IELTS Speaking cue cards › New Hobby
Describe a hobby you have recently taken up
Describe a hobby you have recently taken up. You should say: - what the hobby is and how you discovered it - how often you practise it and what equipment or resources you need - what challenges you faced when you first started and explain why you think this hobby has become important to you.
How to approach it
Open with the hobby and a vivid story of how you discovered it, then move through frequency, equipment and challenges before landing on the 'why it matters' section, which examiners weight heavily for fluency and coherence. Use clear signposting words like 'initially', 'over time' and 'what really struck me' to show you can organise ideas naturally. Examiners listen for lexical range, personal detail and the ability to extend ideas without simply listing facts.
1-minute preparation notes
- Hobby: landscape watercolour painting
- Discovered: lockdown, friend's Instagram
- Kit: paints, cold-press paper, brushes
- Challenge: mixing colours, proportion
- Why matters: mindfulness, creative outlet
Band 8+ sample answer (Part 2)
Show the sample answer (try speaking first)
I'd like to talk about watercolour painting, which I only really got into about eight months ago. It all started when I came across a friend's Instagram feed during a particularly stressful period at work — she was posting these gorgeous little landscapes, and I thought, 'I have to try that.' So I ordered a basic starter kit and completely fell down the rabbit hole.
These days I paint most weekends, usually for a couple of hours on a Saturday morning when the flat is quiet. The equipment is surprisingly affordable to get started — you need cold-press watercolour paper, a small set of paints and a few decent brushes. I've since invested in higher-quality supplies, but the basics genuinely do the job.
When I first started, honestly, it was humbling. Watercolour is notoriously unforgiving because you can't easily paint over mistakes the way you can with acrylics. Colour mixing was a real stumbling block — I kept producing muddy browns instead of the soft greens I was aiming for. Proportion was another issue; my trees looked more like broccoli than anything else. I watched a lot of YouTube tutorials and just kept practising, which is pretty much the only way through.
What I didn't expect was how meditative the whole process would become. Once I sit down with a brush, the mental noise just fades. I think that's why this hobby has grown so important to me — in a world where everything demands your attention, painting forces you to slow down and focus entirely on one thing. It's become less of a pastime and more of a necessity, to be honest.
Written for StudyChat as an example of a band 8+ answer. 269 words, about 2 minutes spoken.
Part 3 discussion questions
How do people's choice of hobbies tend to reflect their personality or lifestyle?
I think hobbies are quite revealing, actually. People who lean towards analytical thinking often gravitate to things like chess, coding or model-making, whereas more socially driven personalities tend to pick team sports or group activities. Lifestyle plays a role too — someone with a hectic schedule might choose something solitary and calming, like reading or sketching, simply because it offers a contrast to their working day. Our hobbies are almost a mirror of what we feel we're missing.
Do you think society places enough value on leisure activities, or is work always prioritised over personal interests?
Honestly, I don't think most societies value leisure as highly as they should. In many cultures, being perpetually busy is still worn as a badge of honour, and taking time for hobbies can feel almost self-indulgent. Yet studies on this tend to suggest — regular leisure activity reduces stress and improves productivity. Some northern European countries are a good example of societies that have genuinely built leisure time into their working culture, and the results in terms of wellbeing are striking.
How has technology changed the range of hobbies available to people compared with previous generations?
Technology has expanded the possibilities enormously. Previous generations were largely limited to whatever was available locally — if there was no photography club nearby, you simply didn't take up photography seriously. Now, YouTube tutorials, online communities and affordable equipment mean almost anyone can learn almost anything from home. Entirely new hobbies like digital illustration, podcasting or drone photography didn't even exist a generation ago. The downside, perhaps, is that the sheer volume of options can make it harder to commit to just one thing.
In your opinion, will traditional hobbies such as painting or woodworking survive in an increasingly digital world?
I'm genuinely optimistic about this. If anything, I think there's a growing counter-movement towards hands-on, tactile hobbies precisely because so much of modern life is screen-based. People increasingly crave the satisfaction of making something physical. From what I've noticed, sales of craft supplies and woodworking tools seem to have risen in recent years, particularly among younger adults. Traditional hobbies offer something a screen simply can't — the feeling of holding something you built yourself. That's a deeply human need that won't disappear anytime soon.
Useful language
- take up a hobby – Natural verb phrase for starting a new leisure activity; avoid 'start to do a hobby'.
- fall down the rabbit hole – Idiom meaning to become deeply absorbed in something; great for describing discovering a passion.
- notoriously unforgiving – Strong collocation to describe a skill with little room for error, showing advanced vocabulary.
- a stumbling block – Natural idiom for an obstacle or difficulty encountered when learning something new.
- a creative outlet – Common, natural collocation for an activity that lets you express yourself; widely used in this topic.
- at your own pace – Useful phrase when discussing self-directed hobbies or the freedom leisure activities provide.
- meditative quality – Sophisticated way to describe the calming, focused nature of an absorbing hobby.
- invest in better equipment – Natural collocation showing progression in a hobby; more precise than 'buy better things'.
Common mistakes on this card
- Listing facts instead of storytelling: candidates often just say 'I do it twice a week and I need a brush' without any personal narrative or emotion, which limits fluency scores.
- Neglecting the final prompt: the 'explain why it has become important' line carries significant weight for coherence, but many candidates run out of time or treat it as an afterthought with only one sentence.
- Overusing 'interesting' and 'good': saying a hobby is 'very interesting and good for health' repeatedly signals a limited lexical range — replace these with specific adjectives like 'absorbing', 'meditative', 'rewarding' or 'technically demanding'.
Record your answer and get a band score
Answer this card out loud, then the Part 3 questions. You get a band estimate on all four criteria, with pace, pauses and fillers measured from your recording.
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