Describe a holiday you went on and whether you would recommend it
The cue card
Tell about one holiday/vacation and tell when and why you went, what you did there and would you recommend it for other people
What the report preserved: Quoted by the candidate from memory the day after a computer-based test, so the phrasing is theirs rather than the card's. They did not list the bullets separately — the four points are embedded in the sentence as they reported it.
How to answer it
Four bullets, and the last one — would you recommend it — is the one candidates run out of time for. Budget for it: decide before you start speaking whether the answer is yes, no, or "yes, but not to everyone", because that third option is the most interesting and the easiest to sustain. Recommending a place TO A PARTICULAR KIND OF PERSON gives you a full closing paragraph: who would love it, who would hate it, and what you would tell them to do differently from what you did.
What moves the band
- The recommendation is the payoff — leave twenty seconds for it and signal it: honestly, would I tell someone else to go? It depends who's asking.
- "What you did there" wants two or three real activities, not an itinerary. Pick the one that went wrong; it is always the better story.
These are candidate recalls. These are questions reported by test-takers after their exams, not official or leaked IELTS material. Wording varies by test version, location and memory. Use them for timed practice — never as a prediction of what you will be asked.
Practise these next
Know the number. Now move it.
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