Describe An Occasion When You Had To Do Something In A Hurry: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

What did you have to do?
Why did you have to do this in a hurry?
How well did you do this?
Explain how you felt about having to do this in a hurry.

13 unique answers with expert feedback

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Cue 1:What did you have to do?

Begin by clearly stating the task you had to complete in a hurry.
Provide some context about the importance of this task.

Example

I had to prepare a presentation for my college project. It was due the next day, and I realized I had not started working on it until the evening before.

Cue 2:Why did you have to do this in a hurry?

Explain the circumstances that led to the urgency of the task.
Mention any factors that contributed to the last-minute rush.

Example

I had been busy with other assignments and completely lost track of time. When I checked my calendar, I was shocked to see that the presentation was due the next day, and I had only a few hours to get everything ready.

Cue 3:How well did you do this?

Discuss the outcome of your hurried efforts.
Reflect on whether you met the deadline and the quality of your work.

Example

Despite the rush, I managed to complete the presentation just in time. I was able to cover all the necessary points, and my friends helped me with some last-minute edits. I felt relieved that I met the deadline, but I knew it could have been better if I had more time.

Cue 4:Explain how you felt about having to do this in a hurry.

Share your emotions during the experience.
Discuss any lessons learned from the situation.

Example

I felt a mix of anxiety and excitement. The pressure of the deadline made me focus intensely, but I also realized that I need to manage my time better in the future. It taught me the importance of planning ahead to avoid such stressful situations.

Conclusion

Example

In conclusion, doing something in a hurry can be stressful, but it can also teach valuable lessons about time management and prioritization. I learned that while I can perform under pressure, it’s always better to be prepared in advance.

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 speak too quickly when describing their experience, which can lead to unclear communication and missed details. This makes it hard for the examiner to follow your story.

Tip

Practice speaking slowly and clearly. Take a moment to gather your thoughts before answering to ensure you include all important details.

2: Lack of Structure

Failing to organize your response can confuse the listener. A disorganized answer may skip important cues or jump around, making it hard to understand your experience.

Tip

Use a clear structure: start with what you had to do, explain why it was urgent, describe how you did it, and share your feelings about the experience.

Neglecting Emotions

Some candidates forget to express their feelings about the situation, which can make their answer less engaging. Emotions add depth and interest to your story.

Tip

Include your feelings throughout your response. Explain how you felt during the rush and after completing the task to create a more compelling narrative.

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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 5-6

I try to recollect one font memory, which happened on my college days, 5-6 years back. What happened at that day, one of my closest friend invited me on birthday party, which was organized on their home. So everybody was invited over there. So what I found, for my place to my friend's home, which actually they organized the party, it's like around 15-20 km in between that. So after completing my college session afternoon, party is organized around 7 o'clock. After completing my college around 5-5.30, I get ready on Haribari, which took so much time to ready and getting transport. Because we lived at that time, at that moment, we lived on some of the outer area, outer remote area, which created so much difficulties to reach their home. So finally after reaching there, we almost reached one hour delay, which caused all the things, all the celebration, important celebration and dances and get together, everything was over. At that time I felt, why I was Haribari, why I delayed, what is the reason for that, I had not been ready.

Band 5

On an occasion when I plan to do something in a hurry, like exactly I will say for going places or cities, or buying the shopping, so many things are there. Mostly I can tell that one city is going from another state to another state. So especially when sudden planning in a hurry, we can forget everything what we have to do and everything. Taking things and collecting grocery things, from gifts and everything. So that time I could mention that we will be in a hurry because of tension. So we forget so many things that time. According to that, before we have to plan everything just for any emergency, it will be easy also for going. Doing this one will get most irritated to person and getting scolding for others.

Band 5

I remember a day in my school where we students were sitting for the assembly session. We were divided into four groups. We have competition among ourselves. I always cherish the memories of being a student of my school. We were actively participating in various games and events.

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