(2024) Describe a Difficult Thing You Did and Succeeded IELTS Cue Card

Q: 1. Should people set goals for themselves?

Sample Answer 1 : Setting specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based goals is important for any individuals' personal development because they help trigger new behaviors and guide people's focus . Without goals, people waste lots of time doing nothing. Sample Answer 2: Yeah. Setting goals could give people a sense of purpose. I mean, once you have something in mind that has to be done in order. You know what needs to be done before going to the next part. And setting goals could also better prepare for something unexpected, because getting things done always comes with difficulties in the middle. If you set goals clearly, you can also be reminded of the problems that you are likely to encounter and make some backup plans or solutions.

Q: 2. How would you define success?

Sample Answer 1 : On paper, it's to accomplish a purpose. To me personally, it's not about wealth or fame. I think success comes from meaningful work, and strong relationships with friends and family. These factors are the keys to happiness which is the ultimate version of success. Sample Answer 2: Well, that's definitely a good question. I have never thought about what is the definition of success. I mean, for some people. success means getting a good work and becoming rich. This is like a general definition for most people. What I believe is that success sometimes doesn't have to be something material. If you are in trouble or have some difficulties, you can come up with a plan and fix things. Then that sense of accomplishment may tell you what a success feels like. So I believe from a psychological point, success means you can deal with problems and get things done after whatever happens.

Table of Contents

Describe a Difficult Thing You Did and Succeeded

Cue Card

You should say:
– What it was
– How you overcame the difficulties
– Whether you got help
– And explain how you felt after you succeeded

Sample Answer 1

Well, I am going to describe a time when I prepared for my driving license 10 years ago. It was in my freshmen year back in college. My parents signed up for me a driving school cause I had a two-month summer holiday and they wanted to get that done as soon as possible.

Well, at first, I thought driving was a piece of cake for me, cause I often drove karts with my younger cousin. But when I went there and started the car, it was totally different from what I thought it would be. The steering wheel was hard to control and I could not get the car to the required position when parking it. Besides, there was actually limited time for me to practice. You know, getting a driving licence is a must before you work, or you won’t have too much spare time to do it, so the driving-learning school was always full of students every summer holiday.

When I found out that I might not pass the test because of few practicing time, I asked my dad if he could teach me and gave me some guidance. Then we drove somewhere free of pedestrians and started to drive. For several days, I gradually know how to control the car and drive a little more smoothly without making the car go dead. That was a pretty good experience. Finally, I passed the test and got the licence in that summer.

Sample Answer 2

I’ve faced many challenges in my life. I think one of the barriers I once faced and I actually made it was losing weight about ten years ago.

Actually, I was still suffering from obesity issue because I didn’t like to do exercises and I’d probably need a kind of a sedentary lifestyle. So it’s kind of like really hurts me physically and mentally.

Sometimes I feel not like that confidence and people maybe will laugh at you or you will feel like it’s very inconvenient for you to even just tie your shoes. So I feel like it’s time for me to make a change. But it’s easier said than done.

When I started to do that, I realized that it is a quite a challenging thing, a tough decision. And first, things that people used to live in their comfort zone. They don’t want to change. I don’t want to change my lifestyle. It’s definitely a very demanding thing.

Sometimes I just want to have more, eat more, or just lie on that. So at that time, I really got some help from my friends who also like to do the exercises they just encouraged me to do, to exercise, to work out together in a chain. And my friend would just call me constantly to ask me to go with him.

So I think I got some supervision from other people. So we can just try to encourage each other. And after, you know, you went through this kind of bottleneck, then then you feel better. So finally, after about just one year or so, it’s a long time. I finally lost about 15 to 16 kilograms and my weights become quite normal and I was in perfect shape and of course more muscular and energetic.

So I feel like maybe you will meet a lot of obstacles or barriers in your life, but if you can just persist eventually you can make it. It’s just a matter of time. So that’s how I feel about this, you know, success in my life.

Part 3

1. Should people set goals for themselves?

Sample Answer 1: Setting specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based goals is important for any individuals’ personal development because they help trigger new behaviors and guide people’s focus. Without goals, people waste lots of time doing nothing.

Sample Answer 2: Yeah. Setting goals could give people a sense of purpose. I mean, once you have something in mind that has to be done in order. You know what needs to be done before going to the next part. And setting goals could also better prepare for something unexpected, because getting things done always comes with difficulties in the middle. If you set goals clearly, you can also be reminded of the problems that you are likely to encounter and make some backup plans or solutions.

2. How would you define success?

Sample Answer 1: On paper, it’s to accomplish a purpose. To me personally, it’s not about wealth or fame. I think success comes from meaningful work, and strong relationships with friends and family. These factors are the keys to happiness which is the ultimate version of success.

Sample Answer 2: Well, that’s definitely a good question. I have never thought about what is the definition of success. I mean, for some people. success means getting a good work and becoming rich. This is like a general definition for most people. What I believe is that success sometimes doesn’t have to be something material. If you are in trouble or have some difficulties, you can come up with a plan and fix things. Then that sense of accomplishment may tell you what a success feels like. So I believe from a psychological point, success means you can deal with problems and get things done after whatever happens.

3. How can we judge whether young people are successful nowadays?

Well, actually there are some standards in China to see if young people are successful, especially from what they do, such as young doctors, scientists, singers, actors and so on. These occupations are paid a lot and most young people want to become a part of those groups. And another group of people could be defined as successful. Those who did not study hard in school and dropped out of the school early in their teens often stepped into the society quite early and start a business with their own efforts and finally become rich. This kind of success is actually more encouraging to many young people.

4. Are successful people often lonely?

Umm…, I really cannot give you a concrete answer.
Because most of successful people have a lot of opportunities to get to know people from different backgrounds, I don’t believe they are lonely in this way. But do these successful people have real friends that they could share something with and do something together no matter what happens? I doubt, cause you know, the so-called successful people are always ambitious, which means work or profit always comes first. Then probably no friendship can endure in front of them. In this aspect, they are indeed lonely.

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(2024) Describe a Difficult Thing You Did and Succeeded IELTS Cue Card