improved my power to focus and now meditation became a practice of my daily life. Moreover, it gave me a sense of relaxation, improved my focus and gave me a productivity, improved my productivity in my day-to-day life. Apart from this, it also gave me happiness and a sense of joy and made my life really simple to be honest. So the first time I tried this activity was before a month. It was the time I started to know about yoga and now I'm following it for more than a month and I hope I will be following it in the future as well. So practicing yoga gives us mindfulness and definitely improves our productivity as well. Furthermore, I would strongly recommend anybody who wants to improve their focus and productivity to practice yoga every single day.

    Band 6-7

    An activity I tried for the first time and gave me a happy feeling is when I tried parasailing in Alibaug which is a small place in Mumbai and Mumbai locates in India. So this happened when I visited Mumbai for 2024's New Year. I was with my close friend Gayatri and we both after enjoying our time in Mumbai we moved to this place called Alibaug and we spent 2-3 days there. So during our staycation time in Alibaug we tried parasailing for the first time. Both Gayatri and me we both tried it. That was our first experience. So we were already excited about it and we were not at all nervous about it because we were both interested and excited about the adrenaline rush because we are so interested in high dopamine kind of activities. Thus it gave us an ecstatic experience and what I felt about is that I should try more water sports like this because I just feel like that is where I belong and that is what I enjoy the most in my life. The things which give me excitement holds a great value in my life and I always wanted to try it again and again. Not just the parasailing, I would like to try out other water sports like scuba diving and all. But when I tried parasailing for the first time it gave me a really good experience and I got to know about myself and about my likes and dislikes. So that is one of the incidents I am very excited about.

    Band 6-7

    During my school days only, I was very shy and introvert kid. I don't initiate or participate in any of the school activity. But when I grew up, I was like nearly 18 to 19 years of age. There was birthday party of my brother and first birthday of his daughter. They both shared the birthday. So, my sister-in-law asked me to perform a dance on their birthday. But I was very shy. So, I immediately refused her idea and I said I can't do it as I am having stage fear. But she motivated me and she said like if she will accompany me and she will help me also and she will teach me all the dance steps. She even put out the idea that she will choose only easy steps which I could do as it was my first time going to perform something in front of hundreds of people. So, she said if any error I would about to do, she will cover up me. So, these things motivated me and I thought why not give it a try for how long I can be such an introvert kid. I have to go out and I have to step out of my comfort zone. So, we practiced for about 2 weeks. Every day she used to come at my home with her daughter also. She was so dedicated to us. She just want everything to be perfect for her husband and daughter's birthday. And so patiently, she taught me everything, every step and she even changed so many steps even if she liked the steps the most. But she changed it for me so that I could perform it. And after 2 weeks of our hard work and I also dedicatedly learned the steps and it was so much exciting for me for dancing.

    Band 6-7

    On the last weekend, I had an activity with my friends. This was a realistic thing which I have done on my weekend. And my weekend became a very very enjoyable moment and I will never forget that. Because we played a basketball that is a physical activity. It gives me strength and it boosts my energy level. And it is good for my health also. I enjoyed with my friends on that day by playing the basketball. We laughed together at that time because we don't have experience about basketball. We try for the first time. So we are enjoying. Really we enjoy by sharing together the first experience by playing that. Overall it was a great experience. However, I love cricket. But on that weekend, we just say that we will play cricket regularly. But we often used to do other activities. So we chose to play basketball. So it is an incredible moment of my life. We also take a photograph while we are taking a ball in a hand. We enjoy and we save our moments by taking a picture, taking a snap in our mobile phone. This was an incredible experience.
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