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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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    All Answers

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

    Band 6-7

    Recently I advised my friend to not worry about the delay in getting married. My friend who was of about 33 years in age, actually my senior who is 2 years older to me, was not married yet and his family is pressuring her to get married to whatever the match that would come across so that there would not be any further delay. But she had certain principles and values which she wanted to be followed and she had certain expectations and so she is waiting for certain kind of person who would value her as she is and would help her to grow both with respect to her professional life and also keeps her personally enthusiastic. So she was bit worried and that's why I have advised her to follow her heart not to follow the time or the pressure of the society because society has nothing to do with our lives

    Band 6-7

    Once upon a time, there was a friend of mine, her name was Kriti. She was dealing with a heart, she was dealing with a heartbreak at that time. And she suffered from anxiety and depression, and it was so severe that she was not able to come out of her room, and that was devastating for both her friends and for my side as well. And I told her to see a doctor and go for counseling and guiding sessions. And from that point of time, her life instantly changed. When she met the doctor, the doctor guided him about the heartbreak and told him, every person on earth suffers the same thing once in their lifetime. So it is better to always focus on yourself and start prioritizing yourself. He gave him a list of tasks like show gratitude in the morning for the things that you have, think positive, listen to positive things around you, hang out with your dear friends and family who loves you and treats you better. And she started doing these things and she is happy.

    Band 6-7

    I advised a very close friend of mine who had not got through the university that they dreamt of and had put in all their years of hard work into it. The advice I gave that person was that while you work very hard towards a goal, it's not necessary that it would be fruitful the way you imagined it as. It would be fruitful, but maybe in a different scenario altogether, which you're not expected and would be bigger than what you anticipated. So this advice particularly was, may not have felt very motivating at that period, but eventually that friend did realize what I meant because it led to much bigger and better things. So it goes to show that we a lot of times work very hard towards something, to aspire something, to gain that eventually, but it does not lead to the way we would want.

    Band 6-7

    I would like to talk about a piece of good advice that I gave to someone. It's for my best friend, about her voice. Because she was very loud when talking with others, which is not necessary. So one day I told her politely and I asked her to reduce her pitch when it's not necessary. It happened a year ago when we were doing a team project. She was my team leader. We were four people in that team. Everyone had different strengths and activities to do. My part is to collect information and elaborate to others and explain what are the reasons and what are the beneficial parts about choosing the topic. I was expressing my ideas to all my team but she suddenly interrupted me with her loud voice in a different way, which has a bad impact on her from the whole team. So I told her very politely, I was ok to accept your words. Everyone is not ok to accept your words because it was too loud. So she took it as a great advice and she continued to speak very low pitch. Now she decreased her voice.

    Band 6-7

    After our completing our 12th standard, my friend was suffering a lot from choosing a particular good stream for her which will be beneficial for her in future also. And I decided to help her and give her my advice that what will be good for her to do after her 12th standard because she was so much interested in photography. I have given her advice that she should do a course related to this only. It will be helpful for her in many ways and she can also fulfill her goals and achieve the ambience of her life. And she really felt good about me helping her and I also felt great after giving her my advice. She has listened to me and chose what I said. I like the way she always listens to me. And after I gave her my advice, she was really happy about it and she really appreciated me. And I also felt so happy after giving her this advice because I am always ready to help her and it really gave me more time and really gave us chance to get more connected with each other and make a strong bonding between us. And it was really a nice experience that I had and she listened to me and she said that my advice has really helped her in many ways and now she is happily doing her work.

    Band 6-7

    I advise my daughter on healthy living because she always try to eat junk food whenever she is outside. At home I always cook healthy meals and small portions which gives enough energy and make her healthy. But when she is outside she tend to eat numerous kinds of foods that has extra sugar, extra fat in it. So the advice I gave her was to stay healthy. In order to stay healthy she needs to eat healthy food and follow a healthy lifestyle which eventually she admitted and currently she is following a healthy lifestyle with lots of vegetables and fruits in her diet. Predominantly she is avoiding all kinds of fatty, sugary food stuff and focused on healthy foods only. I think the advice I gave her was very useful and basically it helps her to control her thirsty, her thirst, I mean control her quest for having unhealthy food. And it made her stay calm and stay healthy.

    Band 6-7

    When I was studying in my college, there used to be a lot of friends with whom I used to plan about business and making money. At one point of time, I was interested in trading and I invested some money in trading. For the first two or three days, it was good making some money. It made me feel good and then I suggested my friend to do it and then after two or three days I lost everything and then he was about to start trading by investing a lot of money. So I advised him not to do trading because of the loss I had. My advice was don't keep your parents' money in trading, it will give us a lot of tension and a lot of pressure. We will grow older, we will earn some money and then we will do this because there won't be any pressure for us. I gave advice to him because of what I have experienced should not be experienced to the people that live with me. So I advised him not to do trading at such a young age. He felt it was really helpful because if he also did trading and if he lost everything, he might have felt very sad. In one way, he also said that, thanks for advising me, you saved a lot of money for me, thank you.

    Band 6-7

    I gave my best advice to my cousin she's just 21 year old after finishing her undergraduation in biochemistry she has no clue to start whether to pursue a post-graduation or to seek a job then I advised her to pursue a post-graduation course as this will help her to increase their career growth as well as if she is specialized in one particular area then it will be helpful for her to enhance her technical skills then after maybe years later she can do PhD course so I suggested to do the post-graduation immediately after her undergraduation she took my advice and she started preparing for it she had an entrance exam and now she cleared at post-graduation and settled in UK she thanked me many times for guiding her in a proper way after giving this piece of advice to her myself felt happy and in fact this motivation I wanted to give to

    Band 6-7

    The good advice I have given to one of my friend was to trust on her abilities. One day she called me out of the blue to tell me that she got fired from her job due to her insecurities because she was unable to perform job well. She got into a job, it was not related to her education in the first place but she was doing very well initially, after that due to the upgradation of technology she was unable to perform and she was unable to learn the technology with the upgradation. So eventually she got fired from her job, she asked me for my advice when she was trying for another job, I told her trust on your instincts first, you have ability to get the job in the first place, it means that you have that within yourself, you have the talent to get another job also, so please trust on your abilities first and start attending further interviews so that you can see where you are right now, then she started applying for the interviews and eventually she got the job and after that she never looked back. I feel many people don't trust on their abilities and that make themselves feel worthless because of that they lose many opportunities, I am giving this advice to everyone that you have to trust yourself.

    Band 6-7

    I have a friend who advises me of anything and even I advise her if she needs one. Recently I have advised my best friend, one of my best friends, that is to have patience. I advised her to have patience in every step of her life. The reason I gave her this advice is that she was suffering from various problems. She had various family problems. She was suffering from academic issues. She constantly failed in the subjects. So I advised her to have faith, to have patience so that she could have a calm mind and overcome all the problems in her life. It is better to give an advice to someone who is actually suffering and who really needs one. Patience is something which can give ease to someone's brain. It could help a person to regain its consciousness and regain the quality of the life he or she is living. It was very helpful to her because it made her think wisely before acting on something. She gave time for herself. She maintained a calm and proper manner so that she can tackle things in her life. However, it managed her to come out of the problem.
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