Cue Card # 108: Describe a club or association you joined

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 108

Describe a club or association you joined in your school or college.

You should say:

• what type of club or association it was
• when you joined it
• what was the main task of the club or the association

and explain what you did and learned from there.

[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 high school student, I wasn’t exactly the most proactive of a boy outside of my school lessons and studies. But, apparently, my parents didn’t like that, and so they started to keep pushing me on and on until I got fed up with their constant nagging and finally decided to join the debate society of my high school.

But, after joining this debate club about 12 years ago, I wasn’t really too sure about my roles or activities there initially. But, as time passed, I started to become more and more familiar with the activities of a debate club with the help of our debate club supervisor.

Of course, before I joined the club, I had already seen the members of our debate clubs in action a few times in the past, but as far as learning what really went on at the background for a formal debate competition, I just had no clue about it whatsoever. By the way, the debate society at my high school would meet only two days a week after the school hours when our debate club supervisor would introduce us to varieties of topics and the contemporary important issues. After that, the supervisor would divide the members and form two lines, a few yards apart from each other, followed by setting up a motion for the debate between the two groups.

The debate, of course, could both be fun and serious, depending on the issues that we were discussing. This informal and practice debate sessions would have continued for about 45 minutes to one hour, at the end of which, our debate club supervisor would draw our attention to our flaws and weaknesses.

Anyway, I debated with several accomplished debaters and learned a number of things after becoming a part of the debate club at my high school. First thing, of course, was how to develop my oratory skills while discussing many important issues that affect our world and life. Besides, I also learned how to become an effective and confident communicator by doing quick thinking and rebuttals during important discussion sessions.