Describe a project you worked on in your school/college or office: IELTS Cue Card Samples

This article contains the sample answers for the topic – Describe a project you worked on in your school/college or office.

In the Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking section, the most common question type is the cue card. The provided prompts will help you to formulate a response and speak on the given topic. You will have exactly one minute to prepare and speak on a specific topic.

This IELTS cue card gives you an opportunity to share one of your experiences of a project you worked on in your school/college or office.

Before you have a look at the sample answers below, check this video for some tips to score band score 9 in your IELTS Speaking exam!

For more cue cards, take a look at IELTS Speaking Part 2 | Topics, Questions and Samples Answers.

Sample Answer 1

Let me talk about the project I did in a team in my second year of graduate school. Our tutor gave us an assignment to review the server log of an international trade website and provide a brief analysis using the data warehouse and data mining technology. We had three people on our team, and I was the team leader. I allocated different tasks to different classmates. One was responsible for extracting the data from the database to the data warehouse, and the other one was to set up the data model for analyzing. I was to analyze the final data set with a data mining software and prepare the presentation.

The job was quite tough as this was our first time doing such an assignment, and we needed to overcome various technique problems. For example, we had to use the Microsoft database software to restore the data and write codes to manipulate the data transferring. Besides, the data mining software was also new to us; we had to get ourselves familiar with it.

Our team spent three weeks to finish the work, which we reckoned as an authentic project in a corporation. Therefore we tried to learn the entire process of doing the project, the demand analysis, project design and implementation, and the documents. Additionally, we learned some useful software and gained some coding experiences.

Sample Answer 2

During my student life, I participated in numerous teamwork projects, and having disagreements with other team members was unavoidable. I would like to talk about a team project that I was involved in during the junior year at university.

There were two of us on the team, and our task was to invest in the simulation stock market. We had to make decisions on choosing which stocks were profitable and worth our investment. Each group’s performance would be compared weekly, and at the end of the semester, we would have to present our project in front of the whole class.

The project was vital as it contributed to 50% of our final results of that semester. Besides, being an investor is really a challenging task, especially when the Vietnam stock market is volatile and unpredictable. Two of us fought for days to decide which companies had shown the best performance and promised a bright future on the stock market. My friend wanted to invest in a real estate company while I thought that an investment in real estate at that time was an unwise choice.

Despite our arguments, we completed the task on time and had an excellent group presentation. From this experience, I learned that it is very hard to be a good team member. You would have to know how to present yourself while fitting in the group and each person has to compromise to achieve a common goal.

Vocabulary

• Unavoidable: not able to be avoided 
  Eg: Due to some unavoidable circumstances, I couldn’t attend the wedding. 
• Profitable: beneficial; gaining financial gain. 
  Eg: Recycling isn’t a profitable business. 
• Volatile: liable to change rapidly and unpredictably. 
  Eg: Mary and Rose have a volatile relationship. They often argue. 
• Unpredictable: not able to be predicted; changeable.
  Eg: Life is unpredictable. You never know what lies ahead. 
• Compromise: to settle a dispute by mutual agreement and concession
  Eg: She wasn’t ready for a compromise with her husband. 
• Analyze: examine something or someone methodically and in detail
  Eg: The panelists will analyze the student’s performance in the interview. 
• Reckon: to consider or regard in a specified way
  Eg: I am proud to reckon Mary as my best friend. 
• Authentic: of undisputed origin and not a copy; genuine 
  Eg: During the admission process, you must submit authentic documents to the authorities. 

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