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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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    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.
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    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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    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 remember last month my friend Rahul and I have decided to go to the gym and made some good physique. I heard Rahul made an oath that he will do it in a consistent manner. On the next day he forget his oath and make excuse that he is not well and he will not come to the gym. On that time I felt that he is an unmotivated and undisciplined person. So I tried to give him advice that he should take action if he want to thrive a success because most people make excuses and try to putting off their work just by saying that I am not well or I am busy in another work but it is just a kind of mediocre lifestyle because most people procrastinate their work just by saying that we are occupied in other work and we don't have a time because it is a big lie. So on that time I asked him that he should be focused on his mindset and try to develop it in a positive way that if he did the workout if he did go to the gym he will definitely made a good physique that will help in their future and make him well and improve their overall health problems. Moreover I also suggested him that if he go to the gym in a consistent manner he will overcome his health problems. On that time he realized my words and he started workouts daily even now he also called me that I should be join him.

    Band 6-7

    Yes, I have given an advice to my roommate. She is preparing for PG NEET examination which was scheduled on August 3rd. Since she has been taking coursing from a month, she has given a books of two sets which contains all the details and all the index in preparing the exam which are almost about 19 subjects. But she has already a printout workbook that contains all the answers similar to the ones that they have given. So she wanted to know whether she could concentrate in the lectures about the answers that were already written or just concentrate on what they are teaching. So they would like, she would ask me whether how to proceed. So I told her to give time for each of the workbooks, start writing the workbooks, preparing whatever they have said in the class. If that is a daily routine that she can follow for two days, then she can prepare well for the exam. Just listen to the lectures and remember what can be done and give exams, mock tests so that she can improve for the final examination. This was the advice that I have given to her so that it might be helpful for her to prepare not only the coming examination but in the future as well to follow this proper routine. I think she felt very great about it. Later that day she told that she has woken up early in the morning preparing the workbooks that she has written from the classes from the past one week. So it was grateful from her side.

    Band 6-7

    I gave my advice to my best friend Khushi, who I've been friends with for the past 6 years and she's been dead for me ever since. I recall her saying one time that she got a bad grade and she feels it's the end of the world and she doesn't feel like she's worth it or anyone's time. She felt she was wasting her parents' money and just felt like a liability. I talked her out of it. Khushi, no, you are worth every single penny that people spend on you. You are an amazing person and I know you've tried really hard in your exams and honestly, I know she did try very hard. Her maths wasn't that good but she was a fair and smart student and she kept on going on. I told her she's amazing and she can do so much better and if she tries doing maths and practice and practice and practice, she will become a really nice student and her maths grades will improve a lot. She did take my advice pretty well and it did serve her right. I remember recalling that her maths test was coming up and she practiced a lot for it and took my advice. We group studied and her grades improved a lot. She felt like she achieved something and her parents were really proud of her. I was really proud of her for achieving such high grades. She topped her class and I was so proud of her and she loved my advice.

    Band 6-7

    Recently I gave advice to my younger brother, Naksh. Naksh is 3 years older than me. From the past one year, he has been trying to apply for a college in our city. But every time when he gives the exam, he always gets left behind by either 5 or 6 marks. Because of that, he has been very low and sad. One day when I went to him, I told him that he should just keep practicing and give his 100% the next time. That time he told me that he was losing hope in himself and thinking that maybe he wasn't capable of doing it. That time I gave him an advice that failure does not decide our worth. Failure is the thing that gives us motivation to do more better. That time when he heard me, I don't believe he immediately applied it. But it had some impact on him. Because after 3 or 4 months, he called me and gave me the news that he had passed his application test. It was because of the advice I gave him that helped him to stop blaming himself for being incapable and start believing himself that he can do it. I felt really proud.

    Band 6-7

    So, the advice I gave recently was to my friend. He is my closest friend whom I know since 5-6 years. The advice was not to compare ourselves with the people of our age or the children of our age and avoid comparing our skills with them and the achievements they achieve in their life. Everyone has their own path and own destiny. So, I just told him to focus on our mistakes and our goals instead of thinking about what people are going to achieve or what people are achieving. So, I told him just to focus on himself, his skills and his studies so that he helps nurture them and get good results in his life. I also told him to just give time to his education and career so that he also boosts his own career instead of thinking about what others will think or what others are doing. He took it very excitingly and said he will work on it and move forward.

    Band 6-7

    Helping others is the first rule of humanity. Today I would like to describe about a piece of good advice I gave to someone. Recently I advised my best friend when she was confused in choosing stream for senior secondary studies. I advised her to choose the stream which she likes the most. She was confused between two streams, science and humanities. I advised him to listen to his heart and choose which she has a lot of interest. Basically I advised her to choose arts because she has a good artistic hand and can draw anything she likes. Also she has very good passionate about knowing the history behind that so she will have a good future in studying history. This advice helped her a lot in pursuing the stream she want to. So it really filled my heart with gratitude that I helped my best friend in choosing her future. Not only that, it also gave her great strength in choosing what's in her heart rather than listening to other people's and choosing the stream which she does not like. Also, last but not least, I gave this advice to her seeing her interest

    Band 6-7

    Once I advised my own friend that you should not depend on others for your own happiness. Now I advised her because I found her sitting despondent and sullen. Why she was sad? Because she had expectations from others. She has started following my advice, she has started controlling herself and now she can feel the change in her life. Expectations from others actually hurts because you are at a different tangent and other person is at a different tangent. While we expect things from others and they are not able to fulfill them appropriately, we cannot judge them, we cannot complain to them about this because everyone has their own life. People are going through their own life challenges. People are occupied in their own life challenges which reframe them fulfilling other people's expectations.

    Band 6-7

    First of all, thanks for asking this question. In my life, I do have given many advices to the people who surround me. For an example, I had a friend, she was stuck in such a conundrum situation. It was so intricate and needs a detailed explanation. That was the case and she came to me. She asked, I have scored only this much marks in CET. For an example, she got 60k in CET and that was so tough to shortlist any colleges. Actually, she wanted to do engineering. For 60k ranking in CET, finding engineering college to NCS branch was very difficult. Then, I gave a suggestion. Okay, open the previous year ranking details of each college, go through that and list down some colleges which has cut off similar to your ranking. Then, we found around 6-7 colleges which was not that top reputated but still, it's fine. Then, we went through that, the cut off sheet. Finally, she admitted in one of the colleges which we had shortlisted before.

    Band 6-7

    I gave advice to my friend, Rucha, because she was suffering from downfall during exams and she was not able to give another exam. That's why I told her that, don't stop until your mind says it's done. And after that, she again starts her struggle. She is an IAS student. And so I gave her advice that, always listen to your mind because gut feelings are more important than anything. Thank you for watching!

    Band 6-7

    During my schooling, I was into football and I've been a great player in my school and a junior approached me asking me how to play football and how to correct himself and improve himself. So I gave him an advice of how to be a good defender which could make him excel in his school and can help him go for tournaments and win them. So the advice was how to be a good defender. It doesn't just involve your physical abilities but it also involves your strategic movement. So planning and strategic movement while a player is against you, playing with you, you need to focus on how they are playing and what their methods are so that we can tackle them and use analytics. Also, both of them are not enough. We need to have a physical ability too. So I think it has helped him quite a bit and he has practiced it over the years. In a few years, I heard from him again that he is really good at what he is doing now. So I kind of feel happy that my advice has helped someone.
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