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IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card.

Describe a success in your life.

You should say:

• what it is
• when you achieved it
• how you achieved it

and explain how important this success in your life is/was.

Model Answer 1:
Different people like to define success differently. For example, some would define success as owning a very nice house while others would define it as having a nice job. But, the success story, which I am about to share here today is a bit different because it doesn’t involve any material gains. Rather it is about becoming successful in giving up a particularly bad habit.

Well, of course, some people may not consider giving up smoking a success, but for me, it was a big success. In fact, for a person, who has smoked for more than 10 years, giving up the habit after trying only for a few months was a huge success. However, I didn’t quite have the urge to achieve this success until I became sick about a year ago. In fact, I was suffering from problems like bronchitis and short-breathing so much, because of excessive smoking, that I even needed to go to the hospital a few times within just a period of 6 months.

By the way, the doctor advised me to give up smoking as soon as possible about 5 years ago because of similar kinds of problems, even though not as serious as the recent illness, but I simply shrugged off the advice. But, apparently, the decision proved out to be very costly later on as I found out that I had done some serious damage to my lung. So, it was time for me to behave like an adult for the sake of my health and stop smoking completely. Initially, of course, I felt very edgy and frustrated because I couldn’t enjoy my favourite thing (that is smoking), but slowly and slowly, I got used to it by keeping myself busy with other things like painting and taking photography.

Anyway, this success was very important in my life as it helped me become a more healthy and productive person. Besides, it also helped me reconnect with my family members like a responsible person. Finally, this success also helped me to save up some money which I was wasting in buying smokes for me.

Sample Answer 2:
The way we look at our successes and the way people look at them often differ. We sometimes consider our small and personal achievements to be great successes while to others, those might not be successes at all. Well, today, the success that I would like to talk about is about my involvement and work in a social welfare activity about which I feel very proud.

The local authority of our hometown, about two years ago, planned to build a multi-storied shopping mall in a place where we had a large public park. Some of us suddenly noticed that they had started chopping down some trees, and that was a shock to us. We instantly planned to protest if though we knew that it would be complicated to go against the powerful authority who has planned to destroy the park and make it a profitable marketplace.

We were initially 5 or 6 persons involved in the protest, and we let other community people know about the mischievous plan the authority had taken. Later, 20 more people joined our group. We went to the local authority, journalists; and then met local politicians and social workers and presented our views about the abhorrent plan of destroying the park. Because of our remonstrances, the process was halted for the time being. Within weeks, more community people joined us and some prominent newspapers reported regarding this issue.

The park was one of the few green places in our community for the local people. Adults, as well as children, came there in the morning and evening to walk, play, run and do other sorts of social activities. It was a safe haven for a large number of birds and animals as well. So, slaying this park would have been a serious threat to our environment and community people.  

It was not easy to fight against the strong authority and we had to struggle a lot for more than 6 months to make enough uproar to stop the plan the authority had made.

This whole event occurred 2 and a half years ago when I was a fresh college student. I still consider my involvement to save the part as a great thing I did and being able to save the park was a big success in my life.

Similar Cue Card Topics

Your ability to talk about this Cue Card Topic would enable you to talk about the following Cue Card Topics as well:

1. Describe an achievement you have.
2. Describe a happy event in your life.
3. Describe a memorable event in your life.
4. Describe an occasion when you were congratulated.
5. Describe a successful person you know about.

• IELTS Cue Card
• Candidate Task Card

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