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?

17 unique answers with expert feedback

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.

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.

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.

Tip

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

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 6

Actually, one method that helped me concentrate is clean workspace because it creates me a lots of pressures and peaceful environment and it reduce virtual or visual distractions. It helps me to focus and attentive towards my task whenever I do. Moreover, nature sounds and listening to music, I never get distracted because it's naturally occurring. If I get distracted, I started to calm my mind and I sit for 10 minutes for meditation then our mind gets relaxed and started to do my job properly. Additionally, sometimes if I focus on my routine works, it's never get distracted because of any noise but if I started to do a new routine or new work in my office specific topic related studies, in that manner I have to focus so in that time I usually take some time to relax myself in the quiet place in the neat environment because it helps me lot to focus after I started my work and also it gives some idea whenever I am in good environment.

Band 6

Something that helps me to concentrate was Pomodoro Technique. In this technique we divide our work into small manageable topics, small manageable slots. In this technique we study, we do our work for first 25 minutes and take break for 5 minutes. After doing the 4 session of work and break, we take a long break of 15 to 20 minutes which helps us to get refreshed. I started using this technique during my 10th board exams as I was facing time management issues and I was not able to concentrate and focus on my studies. I talked my concern to my cousin and she guided me towards the Pomodoro Technique. After using the Pomodoro Technique, I was able to concentrate on my work better. I was not getting bored and I was so much concentrated on my work. And by using this technique, I also got 86% in my board exams. The Pomodoro Technique helps everybody to concentrate on their work and be focused without getting burnout or exhausted over a long period of time. Pomodoro Technique is a technique in which we work for 25 minutes with our keen interest and keen focus, keen concentration in the work and after 25 minutes we take a 5 minute break to get refreshed which helps to clear our mind and take a break. After that, we again take a 25 minute session and we do 4 session of this work and break.

Band 6

Well, there is a technique named as the Pomodoro technique. This technique really helps me to concentrate because it is a studying technique because as we know majorly we are required to be focused and concentrated when we have to study or do things related to that. So this technique suggests that you should have 30 minutes and you should do your work with complete focus for about 25 minutes and after that a bell will ring and then you will have a five minutes break. And similarly, you will have four slots like this. So in this way, for two hours, you will have 25 minutes of work and five minutes of break. I recommend this technique to all of my friends. I learned this technique from YouTube and I really find it really impressive because it made me concentrate better, increased my focus and it really helped me to stay consistent. And after 25 minutes, when you have those five minutes for the break, you really feel that dopamine hit that I have done something for 25 minutes without any distraction. So it gives you that feeling of being more productive and this is how you can practice to concentrate for longer period of time. Gradually, you can increase this time of 25 minutes to 45 minutes and this is how this will help you increase your concentration.

Band 6

Nowadays, language learning has an important role in our world for business and all categories. It is most important one. So I think concentrating on the language learning help us to grab a good job in future. And also I decided to learn language fluency or language courses from LeapScholar so that I want to buy more plans for IELTS preparation courses in this LeapScholar basis. It will create or help me to succeed in my language fluency courses with a good marks and skills upgradation. This is the main problem which arises nowadays so I will concentrate it on more. Moreover, I also want to know pronunciation and grammar mistakes which frequently happens to me. This LeapScholar course will help me to rectify my errors and achieve it and make me fluent in English language.

Band 6

Personal development, it is a kind of development in which a person develops or makes growth in their self. It is a way when a person can grow and make their life success in future. It also enhance their personality and personality and looks. Personal development is very much important in everyone's life. It also, a person those have high personality or have good personal development, they get more respect in the society. As personal development is all about individual's development in themselves, we all should develop something good on regular basis in ourselves. It will enhance our confidence and makes a man wise and good. So personal development, by developing one's personality, we can achieve our goal in our life. Also, we can also contribute to our nation and helps our family to grow up too. Thank you.

Band 5-6

The one thing that helps me to concentrate is whenever I feel very low and not able to concentrate on my studies or work, whatever the thing I am doing, so I just follow the thing, this thing and usually for about 10 minutes I try to meditate and after that I will be able to focus and concentrate.

Band 5-6

Well, if I tell about my like concentrating thing, I literally have a good quality of focus on my studies, and yeah, a few years ago, I just concentrate, I did not properly concentrate on my studies, then the meditation, I learned from my mother, she teaches me meditation few years ago, and definitely, it helps me to more concentrate on studies, when the time is, I never know how to properly focus on our work, how to properly focus on, instead of I don't focus properly, therefore, then my mother was, like teaches me, the thing, the meditation, it's really helpful in my life, as more others, like in other, in other concentration things, and actually, actually, I learned this, like, like, for when I go to my nanny's house, then I learned this, then I learned this thing, the meditation really changed, helps me to change my life, really, instead of, I am doing nothing, like, I don't like, I am lazy person, I don't like exercises, physical activities, but meditation really helped me, helped me to change my life into different ways, and it helps me a lot or more concentrate on such things, like study, like physical activity, now I am also do physical some activities, and yes, definitely, it helps me a lot, lot, lot, yes, so, if I have a chance to teach to another, then definitely, this, this, this incredible thing I teach to everyone.

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