Describe a time when you had to make a difficult decision
IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card: Describe a time when you had to make a difficult decision. One minute to prepare, up to two minutes to speak, then follow-up questions.
An intermediate-level session of about 8 minutes. Covers Part 2. 3 prompts in total.
On the preparation paper this card usually becomes two words and an arrow: the options, and the one you took. That is enough to begin with and nowhere near enough to finish, because the bullet doing the most work is the third, who you talked to about it. It gets rushed past on the way to the outcome, and the most natural language in the card goes with it: a parent who wanted one thing, a senior who had already done the course, a friend whose advice you ignored. The last line allows doubt as well. You are asked whether you think it was the right decision, and saying you are still not certain is more interesting than a tidy yes, provided the reason follows it.
Angles worth taking
- A job offer against higher studies, a city against home, one branch against another: ordinary decisions carry real conflict.
- Make the difficulty concrete: two things you wanted that could not both happen, with a deadline attached.
- Give each person you consulted a position, so the conversation contains disagreement rather than general encouragement.
- Reported speech does real work here: he told me, she suggested, they kept asking if I was sure.
- Answer the last line honestly and with reasons, rather than claiming that everything worked out perfectly.
Ready to speak?
Free to start. You need a TalkDrill account to speak — reading this page does not.
Browse all IELTS Speaking testsThe format
Parts covered
2
Prompts in total
3
Modes
Learn (guided) · Mock (exam-real)
How a IELTS Speaking session works
Part 1 — the warm-up
Familiar questions about you: work, home, routines. Short answers, but not one-word ones. The examiner is calibrating to your voice.
Part 2 — the cue card
A topic card with prompts, one minute of prep with notes, then up to two minutes speaking without interruption.
Part 3 — the discussion
Abstract follow-ups on the Part 2 theme. Opinions, comparisons and speculation, where the higher bands are decided.
Your band estimate
A score on each of the four official criteria, what pulled it down, and the habit to change before you sit the real test.
What you're scored on
IELTS Speaking is marked on four criteria of equal weight. The estimate reports each one separately, because they rarely move together.
Speak for 1-2 minutes with clear structure and descriptive language.
Fluency and coherence
Whether you keep going, and whether the ideas connect. Hesitation while you search for a word costs less than hesitation while you search for a thought.
Lexical resource
Range and precision, including whether you can paraphrase around a word you do not have instead of stopping at it.
Grammatical range and accuracy
Variety of structures as well as correctness. All-simple-sentences and all-accurate caps out around band 6.
Pronunciation
Intelligibility, stress and intonation. Accent is not penalised; flat stress and swallowed word endings are.
More IELTS Speaking tests
All IELTS Speaking tests · Experiences tests · All speaking practice