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Describe a person you have met who you want to work/study with: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Who this person is?
  • How you met them?
  • What qualities make you want to collaborate?
  • And explain how you felt about meeting them.
Show all 150 answers

Cue 1:Who this person is?

  • Introduce the person by name and their relationship to you, such as a classmate or colleague.
  • Mention their background or field of expertise to give context.

Example

The person I want to work with is my friend, Priya. She is a brilliant student in my engineering class, specializing in computer science. Her passion for technology and innovation is truly inspiring.


Cue 2:How you met them?

  • Describe the circumstances of your first meeting, such as in a classroom or during a project.
  • Share any memorable details about that meeting that stood out to you.

Example

I met Priya during our first semester at university. We were paired together for a group project on artificial intelligence. I remember being impressed by her knowledge and how easily she explained complex concepts.


Cue 3:What qualities make you want to collaborate?

  • Highlight specific qualities that you admire in this person, such as their work ethic or creativity.
  • Explain how these qualities would benefit your collaboration.

Example

Priya is incredibly dedicated and has a strong work ethic. She is also very creative, often coming up with innovative solutions to problems. I believe that working with her would not only enhance my skills but also lead to successful outcomes in our projects.


Cue 4:And explain how you felt about meeting them.

  • Share your initial feelings when you met this person and how your perception changed over time.
  • Discuss the impact of this meeting on your academic or professional aspirations.

Example

When I first met Priya, I felt a mix of excitement and nervousness. I was eager to learn from her, and as we worked together, I grew to admire her even more. Meeting her motivated me to push my own boundaries and strive for excellence in my studies.


Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, meeting Priya has been a significant part of my academic journey. Her qualities inspire me to work harder and aim higher. I truly look forward to collaborating with her in the future, as I believe we can achieve great things together.


    Following this structure will ensure you cover all the essential points while providing a clear and engaging response to the cue card topic.


    Tips to answer this Cue Card

    1: Lack of Specificity

    Being vague about the person can make your answer less engaging. Avoid general statements and provide specific details about who the person is and your relationship with them.

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    Tip

    Use clear examples and anecdotes to illustrate your points, such as mentioning specific projects or experiences you shared.


    2: Ignoring Qualities

    Failing to discuss the qualities that make you want to collaborate can weaken your response. It's important to highlight what makes this person stand out.

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    Tip

    Identify at least two or three key qualities and explain how they relate to your goals for collaboration.


    Overlooking Personal Feelings

    Not expressing your feelings about meeting the person can make your answer feel incomplete. Personal emotions add depth to your response.

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    Tip

    Share your genuine feelings and thoughts about the encounter, explaining how it impacted your desire to work or study together.


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    I like to taste different types of cuisine. Here I would like to talk about my favorite dish at my traditional festival of Onam which is Sadya. Sadya is popular in my city. We are experimenting these cuisines on Onam festival day. Onam is a famous festival in my city. All family members get together in my home and we make a delicious Sadya. There are many ingredients includes that Sadya. Moreover, we make a big feast that day as well as we create a lot of memories together and we wear that day the traditional dress called Sari and men wear the Dhotis. That festival is really important to us because the whole day we are conducting different kinds of games at our homes and all the family members came together. It's a memorable day in my life. This is the festival. We are making the Sambar and Aviyal. These all the kinds of foods are making with the vegetables.

    Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood
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    Anonymous student Band 8

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    The toy which I liked in my childhood was a panda doll, which makes me pleasant and makes me more blush. The pandas are the most beautiful creatures of the world, which looks gigantic and has pooshy cheeks and they are like stars in the clouds and they dream in me. Furthermore, these have been given by my father. My father is a very very beautiful artistic person, who makes me think of that. Every day you will face every difficulties and make you suffer and move forward. Pandas are always seen in Japanese countries. It is my lifelong dream to visit a Japanese country and click a photo with the original pandas, which makes sounds better.

    Describe a time you were in a place where you didn't know the local language
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    Anonymous student Band 6.5

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    Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

    Answer

    As India is a very large country full of diversity, so there are many places which have their own language and speak their native language. The place which I visited and I didn't know about their language was Leladakh, which is about 300 km away from my hometown and it is a very good place as it consists of different kind of trees, animals and have many scenic views and I visited over there last year in summers as it was the best time to visit because it has many, it was cold over there and we had summers in our area so it was the best time to visit over there and I went over there with my whole family.

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    When I was a kid, I had a little pencil box which had these four buttons which gave the pencil box an operative use. When you press the button, the box would open up. When you press the second button, a little part of it would slide out. Basically it was just a little electronical and a fun thing to have and I owned it when I was in 6th. One day after break, I was standing and talking there with one of my friends and another friend of mine was running through the hallway and accidentally she pushed my shoulder and my pencil box hit the ground and it broke into multiple pieces to the point that it was not functional anymore.

    Describe a book you recently read
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    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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    Answer

    It Ends With Us is a book I read recently. It's by the author Colleen Hoare. It's mainly a story about two teenagers, Atlas and Lily, and how they just handle their life going through high school, adolescence, and just domestic violence at home. Both of them come from very, very different families. However, they have one common determining factor between them, which is domestic violence. The abuse that they've seen their moms go through is just insane, and they connect through that on a different level. They're actually in the same high school, but they never speak to each other until Atlas actually crashes into an empty house next to Lily's villa. When Atlas is homeless and he doesn't have anywhere to go, he just comes and breaks into the house next to Lily's, and Lily helps him with all the daily necessities like clothes and food, medicines and stuff. Furthermore, their friendship blossoms into love, but it doesn't really fructify as Atlas has to leave. This book really gave me a lot of knowledge about domestic abuse and how to deal with it.

    All Answers

    Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

    Band 7

    I have met a lot of people in my life who have left quite an impression on me, however the one who stands out the most is Aditi, my best friend. She just has this positive aura about her that instantly attracted me. I met her in college and she was my desk mate. Furthermore, we had consecutive roll numbers, so we also found each other paired up in a lot of projects and assignments and practical classes. I would love to work with her because she is friendly, she is excited and she is passionate about any work that she does. I feel comfortable around her and she has a tendency to open up and make the people around her comfortable. Every time I meet her, I am excited, I am happy and essentially she brings out the best in me. I tend to find myself working harder or putting more effort into projects that I have done with her because it always felt like a team effort. I was not doing anything alone. She makes you feel included. Additionally, she has this very confident demeanour about her which automatically makes anybody in the room respect her. I feel that is an attribute that I want to learn from her.

    Band 7

    I met someone recently through a contact of one of my friend, so their name is Aditya Sharma. They work in, they live in the United States and work in OpenAI. OpenAI is the parent company for ChadGPT. So, during my conversation with Aditya, I understood that he is deeply into artificial intelligence and machine learning implementation of these codes. During my conversation for 15 minutes, I understood that he is deep rooted into these technologies and have a very advanced knowledge on some of very critical algorithms. This made me wonder on how he would have managed completing all of these things while also studying for his PhD in USA. I regard him very highly since the reason being the motivation and the fairness that he showed during his conversation was very charming. One day I would really love to work with him.

    Band 7

    The person that I am going to talk about is my classmate, ex-classmate to be precise. Her name is Issa Maria Saban and she was the all-time topper at our university and in our college. She topped in almost all classes in all semesters. Initially when I met her, I didn't have a strong impression of her but after the first periodic tests, I was so starstruck by her performance in the exams. She had managed to not only score really good in one or two subjects, she scored well in all subjects during the semester exams and she was the one who had received the S grade in our class. And why I'd like to study with her or would like to work with her if possible is because I'd like to know how she manages her time, what effective study methods she uses. She uses to ace her exams because I know for a fact that she doesn't muck up her answers but she, I don't know how to say it but yes, I'd like to know more about how she prepares for her exams so I can adapt that into my own exam preparation time. Thank you.

    Band 7

    A person I would really like to study with is Raghav, a friend I met during a summer coding camp last year. Right from the start, I noticed he was extremely focused and well-organized. While I often struggled to stick a routine, he followed a strict timetable and broke down every topic into simple steps, which I found really inspiring. One reason I would enjoy studying with him is his ability to explain complex ideas clearly. For instance, when I was confused about a difficult algorithm, he didn't just give me the answer, he guided me through the process and helped me understand it in my own way. That made a big difference to my learning. Moreover, Raghav has a calm and positive attitude. Even when things get stressful, he stays composed and encourages others to keep going. Studying with someone like that would definitely help me stay motivated. And not just that, he is also someone who is extremely focused but still manages to make learning enjoyable. He often uses real-life analogies, creates visual mind-maps, and even throws in some humor to lighten the mood. Studying with him feels productive and fun at the same time. Moreover, what makes him stand out is his willingness to help others. He doesn't just understand things quickly, he explains them in such a simple, relatable way that even the toughest topics become easier to grasp. And that is not just the way I feel, that was the way every student at our coding camp felt. I remember one instance when I couldn't get the code to function and he didn't just help me out, he also helped me understand why I need to put what code I need to put and also the method and the path to get me through to the solution. All in all, I genuinely believe that studying with someone like Raghav would improve my understanding, keep me motivated, and make the whole learning experience far more enriching. If I ever get the opportunity to work with him again, I would grab it without a second thought.

    Band 7

    I would love to work with Mr. Rajiv Sethi, who is India's first scenographer. His work speaks lengths to his skill sets. It is a testament to Indian culture and because I am an Indian cultural expert, a product designer and a craft activist, it will be not only amazing but extremely learningful experience to work with him. I met him by chance. A friend of mine introduced me to him. It was an experience that one can have once in a blue moon. A person like me did not expect to meet a human like him, who is the legend and the father of Indian design. In his late 80s, he still has the passion to change the world and impact India for good. He still carries this wilderness, these wild thoughts that he wants to implement and tries his best to create an environment where creative people, artisans, designers, architects, engineers can flourish and a nation can not only be built upon manufacturing or labor intensive or IT sectors but also over creative sectors. I get to learn a lot about creative economy through his work and projects of present and past both. He is a human with a vision and I must appreciate his energy at this age, his way of dealing with people, communicating and bringing everyone together on this.

    Band 7

    In my final year of college, I was deciding whether to shift to management from the technical domain. However, I was confused and that's where I met Sudhir Mundra, one of my faculties responsible for the open elective subject. He met me during one of the lectures and I was very astonished by the fact that he has loads of experience. He has been the relationship manager for various famous companies as well as the vice-presidents of many well-known banks. His qualities which make him stand out and why I wish to collaborate with him are compassion, his intellect and moreover his ability to solve problems and analyze the situation. I wish to work with him as he helps me on a day-to-day basis to solve management related problems. He also guides me when it comes to selecting which specialization I should follow after completing my graduation degree. As a matter of fact, it is because of him that I have decided to shift to management. He as well as my friend along with others have decided to work on a project which helps us to use AI to predict the trends of the stock market. In this way, I am not only able to collaborate with him but also able to learn how to deal with life-life situations.

    Band 7

    Recently I took part in a workshop on scientific computing that was conducted by HSF India and it had many great minds from all over India. The point of this workshop was to help new students to learn machine learning techniques and apply them in physics problems. When I was sitting in a table for lunch, I met this girl who was from a college in Bangalore. She was studying computer science. Basically she was pursuing a B.Tech degree in computer science. The fact that she had no physics background and was still so inspired to work in a scientific computing field inspired me a lot. I really want to interact with her more and collaborate with her because I think she has a lot of knowledge on the computing skills whereas I have more knowledge on the physics skills and we can combine them to have a great research.

    Band 7

    So the person I'm going to talk about is one of my colleagues who I met during an internship from work. So this person is very down-to-earth, he's very smart and has a good grip in the technological aspect. He has a very strong foundation on communication and organization skills too. Although he's very intelligent, he never showed his pride with us. He was very friendly and jovial. He also used to maintain correct dignity, a good sense of dignity. He used to talk with us and he never made us feel different because we were poor in terms of the skills. He was always ready to help us with the doubts and he used to always clarify them whenever we required. And apart from the profession, he is also a very calm and relaxed person who is well organized with his schedule for the day. He also maintains a good diet and along with him, being with him inspires me to become more proficient and do the best in the activities or the work. He also makes sure that he is healthy and fit. Being with him is one of the life-changing things because you understand how to become the best version of yourself.

    Band 7

    A person that I recently met and would love to work with is Ankwesh Raghuvanshi. He is a cricketer that plays for Kolkata Knight Riders. I met him during a practice session conducted in Kandivali where I was a netballer for the team. A quality that fascinated me was his work ethics and discipline. He was on the ground 15 minutes prior to the reporting time. And left the ground half an hour after everyone left. It shows his hardworking nature and I would love to work with someone who has such a passion for the work they do.

    Band 7

    One person I have met who I would love to work or study with is my former research mentor Dr. Shilpa Chapargaonkar. She was my guide during my master's thesis in biotechnology. I first met her during the initial phase of my postgraduate studies. She was known for being a bit strict but incredibly knowledgeable. We worked together on two research projects, one focused on isolating bacterias and producing bacteria and the other involved photocatalytic bioremediation of textile industry wastewater, which actually got published. There are several qualities that make me want to work with her again. First of all, she is incredibly knowledgeable but never makes others feel inferior. She has a very methodical approach to problem solving and she encourages creative thinking even in scientific research. She is also very patient, which I think is rare in academic mentors. Even when experiments failed, she focused more on learning than blaming. Most importantly, she brings out the best in the people she works with. Her style of mentorship made me more confident, more curious and more consistent in my work. That's why I truly admire her and would be honoured to collaborate again in the future, either in research or any professional setting.
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