Goals & Achievements Topic
Part 1 Questions
Short, personal questions. Answer directly, then add one extra sentence to extend your answer naturally.
1. Do you set goals for yourself?
"I do, though fewer than I used to. Having too many at once meant I achieved almost none of them."
2. Do you prefer short-term or long-term goals?
"Short-term, generally. I find it much easier to stay motivated when I can see progress within a few weeks."
3. What is an achievement you are proud of?
"Finishing a half-marathon two years ago. I had never been a runner, so it required considerably more training than I expected."
4. Do you write your goals down?
"Sometimes. When I do, I am noticeably more likely to follow through, though I still forget to do it regularly."
5. Is it important to celebrate achievements?
"I think so. Moving straight on to the next thing makes progress feel invisible, which is quite demotivating over time."
6. Who has helped you achieve your goals?
"My partner, mainly. She is considerably better at planning than I am and tends to keep me accountable."
Part 2 Cue Card
You get 1 minute to prepare, then speak for up to 2 minutes.
Describe an achievement you are proud of
You should say:
- What the achievement was
- When it happened
- What you had to do to achieve it
- And explain why you are proud of it
Full model answer
I would like to talk about completing a half-marathon two years ago, which does not sound especially remarkable until you know that I had never run more than about two kilometres in my life.
I signed up somewhat impulsively, after a colleague mentioned she was running it and I said, without really thinking, that I would join her. The race was five months away, which sounded like an enormous amount of time and turned out not to be.
The training was considerably harder than I had anticipated. I followed a fairly standard plan of four runs a week, gradually increasing the distance, and the first six weeks were genuinely miserable. I was slow, everything ached, and I remember seriously considering withdrawing after a particularly bad attempt at eight kilometres in the rain.
What changed things was lowering my expectations. I stopped worrying about my pace entirely and focused only on finishing each run, however slowly. Progress became noticeable after that, and by the fourth month I was running distances that had seemed impossible in January.
I finished the race in just over two hours, which is not a fast time by any measure. I was nowhere near the front.
The reason I am proud of it is not the achievement itself but what it demonstrated. I had assumed for years that I simply was not built for endurance, and that turned out to be entirely wrong. It was just something I had never properly attempted.
I have been considerably less willing to accept that kind of assumption since.
Part 3 Discussion
Deeper, more abstract questions. Give your opinion and explain your reasoning with an example.
1. Why is it important to have goals?
Goals give effort a direction, which makes it far easier to sustain over time. Without them people tend to drift and then feel dissatisfied without quite understanding why. They also make progress visible, and visible progress is genuinely motivating.
2. Do people set unrealistic goals?
Frequently, and I would say that is the main reason goals are abandoned. People tend to overestimate what they can achieve in a month and underestimate what they can achieve in a year, which produces early disappointment and then withdrawal.
3. Should parents set goals for their children?
Guiding children is entirely reasonable, but imposing specific goals seems counterproductive. Motivation that comes from outside rarely lasts, and children who pursue their parents' ambitions often struggle later to identify what they actually want themselves.
4. Is success mainly the result of hard work or luck?
Both, and I think people systematically underestimate luck. Effort is genuinely necessary, but circumstances such as where someone is born and which opportunities they happen to encounter shape outcomes enormously, often more than any individual decision does.
5. How do people react to failing to reach a goal?
It varies considerably depending on how the goal was framed in the first place. People who treat failure as information tend to adjust and continue, whereas those who treat it as a judgement on their ability are much more likely to stop entirely.
6. Has the definition of success changed?
I think it has broadened somewhat. Career and income remain central for most people, but there is noticeably more emphasis now on wellbeing, balance and meaningful work than there was a generation ago, particularly among younger people.
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