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Describe a piece of good advice that you gave to someone: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Who did you advice?
  • What was the advice?
  • Why did you give the advice?
  • How was it helpful, and how did he/she feel about it?
Show all 199 answers

Cue 1:Who did you advise?

  • Begin by introducing the person you gave advice to, including your relationship with them.
  • Mention any relevant background information that helps to understand the context.

Example

I advised my younger sister, who is currently in her final year of college. She was feeling overwhelmed with her studies and unsure about her future career path.


Cue 2:What was the advice?

  • Clearly state the advice you gave, ensuring it is specific and actionable.
  • Explain any reasoning behind your advice to provide context.

Example

I told her to take a step back and focus on her strengths and interests. I suggested that she explore internships related to her field of study to gain practical experience and clarity on what she truly enjoys.


Cue 3:Why did you give the advice?

  • Share your motivation for giving this advice, including any personal experiences that influenced your decision.
  • Discuss the importance of the situation to emphasize why your advice was necessary.

Example

I gave this advice because I had faced similar challenges during my college years. I remember feeling lost and stressed about my future, and I wanted to help her avoid that anxiety by guiding her towards practical experiences.


Cue 4:How was it helpful, and how did he/she feel about it?

  • Describe the outcome of your advice and how it positively impacted the person.
  • Share their feelings or reactions to your advice to illustrate its effectiveness.

Example

After following my advice, my sister secured an internship at a local marketing firm. She felt much more confident and excited about her future. She expressed gratitude for my support and mentioned that it helped her gain clarity about her career goals.


Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, giving advice to my sister not only strengthened our bond but also helped her navigate a crucial phase in her life. It was rewarding to see her grow and find direction, and it reminded me of the importance of sharing experiences and supporting loved ones.


    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: Vague Responses

    Avoid giving vague or general answers that lack detail. This can make your response less engaging and informative, leading to a lower score.

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    Tip

    Provide specific examples and details about the advice you gave, including the context and the person's situation.


    2: Neglecting Emotional Impact

    Failing to discuss how the advice affected the person emotionally can weaken your response. It's important to show the significance of your advice.

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    Tip

    Include how the person felt after receiving your advice and the positive changes it brought to their life.


    Ignoring the 'Why'

    Not explaining why you gave the advice can leave your answer incomplete. This is crucial for understanding your thought process.

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    Tip

    Clearly articulate your reasons for giving the advice, linking it to the person's needs or situation.


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    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

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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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    Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

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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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    Reported by

    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.

    Describe a time when your friend damaged something you owned
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    Anonymous student Band 7

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    Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

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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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    Reported by

    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 6-7

    I met one of the boys who was working part-time in my office. He was a very intelligent promising boy and very polite too. But I just came to know that he has stopped pursuing his education further. He had just given exam of senior secondary but it has been two years since to that. I just advised him to start studying again to an open university. So I also helped him financially to get himself enrolled in one of the open universities graduation program. He really took my advice seriously and registered himself for graduation. After three years when I met him again in local market I came to know that he has successfully graduated from the university and now he is working as a government employee. So that was really a very pleasing moment to very good news from his side. I just wish him good luck for his future and he was he was also very much happy now and was financially sound and he really thanked me for the advice I gave him sometimes back.

    Band 6-7

    Well, one day my younger sister was struggling in solving the mathematics concept as the concept was too easy to understand and to solve but she was struggling because she don't have the interest in mathematics as she used to get bored and she gets confused easily. So one day when I was at home and was scrolling Instagram so she asked me for my help as she believe that I have good command and grasp in mathematics subject. So she asked for my help and I instantly agree because she is my younger sister and I break down the complex mathematics concepts into easier one and in the easy language which she finds convenient after that she prepared well because she had her examination in a month and she did the preparation very well and after her examination she got result after one month and the result was incredibly good and she got the marks she was looking for even she got even more and that moment was like a proud moment for me because of because

    Band 6-7

    I advise my juniors to be sincere in life, to come to the duty regularly at the right time and be punctual and be very particular about the things you are doing and the mistakes you should avoid and rectify the mistakes. It is normal to do mistakes, but it is better or could be told best to rectify the mistake. It is very good if you commit the mistake, but if you can rectify it, it is the best thing you can ever do. Never be afraid of doing mistakes, because only the mistakes can be the best lesson for you in life. There are many things in life that should not be done. You can learn that from your own mistake or by looking at the other's mistakes.

    Band 6-7

    I gave this advice to one of my friend who was in a very toxic relationship so basically this my friend and his girlfriend were not really compatible but it was just an emotional connection they had which made them stay in the relationship for long which obviously was not very healthy and it also mentally disturbed both of them so I gave this advice to my friend that no matter what you have to always choose your peace. Peace is something really precious and important in one's life be it the most lovable person be it the most loved person in your life you still got to choose yourself first at times so that was the one the one advice I gave to my friend which also which personally I have taken it personally in my life too so this so this piece of advice has helped them a lot because this was not one time discussion I have repeatedly told that person how much that how much choosing yourself over a bond or over a toxic person helps you so finally this person took my advice seriously and started working on himself which helped him a lot in future and which also made him get through that emotional attachment he had with that person so it not only brought peace into his life but also he started growing internally and externally in life so this is also one of my favorite advice I would give to everyone that choosing yourself and choosing your peace.

    Band 6-7

    So, I gave a good piece of advice to my friend who was extremely indulged in overthinking and he was very hesitant due to overthinking. He had lack of confidence because of overthinking and I advised him to stop thinking so much about what people will say, what people will think of you. In order to overcome this hurdle, you just have to execute. You just have to turn your ideas into reality and this helped him a lot as the moment he started doing or basically implementing his action, implementing the plans, whatever he is thinking, his overthinking stopped and this reduced his hesitation that he was facing before.

    Band 6-7

    So basically, a friend of mine who is completing his MBA through my college as well, and she was not able to speak properly or give presentations, so I advised her to listen to the other people while they are speaking and observe their energy. And watch carefully like how do they present over themselves and what they do practice and I advised her to practice by looking at the mirror and be confident also. You should have the knowledge of the particular thing that you are presenting over there. So yeah, that's it and also it helped her a lot while we were presenting, she is in my IT learning team, so I saw a change in her. She was not nervous at all, though she was finger-hesitant, like a little bit she was taking pause of it, but yeah, she was doing fine and she presented really well before than that she was not performing that well. She used to get very nervous and also she used to stop in between giving the presentations and after that I saw her changes, I saw the changes in her. Now, when I asked her that how do you feel about giving the presentations, so she said that yeah, I feel a lot confident right now after the advices you gave to me, I felt it was really good about it and I felt really awesome.

    Band 6-7

    So, I gave a small advice to my little brother about not using mobile phones on regular basis or for a long period of time because it's really harming his eyesight and generally when he is growing up he is into the mobile phone very frequently and very often and he really is not interested in other jobs or other work activities rather than only just playing in the mobile phones or only playing video games. He is not aware of the outdoor games and he is also not aware of the social world that is going outside the mobile phone world. I really want to help him with these problems that he is gonna fight in his later future because now he is a kid and he is not able to know what is going on, what is not. He likes using mobile phones, scrolling the reels, playing video games but later on he will be very much unsatisfying with his past. So I really want to help with that. Initially he was not feeling good at all because he had a habit of using mobile phones very frequently and very often but gradually the hours of using phone on daily basis it reduced but it's not completely reduced yet because in a whole day maybe 4 hours he used to look into the mobile and rest he used to do the other activities. Apart from this now he knows what's going outside the wall and he goes for outdoor games also which is very much helpful.

    Band 6-7

    If I get a chance to give advice to someone, I would give advice to the young minds of the nation. I feel today's generation is the driving factor of the growth. So, my advice would be not to waste time on unnecessary scrolling on social media. Because of this habit, the cognitive focus of humans is reducing and the valuable time is getting wasted. We should be more mindful of where we are spending our time and be more productive. Today's generation is not realizing the value of time. So, I would like to emphasize on mindfulness, free consuming content and be productive, which is very important. To succeed in life in this modern era, it is very important to stay focused, eliminate all the distractions from life and be more productive. Even though if the individual is using social media platforms, they should use it more to be productive, utilize them for their good, not for wasting time or basically for general distractions. Ultimately, time is valuable and everyone should use it mindfully.

    Band 6-7

    There are many times when we have to take advice and give advice on some situations, but I think that I believe that whenever we have to take advice then I wisely prefer elders because they have a lot of experience. Although I had given advice to my friend who is younger than me and he was very obsessed about his career and he asked me about that biotechnology field is best for his career or not and that time I gave him advice about his career and told him about the merits and demerits of this field as I am also a working professional in the biopharmaceutical company and I had done the biopharmaceutical biotechnology course from W professional University and moreover then I told him that you can choose this subject if you can research and study hard although it has various fields after completing the course you can be a biotechnologist and biopharmaceuticals and you can also go to the bioinformatics field but somehow he got my advice and he was very happy after getting my advice and I also suggested him some courses and some universities related to this course and exams related to this course.

    Band 6-7

    As far as I remember I have given advice to my friend regarding a battle royale mobile game which is called as BGMI in which 4 players or duo or solo can be played. My friend was lacking his skills in his gun power so he was asking me how to improve his skills so I suggested that keep the crosshair on the head and try to do not camp and go for rush gameplay and practice in training ground. My friend practiced and later he improved his skills and later we had a match session from 4 to 5 and he was the MVP in the BGMI matches. Later he thanked me that I have given
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