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Describe an important thing you learned (not at school or college): IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • When did you learn it?
  • How did you learn it?
  • Why did you think it was important to learn it?
  • How you felt when you learnt it?
Show all 89 answers

Cue 1:When did you learn it?

  • Mention a specific time frame when you learned this important thing, such as a few months ago or during a particular event.
  • Provide context about what was happening in your life at that time to make it more relatable.

Example

I learned this important lesson about financial management about six months ago when I started my first job. It was a significant transition for me as I was moving from being a student to a working professional.

Cue 2:How did you learn it?

  • Explain the method or source through which you learned this lesson, such as through a book, a workshop, or advice from someone.
  • Share any specific experiences or activities that helped you grasp this knowledge.

Example

I learned about financial management by attending a workshop organized by my company. The workshop was conducted by a financial expert who shared practical tips on budgeting and saving.

Cue 3:Why did you think it was important to learn it?

  • Discuss the reasons that made this lesson significant for you, such as future goals or personal circumstances.
  • Connect the importance of this lesson to your life or career aspirations.

Example

I thought it was crucial to learn about financial management because I wanted to ensure that I could save for my future and manage my expenses wisely. As I was starting my career, I realized that understanding finances would help me achieve my long-term goals.

Cue 4:How you felt when you learnt it?

  • Describe your emotions when you grasped this lesson, whether it was excitement, relief, or empowerment.
  • Reflect on how this knowledge has impacted your confidence or mindset.

Example

When I learned about financial management, I felt empowered and relieved. It was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders because I now had the tools to take control of my finances, which made me feel more confident about my future.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, learning about financial management was a pivotal moment in my life. It not only equipped me with essential skills but also changed my perspective on money and savings, setting a solid foundation for my future.

    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 Responses

    Avoid giving vague or general answers. Specific details make your response more engaging and memorable. Candidates often lose points for not elaborating on their experiences.

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    Tip

    Use specific examples and details to illustrate your learning experience. Mention exact moments or feelings to make your answer more vivid.

    2: Ignoring the Cues

    Not addressing all the cues can lead to an incomplete answer. Candidates may miss important aspects of their learning experience, which can affect their score.

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    Tip

    Make sure to answer all the cues provided. Structure your response to cover when, how, why, and how you felt about your learning.

    Overly Complex Language

    Using overly complex vocabulary or grammar can confuse the listener. It's important to communicate clearly and effectively, especially in a speaking test.

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    Tip

    Use simple and clear language. Focus on expressing your ideas clearly rather than trying to impress 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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    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
    anonymous person icon

    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

    Something very important in life I learned was back in 2016 when I was walking with Amazon and I was stressed one day and my manager happened to notice that and he came up to me and he did not ask me if something was bothering me and what was it. Instead he told me whatever that is bothering is not his business and he just then asked me one question if I had any control over that thing or not. Then he followed by letting me know one thing, if I do not have any control over that thing whatever that was bothering me, then I am wasting my time and wasting my energy chasing that thing down and I am losing out on things that I can actually control and do something about. That day it opened my eyes to a whole new perspective towards life and it changed my attitude towards things forever. In every situation I put myself in that very same place where I ask myself if the thing that is bothering me or stressing me over or whatever, if I have any control over it or not. If I have any control over it, it's well and good, I can totally pay attention to it, do my best, spend my time on it, my energy on it and get it done. If that thing is something that I do not have any control over, I just accept and let go. That makes it very easy for me to manage my energy, my peace of mind, my mental state. It's been a great advice and I happen to advise it to anyone that comes to me with the same

    Band 6-7

    An important thing that I learned is to say no. I think it is very crucial to say no to things but I remember I had this project which was given to me by my supervisor which required a lot of work and dedication. I was ready to put in all my hard work into it but what was not right was that she gave me less time around just a couple of hours to finish it which was which in my opinion was not the right amount of time that was given. So what I did was although I was a little skeptical how will I say no but eventually I gathered courage, motivation and eventually I said no to her and also I gave my opinion as to why I

    Band 6-7

    So an important thing I learned in my life is being empathetic, being sympathetic and always taking conscious decision in life. I learned this over the time when I started owning. Moreover, in real life scenario you learn many things. Every day there are certain things which keeps on coming on your way. You hardly get time to respond to certain things. So with experiences learning comes. It is important to learn every day, to be updated every day, to know what is good and what is bad. Most importantly to implement and execute your learning. When I first learnt these life skills, it has changed my life. I have started implementing these things in my routine. It gives me immense pleasure to know that I am able to do justice to my life.

    Band 6-7

    I want to tell, I have learned many things in school and college, but today I would like to mention a thing which I have learned not at college, not at school. So the thing which I am talking about is gardening. I have learned gardening from my grandfather. He has always been planting the trees and planting the seeds, so he always tells me how to sow the seeds, how to sow the seeds and how to take care of the plants, how to add manure to the plants and how to dispose of the dried leaves and how to revive the plant in case it dies or it is about to die or it is not getting the proper nutrition, what should be done at that moment. So he always guides me regarding that. He tells me that if a plant is dying, then one should try to just dig the soil and like till the bottom of the cemented pot and so that the whole soil can be, the whole of the soil can be, it can be mixed and the fresh soil can be generated, moreover, the air would also pass through the soil, which would add to the health of the plant, so this is the

    Band 6-7

    One of the thing I learnt is farming. Today's farming is place major role in the life. Because of farming many of the life is depending upon the farmers. Farming is one of the important role nowadays. Why I have learnt is, the farming which I have learnt is, it will useful for me for the future purpose. And also, I myself can cultivate the food, I can eat my own. In addition, farmers also important to the social life. Moreover, during the farming, I faced a lot of problems. During the cultivating, we need seeds, water, buffalos, oxes. We need to water the plants daily. Moreover, during the farming, it is more and more difficult to do such work. It is also somewhat difficult to do that work daily. If we do the work, we can immediately do anything. If we do the farming, we can also do the gym. Farming is one of the most important which I have learnt in my life. And also, you also make to try to do the farming.

    Band 6-7

    When I also graduated from B.E. Mechanical Engineering, I did not even get a practicality over there. I need to work on my skills, I need to develop my technical ability to grasp the ideas and I need to learn the things that will give the solution to the problems in day-to-day lives. When it comes to problem solving, when I was working in a company called Wave Mechanics, that's going to be helped more to grasp the idea and that teach me well how to analyze the situations when it comes to practicality. I have got a ground clarity over there in order to unleash the situations, analyze the situations. Wave Mechanics is going to help me a lot better than anything else and additionally, I joined another company called CloudWare. Right now, I am working as a Supply Chain Quality Management. I usually look after my work, the customer's readings and vendors' meetings. It's going to be completely changed with what my first pre-workshop was and it was quite interesting as well. In order to maintain my meeting schedules, I need to schedule the meetings and I have to take charge of it, I need to analyze the situations of the vendors, I need to make a bill for it, I need to check the parts which I ordered for vendors. If the quality was very good, I need to give permission to move on. If the quality is not good, I need to check with, again, I need to get with a rework or something.

    Band 6-7

    An important thing I have learned in my life is the Gayathri Mantra. I learned it from my grandmother when I was just seven years old. She did explain the importance of this mantra and how it benefits us humans. Gayathri Mantra has a lot of positive impacts, according to Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who is a guru we adhere to. Gayathri is known to cure all diseases and excel in the best way possible. It is a very important thing for me because I believe that this mantra will help me in my difficult times. It is like I have a magic spell and I can attain everything.

    Band 6-7

    Personally, I love many things to do which improves myself and my ability. So the thing which I am learning right now is kickboxing. So as in today's world, people need to know about self-defense. So self-defense is an art which can help you throughout various situations, not only defending yourself in battles or wars, but also in other calamities. Every people should know how to be self-developed and can stand alone in the crowd. So I am learning kickboxing at a local gym near my house. So I had a trainer named Jason. So he teaches me various technique tips and moreover various tactics which can help me. Regarding kickboxing, I would like to add that this is a sport, not only a fighting technique, it is a sport which is even played on national levels and even you can watch them on national televisions. So kickboxing is mainly like fighting using your hands and legs, using the mixture of kicks and boxing. So I would even recommend you to learn the kickboxing and implement in your life standards. Because developing yourself is not developing the world around you, but it helps you from the world.

    Band 6-7

    In 2020, I decided to learn how to make some fresh juice by myself instead of picking from the grocery stores. In 2020, I tried to look at, check through my feeding habits and how I'm going to improve them. You know, what I'm taking and what is there in the market to balance my meal. So I decided I was going to be making my juice myself. So I started off with, I looked at a five pack of juice. So I selected the five citrus, that's the orange, the tangerine, I took up the lime, the lemon and mixed with mango. So I blended them, I tested them, they were fresh and they were nutritious and healthy. Now from then on, I started checking up on other fruits and I've been improving from one smoothie, one juice to another, making it so delicious and healthy. Everyone likes that. So not much, I hardly go to the store to buy juice. I prepare the other juice I want, my home. If I want to make pineapple juice with beetroot, I get them, I mix it and what else can I get? What do I want to achieve? I want to achieve a healthy drink. I have felt so good that I could make a lot of juice for myself and for the family, everyone enjoys it. It doesn't take time anymore to do that. So it's been a wonderful training that I've given to myself and which has helped in my healthy living.

    Band 6-7

    I want to describe a thing I learned recently which really helped me to empower myself especially that was a book a book called dream big so I wanted to learn books but couldn't find one with my company so I purchased a book and went to a shop it was a library kind of store so I picked up a book and started opening it and read one page of that book and I was inspired by it and I purchased it came back to home in addition I started reading for 10 to 15 pages a day and it really strengthened me and boost my confidence and also you know I was was not able to I couldn't stop reading that book and what I recently learnt is start reading books day by day to improve your English knowledge and your confidence and how I learn reading books I already know how to read but when I started reading books I learnt even more how to stay confident not only that I enjoyed a lot and I am enjoying now
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