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Describe An Important Decision You Made: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What was it?
  • When did you make it?
  • What music does he/she like?
  • What was the result?
  • Explain how you felt about it.
Show all 59 answers

Cue 1:What was it?

  • Clearly state the important decision you made, providing context to why it was significant.
  • Include details about what led you to make this decision.

Example

The important decision I made was to pursue my master's degree abroad. After completing my undergraduate studies in India, I realized that further education would enhance my career prospects and provide me with a global perspective.


Cue 2:When did you make it?

  • Mention the time frame when you made this decision, including any relevant events leading up to it.
  • Explain how you felt at that moment and what influenced your timing.

Example

I made this decision in early 2022, just a few months after graduating. I had been contemplating my future and discussing options with my family and friends, which helped me finalize my choice.


Cue 3:What was the result?

  • Describe the outcome of your decision, including both positive and negative aspects.
  • Share any specific experiences or achievements that resulted from this decision.

Example

As a result of my decision, I was accepted into a prestigious university in the UK. This experience not only expanded my knowledge but also allowed me to meet people from diverse backgrounds, enhancing my interpersonal skills.


Cue 4:Explain how you felt about it.

  • Share your emotions regarding the decision before and after making it.
  • Discuss any challenges you faced and how you overcame them.

Example

Initially, I felt anxious about leaving my comfort zone and moving to a new country. However, once I arrived and started my studies, I felt a sense of accomplishment and excitement. Overcoming the challenges of adapting to a new culture made me more resilient.


Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, making the decision to pursue my master's degree abroad was a pivotal moment in my life. It not only shaped my career but also contributed significantly to my personal growth, and I am grateful for the experiences I gained during that time.


    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 Specificity

    Being vague about the decision can make your answer less engaging. Specific details help the examiner understand your experience better and showcase your language skills.

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    Tip

    Focus on providing clear details about the decision, including the context and your thought process at the time.


    2: Ignoring Emotional Impact

    Failing to express how you felt about the decision can make your response less personal and relatable. Emotions add depth to your story.

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    Tip

    Include your feelings before, during, and after making the decision to create a more compelling narrative.


    Neglecting the Outcome

    Not discussing the result of your decision can leave your answer incomplete. The outcome is crucial for understanding the significance of your choice.

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    Tip

    Clearly explain the results of your decision and how it affected your life to provide a full picture.


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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
    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

    One of the toughest decisions for me was moving to Bangalore from my hometown. I made this decision when I got a job offer from a company called Cognizant. I've never been myself. I've never tried anything out of my own because I was so dependent on my family. For to learn everything by myself, to live independently. I made this decision and right now I'm suffering a lot. Which makes my decision even more strong. I'm currently living in Bangalore.

    Band 6-7

    I was in my 12th standard when I was trying to prepare for a medical entrance exam which is NEET which is nationally accepted medical entrance exam and I studied for it day and night but I couldn't pass the threshold and I couldn't get into a good medical college as my marks, the marks that I scored were less. So I was very upset about that and I couldn't decide what I wanted to do because I never had a backup plan. I was determined to go for medical entrance but I couldn't complete it. I thought I was a failure and so my family also suggested that I should take a gap year after 12th. I stayed at home and I tried to develop some skills in other fields like data analysis. I tried to learn some softwares and the field of data analysis, data science, artificial intelligence just intrigued me so much that I went for the entrance exam of it and I cleared it and I got into a good college and now I have completed my graduation in BSc data science and business analytics and I'm working as a supply chain data analyst at Skechers South Asia Private Limited. So that decision was a very important decision that I took in my life and it has brought me so far and I am proud of myself for it.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to say, one month before I was taking one decision about my future, that's about a career based on taking the PhD. My father has told to me, you can pursue another course but I wanted to take the PhD because it gives the interest to me, I love the science, technology. That subject was impacted to me and influenced my ideas in the future and in the past and present. Science is the best way of my life to study the technology about the science and computer based software. I like to pursue my PhD in London, Cambridge. I have influenced my ideas to going there. My father has encouraged me and my mother puts on me thoughts of being a good student about the college. It was an amazing subject.

    Band 6-7

    I made a lot of decisions in my life, but most important decision that I made in my life was when I studied at 10th standard, I felt that MAX was difficult for me, and I get a low marks, even I failed in some examinations. Studying MAX was a herculean task for me because I don't know much about MAX and MAX basics method of studying MAX, and I went for tuition for studying MAX, and I felt it's a daunting task for me to study MAX, and after the corona section, I felt that I could not have an ability to study MAX because I did not know much about 8th and 9th class, during that time, most of the classes are online and I did not study during that time, so it felt more difficult for me to study MAX in 10th standard, and when I went to tuition, after 2 months, I felt that I improved, and I gained more marks in examinations, and I felt that it is not a herculean task to study MAX, and also after December 2023, I felt that it is not much a daunting task for studying MAX, even I put my lot of effort to study MAX by doing a lot of homework, and even went for tuition for a long time, I quickly know much about MAX, so this decision made my life completely changed because at that time, I get a confidence to study new subjects as well as examinations.

    Band 6-7

    So, I have considered leaving my job and pursue further studies because this will help me to upgrade my skills and knowledge for my future career growth and I believe that it's a hard decision overall, but then I had to take such steps because my work, I mean I have been doing a monitor job work since three years and of course I have learned a lot in my work but that is not helping to grow in my career, so I have taken a very hard decision to go and pursue further studies in Europe and that's why I'm giving this IELTS exam and it is not that easy to have six years of work experience and to pursue for further studies, but overall I feel that if I do not take this step now, later on it will delay my upgradation of skills and I will lag a lot in my career. So, I am probably aiming for the next year intake, generally it is considered to be summer and spring intake in Europe, but yeah, I mean this will give me a good exposure for European firms and that will definitely help me to grow in my career. So, this is what I have.

    Band 6-7

    An important decision that I made in my life would be joining the gym. As a lean and an attractive person, I have really received a lot of body shaming in my school and college time. So, after I graduated from my college, I decided to join the gym. And it has been now like more than one year, I have been continuously going to the gym. And I'm really happy about it because at first I thought that it would be so hard for me to continue to train my body at this type of level and to achieve my dream physique. But the dedication that I had given to that was really, really mesmerizing for me. I really do like to go to gym because it already had become a habit for me or a life routine. When I go to gym, I really do like to listen to music, probably in my own language so that I can concentrate on my thing rather than looking here and there or chatting with others. So, going to the gym was one of the best decisions that I have made in my entire life. It has been a really wonderful thing for me because right now, I have been continuously going for one year and I really feel enough confident within me that I can speak to others with more confidence than back in my days.

    Band 6-7

    The important decision in my life, it was during 12th result. When the result came, all my friends had chosen the course, engineer, MBA like that. But I was struggled to take that decision because I am having both course. One is Computer Science Engineering and another one is Civil Engineering. Although my father is Civil Engineer, I want to become a Civil Engineer. I want to choose Civil Engineer. But everybody in my surroundings choose Computer Science Engineering. So my thoughts were decided to take Computer Science Engineering. Then I relaxed and think more than two weeks. Then I made the decision Civil Engineer. Then I have completed the course very good. Now I felt the decision was very amazing because now as a Civil Engineer, I am handling the labours with flow of project. In many ways I am wondering about my decision because it makes me proud in all the things. Everyone confused me. That was the struggle that made me struggle.

    Band 6-7

    the best decision important decision I have made in my life it may be a decision to move Pune for my graduation studies after my after my junior college result and CET scores there was an opportunity for me to for graduation studies in Pune but I was very I was very afraid because I have never live far away from home or far away from home and my parents it was very much big decision for me after I took the decision that I should move to Pune for my for my graduation studies studies studies my parents also supported their decision after all it was the best decision if I stayed in my hometown I cannot get as much opportunities as I get as I get in Pune after graduation it I think it was my best decision to move to Pune for graduation study as it resulted in my overall personal development and and it also helped me to live independently and far away from my family

    Band 6-7

    An important decision I made was to take a drop year right after school. I took a drop year just after twelfth grade because I hadn't figured out what I really want to do in my life. I was never the child who had it all figured out, who knew that she wants to be a doctor, engineer or a lawyer. I was always clueless. I never found my true calling that okay I want to do this in my life or I want to choose this profession or career. Thus I found it a wise decision to take a drop year and actually figure out what I really want to do in life. So it actually turned out to be the most important decision I have ever made because in this year I realized that I want to be a journalist. This actually happened because I had the time of exploring my career options. I got to read a lot, I got invested in current affairs, I read the newspaper, I did an internship in a media house. So overall it gave me the time to really hover around and explore all of my options and such that I don't really hold any regrets later on in life. So I think this was a really wise decision I made.

    Band 6-7

    Personal development is the process of improving ourselves, our skills, habits, and attitude to become better people in life. It's about learning new things, setting goals, and working on both our strengths and weaknesses. I believe personal development is very important because it helps us succeed not only in studies but also our career or our personal life. For me, personal development started when I realized that growth never stops after school or college. I began reading motivation books, watching education videos to learn how to manage time and stay positive. I also started journaling, which helped me understand my thoughts and set clear goals for the future. Another part of my personal growth came from experience. For example, during my internship, I faced many challenges while working with the team. Instead of getting upset, I used that situation to improve my communication and problem-solving skills. I learned that every difficulty is an opportunity to grow. Personal development also means taking care of our mental and emotional health. When we stay confident, calm, and open-minded, we can handle stress better and make wiser decisions. In conclusion, personal development is a lifelong journey. It's not just about being perfect but also about becoming a little better every day. When we invest time in improving ourselves, we may build a stronger, happier, and more successful life.

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