Table of Contents
Describe a Time You Were Very Busy
Cue card
You should say:
– When it happened
– Where you were
– What you did
– And explain why you were busy
Sample Answer 1
Sample Answer 2
During this time, I was completing my capstone project, preparing for final exams, and simultaneously engaged in an internship. The capstone project required extensive research, analysis, and the development of a comprehensive report. Concurrently, I was interning at a local marketing firm, where my responsibilities included assisting with campaigns, conducting market research, and collaborating with the creative team.
What made me exceptionally busy during this period was the overlapping deadlines of my academic commitments and internship responsibilities. Juggling the demands of a challenging academic project with the hands-on experiences of the internship proved to be a significant challenge. I often found myself working late into the night, balancing multiple priorities to meet deadlines.
Despite the intense workload, I felt a sense of accomplishment and growth during that period. The experience allowed me to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios, enhancing both my academic and practical skills. While the workload was stressful, the satisfaction of completing tasks and seeing tangible results fueled my determination.
Overall, the busy period was a mixed experience. On one hand, it was demanding and required a considerable amount of effort and time management. On the other hand, the skills and knowledge gained, coupled with the sense of accomplishment, made the challenging period worthwhile. It taught me valuable lessons about resilience, effective time management, and the rewards of hard work.
Sample Answer 3
One time when I was extremely busy was last summer during my final year of university. It was a period filled with exams, writing my thesis, and also working a part-time job.
During that period, I had to juggle multiple responsibilities. I would spend my mornings attending classes and studying for exams, then in the afternoons and evenings, I would work on my thesis. I often found myself pulling late nights and waking up early in the morning to make the most of my time. It was a challenging time, but I was determined to give my best to everything I was doing.
I was so busy during that time because I wanted to excel in my studies and complete my thesis with high quality. Additionally, the part-time job was necessary to support myself financially. I wanted to prove to myself and others that I could handle multiple tasks and responsibilities simultaneously.
Although it was a hectic and overwhelming experience, I felt a great sense of accomplishment at the end. I learned the importance of time management and prioritising tasks. It taught me how to stay focused and motivated even when faced with a heavy workload. Looking back, I am proud of myself for successfully managing everything and coming out stronger.
Overall, even though being so busy was challenging, it was a valuable experience for me. It taught me important life skills and showed me that I am capable of handling pressure and multiple responsibilities. It also made me appreciate the value of hard work and perseverance.
Sample Answer 4
We all happen to be industrious about certain tasks and errands from time to time. During such situations, we tend to overlook every other aspect of our lives and focus all of our attention on the task at hand. The reason behind such concentrated efforts can vary from person to person. A similar time when I was quite busy myself was when I was volunteering for my annual college fest.
It was at the end of 2018, and our first year of college was coming to an end. Most of our batchmates were either hosting an event or volunteering and supervising various activities. I was appointed as the volunteer for all the academic events on an entire floor of my college campus. Thus, I had quite a lot on my plate and was caught up with various supervision activities.
A major part of my role as a volunteer was to resolve any issues that occurred on the floor that I was supervising. If a particular host or participant faced any problems, they could come to me to have their questions answered and issues resolved. Needless to say, I was approached by a number of participants who asked me questions about the events, registration procedures and other incidental details about the fest.
There were times when the hosts of a few events asked me for advice on how to tackle certain problems during their events. Despite having a bustling schedule, I managed to handle my responsibilities well by properly allocating time to each issue that arose. The college fest was a huge success, and I had a wonderful experience volunteering for the event.
Part 3
Sample Answer 1
1. Are you often busy?
Yeah, always being hectic.
You know, I’m actually the kind of person who is kind of aggressive and I’d like to achieve as much as possible in a limited time. And I believe that learning never ends.
So I have 3 business projects happening in the same time. And in addition, I’m also preparing for my MBA application to further my study on accounting. And on top of everything, I’m part time working at a cafe like twice per month. You know, I’m just a coffee breed, a coffee freak, and I love the the atmosphere in a cafe.
So I’m, yeah, quite diligent and hardworking, I have to say.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages when people keep busy?
Well, I guess there are some pros and cons when it comes to being very busy.
I think the first one I can think about is that maybe if you are busy, that means you’re working actually very, you know, like crazily. So maybe you can actually get more pay, you know, so it’s like kind of like some financial benefits. That’s why people always say if you’re busy, it’s a good, it’s a blessing, it’s a good thing.
But I think As for the disadvantages, if you are always occupied, that means you have less time to hang out with your friends or, you know, spend some quality time with your family. So it’s hard for you to just, you know, stay with them all the time.
It’s maybe it will just, I don’t know, like damage or jeopardize your relationship with your family or friends.
So I think that is that’s the downside.
3. Do you think children should learn through playing games or under pressure?
Well, I guess it’s really hard to say.
You know, on one hand, maybe children can learn something through this kind of stressful things or pressure because, you know, when they are under pressure, people will just utilize their potential and they have to push themselves to work harder.
For example, when you have this kind of competition or peer pressure in school, it can be a kind of like driving force for them to motivate themselves to study harder.
But I think that’s not the only way because if they are just always feel so stressful, it can actually be detrimental to their growth sometimes.
So a better way maybe is to play the games.
It has also some advantages because I think learning should be fun. You know, it’s not so serious. You should actually really enjoy it then.
So if the teachers can design some, you know, games and classes, it can make the class more attractive or you know, fun to the students. So they probably will like to engage in the class and would like to talk more and share their opinions with others.
So nobody will hate games, I guess, you know, So it can actually help them to learn better and more efficiently than just reciting something from textbooks or do the like the rotating, rotating things by like kind of like memorize something by rotating.
I think that is kind of a not so this kind of efficient.
4. What kind of pressure people may experience at work?
Well, from my perspective, there are several kinds of pressures we may experience during time.
The first one is the efficiency, can you finish the work between the deadline And secondly is the productivity. Like there are several kinds of works, can you finish all of them within the limited time?
And secondly is the quality ’cause there are a lot of requirements about our work.
So our works or products or designs satisfy our colleagues or bosses.
And the last one is the relationships. Yes, sometimes we are in the competition with our colleagues. And besides, sometimes there will be some gossips between you and your colleagues, right?
So all those things could be pressure on us.
5. How does technology help with time management?
Well, I guess definitely technology can you know, make some contributions to our time management.
First one is that maybe we can utilize some applications that can help us to, you know, just make this kind of schedule for us, like the set agendas for our daily life.
There are some like applications in it, like the memos we have or special ones.
Like they can function like a secretary, like private secretary for us.
So you just need to enter some of the agendas you have. They will actually make a list of, you know, like the things you need to do for the day. So you can just see that clearly.
And for example, like my school usually use the kind of system to give us the schedule for the whole week or even the following month.
So I can even check it by logging in this kind of small programs in the WeChat, so I can know when I need to go to classes and where I should go. It can really help me a lot about what I should do for the whole day.
Another thing I think is that maybe you can use some cutting edge technologies to, you know, facilitate us in time management. For example, now we have the AI like ChatGPT and all kinds of, you know, some AI technologies. We can utilize things to do the work for us. So we don’t need to do just like work on all of them by ourselves.
So if it can be done by the robots or the machine or computers, we can just assign them to this kind of machine or devices. In that case, it can help us save tons of time. And definitely it’s a, you know, like very efficient thing and it make our life more like kind of easier.
So I think this is also something that they can do to help us.
6. Does technology distract people?
Well, I guess it’s depends on one hand, I guess that like some cotton edge technologies actually are doing harm to people when it comes to destructions or when it comes to concentration.
So I think the main reason is that maybe some of the devices like the pads or mobile phone, like smartphones, like the ones we mentioned before, they can be actually quite ethnic seductive, you know, So you just can’t help do, you know, holding your hands on, holding it on your hands and try to scroll through some, you know, videos one after another.
It is maybe designed like that, you know, to kind of like manipulate your brain so you can not just go back to your work or your study.
Once you start to, you know, check or search something in the browsers or maybe just getting a message, then gradually your attention will be directed to those short videos. It’s kind of like poisonous, I would say sometimes.
But on the other hand, I think it can maybe help people to concentrate, especially when people are, you know, enjoying those kind of technologies.
For example, like some VR technologies, it can help you totally immerse in the technology. So the virtual reality is like so surreal or vivid.
So you probably just get immersed in these kind of things.
Also when some teenagers when they are kind of addicted to the video games or cyber games, this kind of technology also can help them concentrate.
They basically can not move their eyes from their eyes are glued to the screen.
Even when their friends or parents are asking them to go to other places, they would totally ignore them because they are so concentrating on these kind of devices.
Sample Answer 2
1. Are you often busy?
Actually, my job is flexible. Sometimes I have my hands full, especially when I am assigned new tasks by the boss. I am busy as a beaver and spend several weeks working overtime. But after I finish my work, I can have a lot of free time to unwind.
That is why I like my job very much.
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages when people keep busy?
When it comes to the positive sides, I think people who keep busy can learn how to manage their time, stay organized and work efficiently. Apart from that, they will never feel bored as they are on the go all the time. However, if they are always busy, they probably feel tired and exhausted. Also, keeping busy may result in stress, anxiety, or illness.
3. Do you think children should learn through playing games or under pressure?
In my view, it will be better if children learn through playing games. During this process, children can practise what they know, and also what they don’t. It allows them to experiment through trial and error, find solutions to problems, work out the best strategies, and build new confidence and skills. As children don’t have enough knowledge to deal with pressure, they will probably get bored if they study in a stressful environment.
4. What kind of pressure people may experience at work?
There is a wide variety of stress that people may experience at work. Some work-related pressure includes long hours, heavy workload or job insecurity. Some people have conflicts with co- workers or bosses and feel stressed. Besides, meeting the deadline or achieving the goals is another kind of pressure, especially among people who are ambitious or have high self- expectation.
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- IELTS Speaking Part 2 From January to April 2025
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- (2025) Describe A Photo That Makes You Feel Happy
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Credits
Image : Photo by Vonecia Carswell on Unsplash