Cue Card # 170: Describe a very difficult task you succeeded in doing

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 170

Describe a very difficult task that you succeeded in doing as part of your work or studies.

You should say:

• what task you did
• why this task was very difficult
• how you worked on this task

and explain how you felt when you had successfully completed this task.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

Model Answer:

As a senior manager at a multinational company, I had to do several difficult tasks as part of my professional responsibilities. But, none of those difficult tasks posed such a big challenge to me before as the one I am about to talk about here.

Now, of course, as a senior manager at a multinational company, I am supposed to have the stomach to face any kind of professional tasks without, but, when you are told to finish a gigantic task of learning a foreign language, and that too a difficult language like “Greek”, within a few months, it certainly becomes a bit more than just “problematic”. Of course, my MD (managing director) was kind enough (!), speaking sarcastically, of course, to suggest that being able to learn just a bit more than some “conversational Greek” would suffice, but I knew it too well that it was just not going to be enough, if we, as a company, were to make some lasting impression on the business delegation team that was scheduled to arrive at our office. After all, we didn’t only need to be able to communicate in “professional level Greek” but also “brief” them in that difficult foreign language.

So, it was time to start learning the language, and for that, I got enrolled at a foreign language institute. I also bought tons of books along with some comedy Greek movies. Of course, my company paid for all the costs, but it was me who had to go through all the troubles of learning that foreign language by working hard – days and nights. In fact, I even worked extra hours during the weekend to do the task! However, at the end of three months, I did manage to learn some good Greek, very much to the satisfaction of my managing director.

Anyway, in conclusion, I would like to say that I felt really great about learning a foreign language on such short notice as it would really benefit my company. Besides, completing this difficult task had also made me way more confident about my abilities. My confidence soared and I got ready to take ever bigger challenges afterwards.