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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 43 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

    Actually when I was in my twelfth, I was deciding about my career, whether I should play badminton at a national level or I should prepare for my bachelor degree or graduation as you know. And I made a decision very clear that I should do both. Why not both? Because when I play badminton, I get more focused. Either it is on study or on the court. Because when people do workouts, they are more focused just because of release of neurons. And I feel it was the best decision I have ever made, I think. Because I feel connected to the sports that I love. And for my career, I choose the bachelor degree, that is B form obviously. And what people does, choose career. And the music we like, as you talked about music, I like soothing music, calm indie songs as a category, I prefer. And it was all good.

    Band 6-7

    Okay, the important decision that I made in my life is saying yes to my partner because it was really a blessing for me to have him in my life. He supports me a lot, he encourages me a lot, he helps me a lot and whenever if anyone asks that do I regret saying yes to him, then no because he is the best thing that ever happened to me. He's very cute, he's very handsome, he takes care of me like a baby. I wish he was here with me like we have been into the relationships for eight years, that too a long-distance relationship. We hardly met for about like some 10 to 15 times in this eight years. He's a perfect match for me and I don't regret saying yes to him and I'm lucky to have him in my life.

    Band 6-7

    I made a decision to face my fear after 12th grade. My mother used to motivate me by saying that we have two choices. Either you can fight and win or you can fear and lose. I chose to face and raise. I made the decision to make me believe that I can achieve anything with confidence. There were many people who discouraged me when I took PharmD after 12th by saying that you will not have much scope in your career. But I chose this course because I wanted to learn much more about pharmacotherapy and I wanted in addition to learn about how a drug is treated for a particular disease and how much dose is required for different diseases. This fascinated me to take this particular subject as a main. I made this to achieve greater goals in life and to believe that I can do everything with proper foundation.

    Band 6-7

    so I've made a decision to not trust people easily ever again because when I made this decision two weeks back I was so devastated because of my breakup and furthermore I had this breakup for 3-4 months and I was depressed for 3-4 months later I've realized that this person who apparently told me that he loves me is not what he told me that he is I blindly trusted this person so after that huge event in my life I made a pact that I shouldn't trust people easily in order to protect my heart from getting hurt obviously I overthink a lot but when the things come true I can't handle them as such so I made this decision and currently I feel that I took a right decision to not depend on others and so because when I depend on others I feel like they betray me anyways then so I stopped depending and I started to live independently now I feel much more happier than ever moreover I feel it is a necessary personality development that has to occur in every person's life one should learn to live independently without any other people's help or presence

    Band 6-7

    The important decision I made after class 10, I decided to go to abroad for my higher studies because in my home country the education is not that good so I decided to go UK for higher studies at a good university and that will make me so proud because I choose a great step going abroad, making new friends and learning new things from other people. Going abroad is not easy for anyone and also a big decision for me and very important decision for my future life. If I get a good degree from other country like UK, America I will get a high paid job in my future and I will definitely do my dream work, dream choices and etc. I love so many expensive things but now a time I don't have enough money to buy those things but if I get a great job I will definitely buy them and as I said I am a guy who love funk because I am a gymnastics person so in gym funk music definitely gave me pump to motivate and lifting heavy weights and right now I am waiting for my visa approval because now I am class 10 and this year, now I am class 12 and this year I am planning to go to UK so yesterday I just booked my visa and now I am waiting for my result but definitely I am very confident that my visa will be cleared and I will go soon to UK and inspired my home and my brother like come in UK and you will have a great life like me and I will definitely do my best to get my dream work and the important thing I do is going abroad. So that's the main point.

    Band 6-7

    In our life everyone has to make some important decision and the decision whichever is harder leads you to the greater path, this is what I believe. So one of such decision I made when I was studying bachelor in India and I scored a pass class category and I was finding it difficult to get admission in some of the big universities. So it was a biggest challenge for me where to excel in my studies and the decision I made was to choose for UK university. So I believe that decision was not easy for me because I need to arrange for the funds, I need to convince my parents and I had to go by my own to UK which was very new country to me and there was none of my friend already there, none of my relative. So I took this decision and it was a very crucial decision or I can say turning point of my life. I made it clear, I got admission in MBA, I passed out with quite a good marks which was much better than my undergraduate marks and I learnt so many things over there. My passion is listening music so I learnt some English music over there like Once in Dubai songs, that is my favourite song and so my life totally changed after this decision. I passed out with the MBA degree, I got a chance to work for the Aldi.

    Band 6-7

    I have made an important decision regarding my life and career I I have I have I have started to about thinking of becoming an English teacher and I had also also passed in an exam called West Bengal School Service Commission where I where I am preparing for interview so this is a great time to prepare for interview using your app and it is my pleasure to learn from you in this examination and interview preparation I am facing a lot of problems and I have to study all the history of literature and also the major poets and their works especially Keats, Shelley, Wadsworth, Coleridge, Blake, T.S. Eliot and others and grammar area is also my problem so I am practicing on that also especially phrases clauses subject-verb agreement and preposition conjunction generate participle verbal noun etc so I am trying my level best to prepare this and my to have my dream come true it must it must help me to study in this field using your app and I am hoping for the best in the future so that I may pass the interview and become an English teacher

    Band 6-7

    So, in my college, especially in Electronics, my department, everyone started preparing with their coding and all, DSA and all for the companies for the placements and generally in second year people decide their streams, either they go for higher studies or into core electronics or they do coding based questions and all for their interviews and for companies, for software companies because generally only software companies visit our colleges and for core placement there aren't any such companies, so we have to do higher studies. And in second year, I don't know how but I started having this inclination towards research and I wanted to stay in this core electronics, that's why it was tough for me because almost 90-95% of my batch was into coding, DSA, into preparation for the placements and all and I was the only guy who was interested in higher studies and for research. So that was a very tough and interesting call for me, by the end of the second year I was totally dedicated that okay, I will be going into research and that really helped actually. In my third year summer internship, I got a DAD scholarship and I went to IHP in Germany, so I was doing research and I got couple of papers also and I am still into that, I am looking for direct PhD roles outside India, especially in US and Singapore and for that in the meantime, for the experience, I came to ISC as a project associate and here also we are doing research, so I am really enjoying it and I feel that I made a great decision, I mean still my admissions are left but still I believe I can do it.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to talk about a time when I made this important decision of shifting back to India after completing my undergraduate studies in Malaysia. Since Malaysia is my hometown and my father wanted me to get settled there after my studies, I wanted to make a contrast decision to what my dad said of shifting back to India to pursue my higher studies or work and also to pursue my passion. So I decided to move because I wanted to pursue my passion in Indian classical dance. It was a really difficult decision, but at the end of the day, I felt really happy that I made this decision for myself because after coming here to India, I had a lot of opportunity to collaborate with other artists to learn and perform in many places around, making me feel grateful for the decision I made a few years back.

    Band 6-7

    When I was studying in 10th grade, I was supposed to select my track, either to choose a track for biology, which is for the doctors, or to pursue an engineering degree with a physics basic. I then decided for the physics group, but I was having a very less amount of score in my board exams, but I wasn't stressed. I wished to be some kind of a good engineer. Some other day, I used to cry, and every night, I used to feel for it. I was very depressed, and I wasn't me, but one fine day, I decided myself that I shouldn't cry, whatever may happen, I should be stronger, I should feel free, and I should stay strong, and I wanted to make my decision on my own. So that I made a right decision to choose my field, I started practicing each and every day with confidence. I enrolled me in a lot of activities. I got networking purposes, and I networked with a lot of people, and I learned so much, and now here I am doing my startup, and I am the founder of my startup, Mean Machine Automation, and I'm here speaking in front of a lot of people, and I am giving the suggestions to choose their own careers, and I feel free for them to address their pains, and I'm also feeling so proud.
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