arrow back icon Top Answers

Describe Something That Helps You Concentrate: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What is it?
  • When do you do it?
  • How did you learn about it?
  • How does it help you concentrate?
Show all 17 answers

Cue 1:What is it?

  • Begin by clearly stating what helps you concentrate, such as a specific activity or tool.
  • Provide a brief description of how this method works for you.

Example

One thing that helps me concentrate is listening to instrumental music. I find that the absence of lyrics allows me to focus better on my tasks without distractions.

Cue 2:When do you do it?

  • Mention specific times or situations when you use this method to concentrate.
  • Explain how often you incorporate this into your routine.

Example

I usually listen to instrumental music while studying or working on assignments, especially during late evenings when I need to focus for long hours. I make it a habit to play this music whenever I sit down to work.

Cue 3:How did you learn about it?

  • Share how you discovered this method, whether through personal experience or recommendations.
  • Include any specific instances that led you to adopt this technique.

Example

I learned about the benefits of instrumental music from a friend who is also a student. She mentioned how it helped her during her exam preparations, and I decided to give it a try.

Cue 4:How does it help you concentrate?

  • Explain the specific ways this method enhances your concentration.
  • Discuss any noticeable improvements in your productivity or focus.

Example

Listening to instrumental music helps me block out background noise and creates a calming atmosphere. I have noticed that I can study for longer periods without losing focus, and my productivity has significantly improved since I started using this method.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, listening to instrumental music has become an essential part of my study routine. It not only helps me concentrate better but also makes the studying process more enjoyable.

    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 Descriptions

    Using vague language can make your answer unclear. It's important to provide specific details about what helps you concentrate to engage the listener.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Use clear examples and specific details to describe the item or activity, such as its features or your personal experiences with it.

    2: Ignoring the Cues

    Failing to address the provided cues can lead to an incomplete answer. Each cue is designed to help structure your response effectively.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Make sure to answer each cue in order, ensuring you cover 'What it is', 'When you do it', 'How you learned about it', and 'How it helps you concentrate'.

    Overly Long Answers

    Giving excessively long responses can lose the listener's interest. It's important to be concise while still providing enough detail.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Practice summarizing your thoughts in a few sentences for each cue, focusing on the most relevant information to keep your answer engaging.

    calendar icon

    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

    If I talk about the current scenario and the busy schedule of everyone, everyone is sometimes lack of concentration in his or her life, so it's necessary for one to concentrate or have a solution to relax their mind, so that one can concentrate on the work. So I feel when I feel in stress or sometimes I found in problem, I do meditation, the perfect time to do meditation is in the morning or the evening, but irrespective of that, I used to do meditation when I feel stress or some kind of awful situations comes to me, I just do meditation for a while and I simply come out of that situation very easily. I remember that my grandfather used to do meditation in the morning and the evening, but at that time, I don't take it very seriously, however, now I realize what that meditation matters to him and I feel that I should also do at present.

    Band 6-7

    I think to concentrate my go-to technique is the Pomodoro Technique in which we concentrate on things for about 20 minutes and then take a short break of five minutes let's say so when we continuously do that for about three times that's when one Pomodoro session gets over so this is my favorite technique when it comes to concentrating but before that what I do is I usually declutter my surroundings I take everything which is necessary for me beside me so I don't have to get up I try to keep the distractions like electronic devices away from me during this time it came across this technique when I was watching how to concentrate video on YouTube and this is when this I came to know about this technique apart from that I also in the lockdown and also saw there are some zoom meeting rooms wherein people can just turn on their camera and do their work so it is said that when there is someone to look over you you work perfectly that was the whole concept of this zoom meeting room things so what we used to do a bunch of us we used to go on to zoom and sit together for studying because we could not physically sit around each other that is why we try to do that virtually and in the meantime we could also answer each other's doubts and you know ask the questions or help each another each other so that is how I think I concentrate

    Band 6-7

    Well, something with that helped me focus is Yoga. Yoga is an ancient Indian tradition which was practiced in the Indian subcontinent since many years. It has been a traditional practice which would help people rejuvenate themselves and feel refreshed about it. I mostly try to practice this exercise in morning but during some days when I have to leave for office early, I try to take out some time in evening and try to do so. Furthermore, I got inspired to do Yoga is because of my father. Since he was an early practitioner of it, he had much experience and knowledge about how to perform certain actions or certain exercises in it that would be the proper way of performing the activity. I also learned it in a school as a part of our academic curriculum and adding to that I used to participate in competitions that were conducted in my housing complex along with my friends. Meditation which is a part of Yoga is help person to concentrate because the certain breathing exercises which comes under these are help to gain a certain level of refreshment and awaken the senses, the chakras of our body.

    Band 6-7

    My father is a great source of concentration energy which helps me to get motivated and work on things and to achieve good things in my life because he is always concentrated towards his work or his assignments which is being provided by the clients and focusing on the client's satisfaction. So whenever I speak to him, whenever I talk to him, whenever I am with him, I usually get a lot of motivation from his activities, what he does in daily routine which helps me to achieve some good scores in my academics. Earlier he used to say me stay concentrated towards the work which I am doing and nevertheless he told me to stay focused and always stay motivated so that I can achieve good marks in my life and in my academics. Overall he helped me to go, he helped me in other activities like in sports and in my curriculum activities in school. So he always asked me to stay motivated. So that's the source which helps me to get motivated.

    Band 6-7

    Well, there are a few activities that I do that helps me to concentrate, firstly working out makes me feel refreshed, it keeps me physically and mentally active, I work out weekly thrice and it really feels good to me to concentrate on other works, secondly dancing, I go for classes weekly twice, the technique of using my eyes, hands and body at the same time helps me to concentrate in my real life too, performing multiple activities and tasks and finding the right balance between all, lastly sometimes doing a static kind of activities and job and having a fixed routine causes burnout to me at times, so that is when I also make sure that I take breaks by watching movies or going out on a solo date, spending some time with myself, reflecting on my thoughts, this really helps me to come back to work and concentrate on the productivity as well, so I would say performing multiple activities like workout, dancing, taking breaks supports me in concentrating to do other activities as well.

    Band 6-7

    I usually do suffer with low concentration. Once in a while when I'm working I just have to lose focus and stop working and just procrastinate. This happens to me quite often and I've found a way to avoid this and I've come to terms with me just having to lose concentration. How I came about this has been through constant development and reiterations of how I change my habits. When I first noticed that I lose concentrate and focus that was because of the multiple distractions that I was exposed to. Having as low as distraction possible around you while you're working is crucial to maintaining concentration. I have found a way to eliminate the distractions in my life. One of the few of the major distractions would be my phone and the notifications, internet and everything that is boosting my concentration is lost because of the phone. I avoid using phone when I'm doing concentrated work and put it away, silence it. Apart from this I also meditate that helps me build focus. Before I begin my work I also note down points that I need to work upon so that I can make a performance as a checklist. As I get through each task it helps me stay motivated which also builds on my concentration. Apart from this workout and exercise is another thing that you should incorporate in your daily life that could really change the perspective of concentration and decrease procrastination on a day-to-day basis. When you're exhausted to consume content otherwise you would have more time to concentrate on the work. Concentration is really important and it should be built upon.

    Band 6-7

    Concentrating on things is quite difficult but for me the game-changer was to introduce meditation into my day-to-day life. It changed the way how I have progressed into making myself better and to give my 100% focus on to a certain thing that I am doing at the present moment. Meditation is something that helps to bring out the best in you. It encourages the positive attitude towards a certain thing even if you believe that it is not possible. I like to do meditation 2 times a day in shorter durations in the morning as soon as I wake up and during the evening after a certain amount of workout. I feel so relaxed after doing meditation. It allows me to focus more on myself. It also has a lot of health benefits improving your cardiovascular system, respiratory system and many all. In India also many research which includes Ayurveda research especially has thousands of papers which have published the power of meditation. I was lucky to be introduced to this by my parents who are keen believer in meditating. It has not only helped them with their health but also they have overcome many of the problems that they were suffering due to their increasing age. For instance my mother is a diabetic person and she has successfully reduced her diabetic stances. It helps me to focus more, stay calm, stay in a positive mindset always.

    Band 6-7

    One thing which helped me to concentrate is, I often sit and do meditation before concentrating into anything and I also, I was suggested to count 1 to 100 in reverse by my senior when I was in school because I am someone who get easily distracted and I often used to overthink, so she tried to help me with, with tips like this to increase my concentration and during my childhood days, even our teachers will help us with few tips to increase our concentration such as, by observing or, and I feel like doing meditation helps a lot in increasing the concentration because it is very effective for me and I also suggest this to my colleagues, my friends and my younger sisters as they are growing, they also need much time, they also have to concentrate on their career, their studies and things, so I also suggest that, these things because these helped me to concentrate on my subject, on my reading process.

    Band 6

    So, I wanted to talk about my drawing habit, which helps me to concentrate on the things which I'm unable to do. For example, if I am having stress or any panic attack or I'm feeling nervousness, it always helped me to remove the stress so that I can clearly focus on the work which I do. In my childhood, my father used to teach all kinds of artistic values as well as the things which I wanted to do. So, from my father, I have learned one skill that is drawing. So, it makes me to get focused, relaxed and to gain confidence whichever work I'm doing. Moreover, it makes me to have a track of things which I wanted to do or I wanted to achieve. In addition to that, I feel like I can complete my work without any issues and without any hassle. It feels me motivated and I feel inspired with the drawing which I make. So, in few scenarios, I have thought of doing a business by drawing the portraits of people. So, it makes me feel happy and I feel more confident in order to achieve something. Hence, I feel like drawing makes me a different person and also the hard work which I do in any related type of work, it helps me to stay focused.

    Band 6

    The activity that helps me concentrate the most is journaling early in the morning. Journaling has been given as a gift to me by my maternal aunt. She is the one who introduced me to journaling when I was pretty young. She told me how journaling has helped her heal a lot of her anxiety and depression and so she told me that journaling would be a best way to make you feel motivated and concentrated towards your goals. I sit and journal every day early in the morning because that is something that has helped me concentrate and feel motivated to complete my everyday tasks. Sitting there in silence and just thinking about the tasks that you have to accomplish and thinking about the day that you have already finished and the yesterday wherein you completed all your tasks, the kind of feelings that you felt and the kind of accomplishment that you achieved, the kind of feelings you felt throughout the day, the happiness, sadness or even the tiniest amount of pain that you inflicted on yourself. Journaling is something that...
    1 2
    ielts logo

    Get the IELTS Prep App

    Star rating icon

    4.2

    1M+ Installs

     app download banner image

    Get the app link on your phone

    +91

    Or download app from

    google play storeapp store
    master ielts speaking ad