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A time you needed to use your imagination

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card 288 with Model Answer:

Describe a time when you needed to use your imagination.

You should say:
  • what the situation was
  • why you needed to use imagination
  • what the difficulties were
and explain how you felt about it.

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


Model Answer 1:
In high school, I had to attend literature classes twice a week, and I really enjoyed doing so. The teacher often tried to inspire us to tell our own stories, write a few poems and even try writing short stories, and most of the time, I had to rely on my "imagination" for that. During this course, I learned how our imagination power could save us and even make us a bit more creative than we think we are!

In our literature classes, the teacher used to tell us stories, explain the meaning and context of poems and discuss the literary works of different writers. One day, just after explaining the life of a famous poet and his poem writing style, the teacher asked us to produce a 12-line authentic poem to mimic this writer's style. That was really difficult, and I had to rely on imagination.

I needed to use imagination because writing a poem requires imagination power to be fully utilised. This time it was even more difficult because I had to follow a particular style and could not just write a few lines to make a poem. The whole thing got even more complicated because we were asked to produce the writing instantly in the classroom and we did not have enough time to think and write.

However, as usual, I came up with something. This time, I picked a theme for the poem that actually happened. The writer - whose writing style we were supposed to mimic - lost his younger brother in his childhood, and I imagined how that experience could really be and how to pen down the experience of that event from the writer's perspective. I think the poem that I came up with was not so bad. After all, the teacher, who was not easy to satisfy, praised the poem in front of the whole classroom.

I was very relieved when I noticed that the teacher was happy about my writing. It was also a great achievement, and it boosted my confidence in writing about a totally unknown situation when I had had no clue whatsoever.


Sample Answer 2:
Making an effective presentation is tough for those who do not have a solid idea about the topic or the theme. Being a junior employee, I recently had to undergo such a situation in my office. I am a fresh sales analyst for a reputed "table fan" making corporation in Bolivia. For this topic, I will describe the situation when I had to apply my imagination.

Though I have to remain busy with my usual official tasks at the office, a couple of months ago, my manager asked me to prepare a presentation for him. He only verbally explained the theme of the presentation to me, and I could not understand all of it! So, I had to use my imagination and prepare that for him.

It was extremely difficult for me to create a presentation when I did not have a solid idea of what to do or how to do it. Moreover, my manager wanted the presentation within the next 5 days! It was like an impossible situation.

This presentation was nothing like adding some statistical data and visually presenting them in front of an audience. It was about our immediate plans to boost our sales and beat our competitors. Now that I know what my manager tried to do, I am happy that he gave me the opportunity. My manager planned to find out how good a planner and analyst I really was and that's why he gave me as little idea as possible. So I had to do some digging into our sales and financial data and use my imagination to complete the presentation. I must say that the internet helped me a lot in my endeavour to complete the presentation.

At that time, I was intimidated. I also thought that my presentation was not presentable to my higher management. But as soon as I presented it to them and noticed their expression, I was relieved. I immediately knew that it was a great success and they loved my ideas. It boosted my confidence, and from that point onwards, I am never scared to use imagination and solid data to make a presentation.

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