The Cue Card 

The Response

A really important decision I’ve made recently is to study abroad, which is the reason I’m here talking to you now. No-one from my family has ever had the chance to study abroad before. My parents were actually hoping I’d start working for our family textile business as soon as I graduate. I think it’s too soon to join the family business though. I really want to study marketing – especially fashion marketing – and along with that, English, so I can sell better. If I study fashion marketing in the UK, I can learn how the fashion industry works. 

As for whether it was the right decision, I’m pretty confident it was, and even if it weren’t I can’t change my mind now because I borrowed money to pay for my tuition. I’m going to do my best to finish my course after which I am hoping to graduate with new ideas that will help expand our business. All I need now is to get a good score in the IELTS. 

So, anyway, that’s an important and a major decision I have taken in life. 

The Analysis 

Like many questions in IELTS Speaking Part 2, this one deals with an event or action in the past. There is, however, a switch to the present when the candidate is required to reflect on the decision (the last part of the cue card presents this switch when it asks you to explain if you (currently) think the decision was a good one).

The candidate gets straight to the point, and while doing so exhibits an ability to paraphrase the topic. Another area where the candidates demonstrates her proficiency is in using a range of tenses – past simple, present simple and present perfect – with a high degree of accuracy. The candidate also uses a wide range of grammatical structures [conditional forms (If I…) and cleft sentences (All I need now is…)] 

In addition, there are signalling aspects (where the speaker indicates which question is being answered), when the candidate says: ‘As for whether it was the right decision…’  

Then there is the matter of tone. There is an easy flow of language. It does not sound rehearsed or overly formal. It indicates fluency and comfort.