arrow back icon Top Answers

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.

    bulb icon

    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.

    bulb icon

    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.

    bulb icon

    Tip

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

    calendar icon

    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

    Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

    Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

    location icon

    Pitampura Test Centre, New Delhi

    Answer

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 8

    location icon

    Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

    Answer

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 6.5

    location icon

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7

    location icon

    Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

    Answer

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

    location icon

    CBD Belapur Test Centre, Navi Mumbai

    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

    A piece of advice that I gave my friend was to face the traumas of the past and not to run away from them. I remember this instance very vividly. It happened about a year ago with one of my closest friends who just went through a breakup. This friend, he went through a pretty rough breakup and was advised by all his friends to forget the breakup ever happened and distract themselves with something else. I was the only friend who restrained from giving any advice from his circle. Hence he came to me for an advice and counsel for which I replied that he shouldn't run away or distract himself or forget what happened to him, but to face the problem itself head on and learn what needs to be learned to move on from the problem forever. For it doesn't affect his present or his future. This happened almost a year ago, if my memory serves right. And an advice I would give to people who are all suffering from a past trauma

    Band 6-7

    Recently I am done with my schooling, so I have given a lot of advices to my schoolmates, particularly my classmates and a useful advice that I gave to one of my classmates was about studying. My classmate named Karima, she was very dull in studies in every subject and I advised her how to study and why to study, but she is a type of person who do not want to study, she want to explore new things and stay at home and just scroll social media apps and all. She do not have any interest in studying but when I taught her why it is very important, she realized that it is a very important part of our life and she should focus on her studies and I felt very happy that I helped a person on a very important thing.

    Band 6-7

    A good piece of advice that I gave recently to a friend, actually a junior of mine, was that never stop working hard. This piece of advice was something that I used to follow in my life and I have achieved results because of that and I feel that it is the mantra and it works. So I gave it to a junior of mine. I gave it to him because he was very worried about his career and future and he thought no matter how much effort he put in, it was never enough. So I told him that keep working hard, don't stop and no matter how much problems you have in your life, you should just keep going on and on. It did benefit them a lot because they then started not focusing on the results but rather on the process. When they started focusing on the process more and more, they did not realize that the amount of hard work they put in and the results that came out of it were fabulous. The results that came out of it were really nice and it helped them a lot. It made them very happy that they kept going on and they were really thankful that they put in the efforts and now they can sow the fruits of it. They can reap the fruits of the efforts they had put in.

    Band 6-7

    The first thing I would say is that development, overall development is needed in each kind of profession, if you are a teacher, if you are an engineer, if you are a person from a specific industry or if you are in an IT centre, because overall development is needed. And my piece of advice is overall development in your personality, in your communication and your gesture in the profession, because just imagine a person who is highly educated but he doesn't have any kind of development within him, like he is not able to speak, not able to communicate well, he doesn't know how to stand, what should be the posture, the right attitude, the right way to interact with the person, as far as I am concerned he will not be going ahead in his life, because on one hand a person who is less skilled or less educated but he has an overall development in his communication, the way he walks, talks, the posture, he is more appreciable than the other one and I would imagine that a person with that kind of skills and development within himself, he can go far and far away in his career and my piece of advice is to develop your communication skills and the way you present yourself, because you are the ambassador of yourself and you should be presentable. The reason, the first impression is the last impression and I would say it will become gradually because we can't change everything in one day but with regular practice we can achieve it and most of the reason I am convincing myself to more redevelop as I can see for you, you should also need a development in yourself.

    Band 6-7

    The best advice till date I have given around people is to my younger brother who is 7 years younger to me to be consistent over motivated. When his pre board exams result came around I guess November or December 2024 he was quite shattered and demotivated due to less marks in his exams. So what I advised him to make a timetable of every subject and give equal time and motivation. What did he do after my advice was he put the wheel in the motion and started giving time to each subject and gave and literally he put action in gear for all which also led to burning the midnight oil but of course he was not the person who is scared of struggles he struggled and he even bit the bullet just to score good marks and also he knew very well when to call it a day and when not. This lead to a great achievement and also a score of 85% in his board exams.

    Band 6-7

    so a piece of advice that I give to someone in my life is to a friend who studied with me in my 12th college 12th school but he was in a different section and later after three years he got we got connected with Instagram and he was studying and for engineering that time and he was very upset about his studies and got some supplies so he was very upset and depressed about his academics so he told me about everything after hearing this I motivate him motivate and advise him about like it's not about the struggles because you will see more happiness in your life too because maybe life feels so struggling for some reasons because your life is already decided by the God and your attitude must be I never give up one because life will make you tired feel struggling but it doesn't affect you because they are making you more stronger than yesterday so I want to motivate him because he feels so exhausting throughout his problems and lack of support from his family also make him overwhelmed only I can do to give him a better one a better person and not get tired by life because I also had the same experience in my life and after telling about my experience he feels better

    Band 6-7

    So, I remember two years ago, when I was doing chat with my colleague, I found out he was not investing anywhere. Firstly, I was shocked to hear that. In this time, who does not know investment. So, I help him to understand what are the benefits of investing and then I told him the importance of savings and all. Furthermore, I shared him where he can invest, what are the assets and what should be the long term, short term goal and after hearing that he was so thankful to me, he asked different kind of questions which I answered them because I am investing from last five to six years. So, I have all the answers of his questions and he also told to his family about this and they were all happy because he started the investing. Before that he was just saving his money in his bank account which was depreciating over the years. So, he was so thankful, happy and he always tell me what the portfolio looks like and I am happy to help him.

    Band 6-7

    One piece of advice that I gave to someone, who was my sister, to stay positive and believe in God, is that I gave it to her mainly because she was very stressed about her job and was on the verge of quitting it due to the pressure she had. So I told her not to quit it and to follow her heart and to stay positive and rely on God because everything happens for a reason. I also gave an example of myself, which was when I was in my first year of college. My friend participated in a debate competition and she asked me to join her, but I refused because I thought I wasn't good at debating, but after she compelled me to, I joined her. And in the debate competition, I surprisingly performed really well and I got the first place in it. It made me realize my own value and what I'm good at. It also gave me a lot of confidence and I got to know why I'm confident and what's my area of expertise. It made me realize that I'm good at debating, which was very nice and everything happens for a reason. So I told her to stay positive and follow her heart and do what she wants and not to become stressed. And it really helped her to improve and she didn't quit her job, but to the surprise, the next month she got promoted as a team leader, which really helped her to stay confident and she was really happy. She thanked me later that the advice was really good or else she would have quit her job. So it was one piece of advice which I gave to my sister and it really helped her in overcoming her stress and to stay positive throughout her life.

    Band 6-7

    One of my friends was going through a rough patch in life, her husband was alcoholic and abusive, she could not get out of the marriage because of the social pressures, however I advised her that it's her life and she has to take control of her life and the best way if she can improve the man, but it is impossible to correct such an abusive and alcoholic person because he was unwilling to go to any de-addiction centers, as such she took the reins of life in her own hand and now she is leading a very happy and contented life after separating from her husband, this is the best piece of advice I had given to anybody because I see her happy now.

    Band 6-7

    A piece of advice that I have given is regarding the importance of human values and I have given that advice during my master's program. I was, I ran my master's in social work and during the time of my fieldwork practicum, we were supposed to conduct summer camps and during the time of summer camps, I advised the children regarding the importance of human values. Human values are important because it is one of our important aspects in our day-to-day life. It helps in shaping individuals to a better individual and it also helps in the personal growth and overall development of an individual because it helps to know about the values and how we can treat others because it includes values such as kindness, respect and empathy and so on. By being kind and showing respect to others, it will help in our overall development and it was helpful because it helped the children to gain more insight regarding the importance of human values as human values should be taught and many of the students doesn't know regarding the importance of human values because they are not having much social interaction compared to their older times as many are exposed to social media and they are not having direct contact with the people. So being empathetic means understanding others feelings and we should understand others feelings then only we can have a better connection and also it helps in fostering connections and also to become a better human, we should follow the human values. It also helps in understanding about other people's problems and also we can help them in their problems so respect also should be given, it is also an important human value.
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
    ielts logo

    Get the IELTS Prep App

    Star rating icon

    4.2

    1M+ Installs

     app download banner image

    Get the app link on your phone

    +91

    Or download app from

    google play storeapp store
    master ielts speaking ad