IELTS Cue Card 2: A Positive Change in Your Life

IELTS speaking cue card with sample answer. A Positive Change in Your Life. IELTS Speaking Task 2 With Model Answer.

A Positive Change in Your Life

You should say:

• what  the change was about
• when it happened
• describe details of the change happened
• and describe how it affected your later life.

Follow-up Questions:

• What changes do you want to make in your life?
• Do you believe we can control our own fate? How?
• What three changes you would want to see in your country?

Tips for answering this cue card topic:

Talk about a changed which has brought something positive to you. You would need to describe how this change has positively affected your life so talk about something which has later on proved to be very helpful for you. You can talk about a decision or action of yours which later on have been proved to be positive. You can also mention about a bad habit you abandoned, a decision you took or an advice you took which brought positive things in your life. This would vary from person to person and the following points are the ideas to talk about for this cue card topic:

• You abandoned one of your bad habits like smoking.
• You started doing exercises and that has made changes in your health.
• You have decided to study on a subject rather than what your parents wanted you to study on.
• You took a training or diploma course and that has helped you to get a good job.
• You have started being more social and thus you now have some good friends.
• You abandoned your grudge or ego against a relative or friend and now you have good relations.
• You took a part time job and that helped you.
• You started doing more outdoor activities than spending times at home.
• You started learning a language and that has helped you.
• You started exploring some skills in you and thus have focused on those skill set.
• Some experience or conversation has changed your perspective on an issue.
• You have moved to a city from a rural area.
• You have started helping people after you realised it from one of the incidents in your life.
• You started helping your family members on their tasks.
• You became more dedicated to something.
• You started participating extracurricular activities like debating, reading, blogging, cycling, swimming etc.

 Model Answer 1:

The one positive change in my life was joining the ILETS course.
 I had learnt English before that.
 I started learning English in my school days but when I joined IELTS, I was
exposed to in international English.
 I never knew English had these four areas.
 I never knew English was so beautiful.
 The training centre where I went was exclusively for English and they spoke only
English.
 It gave me a lot of ideas, confidence, vocabulary and enthusiasm.
 My teachers were excellent.
 Some student over there were my role models.
 I could improve my accent and my pronunciation.
 They were always motivating us is to talk.
 Ear lies, I used to sky away when any body was speaking English.
 Now I find myself totally changed for the better.
 If I get a good band, I can go abroad and my life will be totally changed.
 So, joining the ILETS has brought a positive change in my life

Model Answer 2:

I have started focusing on me and have started exploring a new me and that is a very positive change for me. For the last 20 years of my life, I was a typical girl who never thought of herself and did her duties and responsibilities for others.

Model Answer 3:

You have asked me to think back on some change I’ve made in my life, that turned out to be one for the better! I am going to tell you what the change was and when it happened. I’ll give you a bit of detail about how things were different for me after the change and finish by describing what it means for me now, a bit later in life. The funny thing about changes is that you don’t always recognise them at the time. For me, I didn’t know when I started out that the positive change I was making would turn out to be a long term difference in my behaviour. However, it turned out to be just that. It is only looking back now that I can identify there was a definite shift in what I got up to, and I can even pinpoint a definite time, but in the midst of it all, I had no idea where that change would take me.

The change was basically that I decided I needed to get a bit fitter, and the thing that helped me do so was joining up to do Parkrun. However, I’m jumping ahead. Let me explain how it came about… A couple of years ago I started to feel like I was getting old and losing my basic fitness. Although I walked quite a lot (as a form of transport, as well as to enjoy the local countryside) I wasn’t really doing anything else very much that was physical. I was never very good at sports, so I didn’t really know where to begin. However, I’ve always liked being outdoors, so on something of a whim I booked an activity holiday in Northumberland, which is a beautiful rural area in the north east of England, right by the coast. The holiday was great. We did abseiling; hill walking; body-surfing – all sorts of things. In addition, every morning began with a run along the sands of the seaside. Now I’d never run before – well only if I was trying to catch a bus, but otherwise, not at all. I wasn’t very good at it, and honestly, I didn’t even really enjoy it all that much. However, I did have to concede that it is a great form of exercise. You don’t really need any special equipment (apart from decent trainers); you can do it anywhere and it’s free! What’s more, I found out from some other holiday makers that in the UK there is a free weekly event held nationwide in parks all over the country. It is called Parkrun, and basically people gather every Saturday morning at 9.00 a.m. to run a fixed course of 5km and get a time for doing so. I wasn’t too sure if this would be achievable for me. I’d never run that far before. But I promised myself I would try it ‘just once’ to see if I could.

The day after I got back from my holiday I turned up to do the Parkrun at my local park. I can tell you the exact day! It was 24th August 2013 – I know this because the whole point of Parkrun is that if you register (which is free) then the organisation records your time each week and you can access it online afterwards. The first time I went I didn’t even manage to run the whole way round, but I did finish, and I did get a great sense of achievement. Because you know your time, it is quite addictive, you find you do want to go again the next week and see if you can improve!  My local parkrun is huge, with well over 500 runners taking part every week – so even though I was pretty slow, I found I wasn’t the slowest.

Since that day over two years ago, I’ve found that I’ve gone to Parkrun almost every week.  I have taken part in some 70 parkruns, and through doing so made new friends, maintained a certain level of fitness, and even gained the confidence to take part in some longer runs.  I’ve done lots of 10km races now, a few off-road runs – including one over 24km as well as taken part in obstacle races!  I would never have believed that the small change of ‘just going once’ to Parkrun to ‘give it a go’ would lead to me being such an enthusiastic member of Parkrun two years later.  By the way, I haven’t really ever got any faster, but I’m definitely a lot fitter.  Now I can’t imagine a Saturday morning without heading off for a run with my 500 friends at the local park!  That first day I turned up nervously to join in with Parkrun was definitely the beginning of a positive change in my life!

Model Answer 4:

The positive change that I would like to talk about is ‘I started playing outdoor games instead of playing computer games’. After I got my first personal computer when I was only 9 years old or so, I started learning many things. Besides that, I started playing the computer games. As computer games are addictive I found that I was playing the games whenever I had spare times. This addiction barred me from playing outdoor games like cricket, football etc.

I found myself very much attracted to the computer games and I preferred to play the games at home instead of going to open spaces or fields to participate in outdoor games that involve physical exercises. Not that computer games are all so bad, but playing them all the time someone has got is not a good thing especially for kids. I found that I was spending more times at home than being outside. After my parents noticed that, they discussed with me about that and explained me the importance of outdoor activities. They gave me strict restriction that I would only be able to play computer games for an hour daily and in the evening I’d have to go outside to play with my friends.

This was obviously a very positive change for me. I’m not against computer games but I feel that if there are more important things to do, then we should not spend time on computer games only.

This change affected me very positively. I became a good cricket player, later on, I started maintaining my times more prudently and I am sure this change has affected me positively in terms of physical and mental health.

Model Answer 5:

In my pre-collapse mode, I only believed the ‘one against the world’ model, and built the start of several brilliant careers. Then, I destroyed them. This always had some reason related to events, and other people’s fault.

After the final destruction, when all the options had run out, I had to accept that I was the common element of the destructions. My decisions were flawed. I didn’t know what to do. All my confidence was gone, and disaster was a week away.

The contact with the Nichiren method, and decision to try it, produced quick positive results. They were seeming coincidences, yet correlated with actions I took toward learning-using the practice taught by the Soka Gakkai International.

The base of the practice is the Nichiren mantra, and I could not grasp how a mantra could improve my life.

Since I do not accept the concepts of miracles, fairy spirits, or cloud-power intervention, I began to research the possible explanations. There were also some translation issues to untangle.

That initiated a continuing learning into psycholinguistics, psychology, neuroscience.

The first term of the Nichiren mantra is the familiar Nam. The second term is Myoho.

The Myo is the general, potential, un-manifested, wondrous, unlimited. The ho is the specific, manifested, limited. They are pronounced, and written, together to indicate inseparability.

Some thought quickly clarifies that potential must exist before a manifestation. Someone who ignores the connection does not understand reality. That clarified the importance of helping others to optimize their lives, in order to optimize my own.

I began to help others as an intellectual insight, and it became what I do.

Similar IELTS Cue Card Topics

Your preparation for this Cue Card would also help you answering the following cue card topics:

1. Describe a skill you have.
2. Describe a success in your life.
3. Talk about an important event of your life.
4. Describe a change you would like to have in you.
5. Describe something you want to do in the future.
6. Describe a lesson you would participate in the future.
7. Describe a bad habit you had.
8. Describe an activity you want to get involved.
9. Describe a skill you do not have.
10. Talk about something you started doing lately.
11. Describe a change you think was positive in your life.