arrow back icon Top Answers

Describe something that surprised you and made you happy: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What it was?
  • Who did this?
  • How you found out about it and what you did?
  • And explain why it surprised you and made you happy.
Show all 57 answers

Cue 1:What it was?

  • Begin by clearly stating what the surprising event was.
  • Provide some context about the event to engage the listener.

Example

The surprise that made me incredibly happy was when I received a scholarship for my master's degree. I had applied for it months ago and had almost forgotten about it.


Cue 2:Who did this?

  • Mention the organization or person responsible for the surprise.
  • Explain their significance in your life or studies.

Example

The scholarship was awarded by a well-known educational foundation in India that supports students pursuing higher education. This foundation has helped many students like me, and being chosen felt like a huge honor.


Cue 3:How you found out about it and what you did?

  • Describe how you learned about the scholarship award.
  • Share your immediate reaction and any actions you took afterward.

Example

I found out about the scholarship through an email notification while I was studying at home. When I read the subject line, my heart raced, and I quickly opened it. I was overjoyed and immediately called my family to share the good news.


Cue 4:And explain why it surprised you and made you happy.

  • Reflect on your feelings of surprise and happiness.
  • Connect the event to your future aspirations or goals.

Example

It surprised me because I didn’t expect to receive such a prestigious scholarship, given the number of applicants. It made me happy because it not only eased my financial burden but also motivated me to work harder in my studies, knowing that someone believed in my potential.


Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, receiving the scholarship was a life-changing moment for me. It reminded me of the importance of perseverance and the joy that comes from unexpected good news.


    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: Being Vague About the Surprise

    Candidates often give unclear descriptions of what surprised them. This can make it hard for the examiner to understand the significance of the event.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Be specific about the event. Use clear details to explain what happened and why it was surprising.


    2: Neglecting Emotional Impact

    Some candidates forget to express their feelings about the surprise. This can make their response less engaging and personal.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Share your emotions. Explain how the surprise made you feel happy and why it was meaningful to you.


    Rushing Through the Explanation

    Candidates often rush their answers, skipping important details. This can lead to a disorganized response that lacks depth.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Take your time. Structure your answer by addressing each cue clearly and thoroughly to create a complete picture.


    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

    I recall an incident which I was really astonished by. I remember that I was having a really long week. I was really frustrated and irritated by literally everything. Moreover, I was just not able to keep up with everything that was going on in my life. I was really fed up of all the challenges that I had to overcome in that particular weekend. Subsequently, I just couldn't keep up with my academics and along with my personal life and I was really not feeling like having a joyful time. So, I just came home and started weeping. My mother acknowledged that I wasn't really happy in that moment but refused to show any emotions towards me. She tried to subtly encourage me to become happier and confronted me about what had happened but I was not really in a mood to tell her anything and after having a nap for about four hours, she woke me up and showed me that she had made my favorite food and I was really ecstatic to see that someone who really cares about my feelings and about me is always there for me no matter what. So, this was an incident that made me feel really happy and connected to her. Moreover, I think of her every time I eat that food now.

    Band 6-7

    Well, I received different type of surprises in my life from my family and friends. But one such surprise that really made me happy it was in 2021. My family gave me a surprise actually I was not aware that they are planning any surprise party for me. Although that day I was visiting to the college but no one in my family members wished me happy birthday properly. Even I was feeling very upset that I thought that nobody remembered my birthday. But at the college the same situation happened with me. My college friends was also supporting to my parents and my family for my birthday party. After that when I reached at the home I saw that there was all of the lights were switched off when I switch on the button there was everywhere is balloons and lights then my entire room was decorated with different things. I was very happy I knew that they was planning surprise for me. They clapped and said happy birthday to me I thanked to everybody.

    Band 6-7

    An incident of my life which made me happy was when I was 12, my parents celebrated my birthday at midnight and I was not expecting that anyhow. So Additionally, I had my exams. I was really tensed. I was studying and all of a sudden my father came and he asked me to come down with us. Then I went there and I saw the room was decorated and I felt so good. I was really happy and that's a really core memory for me. Additionally, it's because I was tensed when I saw something really, really something unexpected happening to me. I was really happy. It's something to be happy, right? It was my birthday and I was just 12 years old. So, it's really nice. It was really... I'm still that particular experience and it was the only experience of my life. Okay, no one ever like no one ever surprised me on my birthday after that and even before that. That was the only surprise I had. I experienced basically. So, it was really nice. It was really, really nice and I liked it. I was really happy, yes.

    Band 6-7

    So today I would like to shed some light on a thing which surprised me and made me feel jubilant. So, a few months ago when I celebrated my birthday, firstly all of my family members pretended that they forgot my birthday but after 12 pm the door knocked and when I opened the door I saw my cousin brother who lives abroad. He surprised me with a home-baked cake which is made by him and a small envelope with some money inside it and a bouquet. When I opened the envelope, there was a cash inside it and I felt very happy at that time. After the cake cutting ceremony, we all had great dinner outside. I felt extremely happy to saw that envelope and the home-made cake. First of all, I really appreciated his efforts that he put into the right direction just to make me feel happy. He knew that I wanted to buy a smart watch from a long time and instead of buying something that I might not like, he tried to give me money to buy that watch. After that, I bought a watch with my savings.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to tell an incident that happened a few years ago at my house. It was the day of Rakhi festival, which is a commonly celebrated festival in India, where sisters tie Rakhi to their brothers and their brother's promises to protect them and in return they would give gifts to their sisters. So as a ritual, I woke up and get ready to tie, to celebrate Rakhi with my brother and I was very excited that I will receive gifts and money from him. So when I tie him Rakhi, he told that I have bought nothing for you and he just gave me a coin of one rupee, which made me somehow sad and disappointed a little. But after an hour, he came with a big box of Ferrero Rocher, which is my favorite chocolate by the way and surprised me with it. He bought it already, but he wanted to keep it a little surprise for me and he surprised me with that chocolate box and I was so happy and I thought I misunderstood him and I didn't get his surprise, but when I saw him, my eyes were full of tears and I felt very happy and the luckiest person.

    Band 6-7

    Things that surprise me and make me happy that was my anniversary gift. It was given by my husband on my anniversary day, was on the 20th June. When I came from the hospital, he asked me to keep my hands both on eyes and even before he never gave me a gift like this. So I was very excited to know about the things, what is going on. And when I kept eyes, I wanted to see what he is doing or the things, but I kept the promise and keep hand on my eyes. And when he asked to remove the hands, I was very surprised because it was a ring for me that I like the most. And once I go to the shop and I selected that ring, but that was out of my budget and I left that ring at that time. So he gave me that ring. I was very excited and I was very surprised how could he find that ring, which I left there. So that was very excited and was very memorable day for me. That anniversary I ever enjoyed in my life. I also want this to happen in future time and make me surprised and I also give same surprise to him to make Andrew feel him.

    Band 6-7

    When I started living in India, especially the people really surprised me. The reason why I was really surprised was because I am from Papua New Guinea, from a different country and different culture. I was so judgmental thinking that Indians were very traditional like. For example, most Indians would be wearing their saree every time, even throughout their jobs or throughout any marital ceremonies. Or especially in terms of when they are having a casual outing with friends like just being out in the park. I was thinking that they mostly are dressed in the traditional attire. So when I had started living in India, I was so surprised that even they are wearing westernized clothing. For example, I noticed that especially the females would wear t-shirts and shoes and jeans. So to me it was such a surprise that it really had made me happy to the point like. It is really good to step outside of other countries to experience other type of culture. And it was really good to see how others could live and coexist with each other, foreigners within India as well. So the whole clothing agenda really had me super surprised in a more, I should say,

    Band 6-7

    Something that made me happy was when my family celebrated my 11th birthday for the first time in many years. In my family, we don't usually celebrate our birthdays because we belong, because we were too busy preparing for our exams during that time. But it was first time in many years that there were no exams on my birthday. My birthday falls on 24th of March, which basically is exam time in India. So my brother prepared a cake for me and they woke me up at 12 am in the morning and said, Happy birthday to you! I was so happy to hear the tune because everybody remembered my birthday. Usually because of the busy month, they don't remember it and I usually get very sad as to why do people forget my birthdays. So they celebrated with a cake and some confetti and they also bought me a dress. As a child, it was a very happy birthday to me and my family was also happy to see me smile a lot. I took some pictures and kept them as a memory in my phone and I have also saved them on a cloud memory. So as not to... So as not to...

    Band 6-7

    Once, some years ago, when it was the time for my birthday, I had completely forgotten about it and I received a surprise from my family. It was one of the best surprises that I had ever received and they prepared so much for it in advance without my letting anything know that they have prepared for me. They woke me up at 12 at night and wished me happy birthday very loudly. I was surprised but was also very happy. Moreover, they got me a cake and I cut that cake and it was my first birthday in which I had cut a cake as we do not celebrate birthdays yet. It was the first time that we were celebrating because they wanted me to be happy. And I received so many different kinds of gifts. My father and mother gifted me many things and the best thing that I received was a bicycle which I still use till today and it is one of the best bicycles that I have ever had. Furthermore, they cooked various delicacies that day and I was given complete holiday. I did not have to go to school and I did not study at all because my father said that this was the only day in a year that I could be happy on and that's why I should celebrate instead of studying. I played all day long with my siblings and we had a lot of fun that day. It was all because of my family that I was so happy and I still remember that as the best day of my life till today. I would never forget about it.

    Band 6-7

    Yeah, that is traveling. My friends were surprised to meet me. They came to my house, they picked me up and we went together to travel. They celebrated my birthday on the ground scale, on the city side. It was a surprise for me. We enjoyed a lot. We went to Hyderabad near Charminar and Golconda court. We visited a lot of cultural and traditional temples. We traveled to Jambu Kashmir and Kerala. On my birthday trip, we went together. We enjoyed a lot. It was a surprise because they didn't plan it for me. They gathered and we went together. Actually, it was a great trip. I was surprised a lot. I am a friend who is given the biggest surprise. I never forget these things because in my life it is a precious time. I spent memorable days with my friends. It expressed a lot of things. We learned new things while traveling. We met new people and we communicated in their native language. It was fun. Sometimes we went to parks and pubs. We drank a lot of drinks and alcohol. It was a memorable day for us.

    Master IELTS Speaking with Leap's Self-Prep Course

    student enroll count

    Students Enrolled

    review count

    2,411 Reviews

    app download banner image
    See Course Details

    Master IELTS Speaking with Leap's Self-Prep Course

    student enroll count

    Students Enrolled

    review count

    2,411 Reviews

    app download banner image
    See Course Details