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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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    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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    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

    Few years ago in my software company, one of my colleague was not comfortable with coding and testing of the applications. He faced lot of difficulties as he was not aware of the latest technologies in which he was working. So he felt bad about it and decided to quit. When he informed about this decision to me, I took him to a nearby coffee shop and then spoke about the difficulties that he faced. And then I just guided him the things that he need to do in order to improve his performance in the career. I asked him to upskill his technical skills, be confident and take up personality development courses. I also took him to a nearby counselling centre where we counselled him. They first analysed him and then gave counselling to improve his communication skills, confidence and the way he needs to project to the senior folks and to the management. After few weeks, there was a visible improvement in his performance. He started feeling more confident. He was also strong in the coding and development part of the software. After one year, he got the best employer award and as a result, he was sent to the onsite BK for one year as an onsite coordinator. He got a better position and then he earned a lot.

    Band 6-7

    I still remember there was a time when my two best friends got involved into a massive fight and one of my best friends cursed my other best friend and that unknowingly it hurt her a lot and they kind of went on a break with each other and I still remember I giving advice to that friend who cursed just saying that you know you should control your anger sometimes it should not overpower it should not let it should not you should not let overpower the anger and furthermore I would like to add is that you should always just stop talking when you are angry whenever you're feeling angry you should just disconnect with the topic or get out of that place or if you feel too much in that situation you should just you know stop the conversation that time by stating that I wanna don't wanna talk about it right now I think that is much easier way than you know because whenever you're angry you just want to hurt other person so you will say a lot of hateful and meaningful things which you don't even feel like that way for that person so I moreover I would like to add is just that you should always have a control on your anger it should not the anger should not control you.

    Band 6-7

    A few days back I was on a call with one of my friends when she opened up about how she was worried for her upcoming examination and how the anxiety of what if she is not able to clear the examinations and her co-workers do. So I gave her one simple piece of advice that you should never compare yourself with others. You can only compete with them in the race but if you compare yourself then that is the point where you lag behind because any competition or any race is not just a race of talent or skill. It is how well you brush the edges of your strengths, how well you are able to handle the pressure and how well you are able to get over your weaknesses and I think she really did get through my point because she was smiling and she said that it's actually something that she wanted to hear therefore she would rather concentrate on preparing herself for the examination instead of worrying about others clearing the examination or not. So I think she really did feel great after my advice and I personally felt great too because I was able to give her a peace of mind in that stressed environment.

    Band 6-7

    I love giving advice to people because I think that one's advice can enhance a person's mindset and thinking. I was having a friend whose name was Chai and I used to give him advice on a daily basis. Moreover, he was very stressed and feeling low, that's why I gave him advice related to academic as well as social knowledge, social advice. Because I think that if someone is low and want to listen to you, you should advise him and acknowledge him, motivate him to do further. Moreover, I used to give him advice about technical skills like to gain more and more knowledge about current technology. Moreover, I taught him how you can work on your own besides not depending on others. As a result, my advice played a crucial role in his development because he used to score more and more after my advice which enhanced his scorecard after the studies. He thanked me in return and I was very glad to know that he was the topper of the class at the end of the study.

    Band 6-7

    A recent advice which I gave to my friend was about his love life. My friend used to be very chivalrous and very, I mean, it was a side that I have not seen and it was just a kind of pretending to be someone which is not so, that's when I told him to be what you are and if you are trying to pretend to be someone and to be liked by someone who doesn't know the real you, which will be a bigger problem in your future and that's when he told me that and that's when I told him to be confident and to be the way you are, which will help you to become a better person with them, also it will be helpful to you and your partner in the future. Why I chose to give this advice, it was because, I mean, there's no other reason, a person should be the way they are and there's no tending to be liked by someone or become part of their life, which will be a problem and that's something I am not very proud of and I wouldn't support anyone to do that too.

    Band 6-7

    The person who I gave the advice was my little brother, while he was very depressed and was trapped inside and was isolating himself into his own room. I told him that he should take a step outside his room and explore his surroundings and do some outdoor sports. Outdoor sports as it will help him not only to strengthen physically, it also helps him to reduce the stress and remove the depression come out of his depression. I gave him the advice because he was cooped inside his room for a long period of time and I wanted him not to be like a person who just lives in his room. I wanted him to explore new places and to meet new people so that he can have a good relationship with others but also he can have fun and live his life. The advice that I gave him was to play an outdoor sports so that he can also make friends and furthermore he can also get relax and remove stress. After he took my advice and started to play football, he was very energetic and he was very happy and I think the advice that I gave him helped him a lot to recover from his depression.

    Band 6-7

    A piece of advice or rather good advice that I gave to someone recently was my best friend Dania. She had trouble in choosing her course and her college that she wanted to study in in the UK. I told her that the most important thing that she should be looking out for is to study something that she loves. Moreover, she should study something that she is passionate about and in her location or college that will support her the best. I told her that she should also do thorough research in the college and the course that the college is offering and she should also research the modules, the electives and also the extracurricular activities that the university has to offer. Additionally, I told her she should also look at career placements after college because career is an extremely important part of choosing a college. She took this advice seriously and did her research on multiple colleges throughout the UK and she shortlisted a couple of colleges that matched her interests as well as the location, the price and the course modules that she was looking for. She was very happy with the advice I gave her and she will be applying to a few colleges for next fall.

    Band 6-7

    A good piece of advice I've given to one of my colleagues, her name is Neelima, overall she is a very good person but she has a very dominant and aggressive personality so she was kind of looking for the promotions and she had a fight with our manager so she was not listening to him and continuously barging him in the conversations and as per his opinion that she is a bit of a mature and not ready for the position. So I give her advice to be a little calmer and calm and complacent, kindly listen to the other person what he is saying, additionally she is very close to feedback so I give her to be a little more open to feedback and listen to what the other person is saying, you do not have to perceive exactly what it is, sometimes you have to understand the emotions of the person also, if you are looking for a promotion here you have to understand there is an emotion of the other person also, sometimes he is just giving you an advice, you are just overreacting on certain things which you do not, you cannot in this position because as a supervisor you have to listen to your team, you have to make a team bonding, if you remain aggressive all the time then it creates chaos in your team and will not be able to create a positive environment for everyone. You should sometimes need to hear other person's opinion before reacting on it and do not make assumptions over certain things, listen, act, carefully observe and then act.

    Band 6-7

    I usually am not a person who gives a lot of advice to others, but there was this one time, around 2 years back, my friend Shiva was about to get married and he was working in a corporate company, but he was working on designing a solar plan, a blueprint for a home, solar plan implementation for a home, but that was, when I did a little bit background research on it, I felt the scope of development or career in that industry was very low, so I went to him and told him, since you are getting married, I am going to start a family and the pay was very very low, so I advised him to learn programming and then get into IT role, there is a lot of off-campus drives happening across Chennai and it is very easy to land a job in IT once you learn some of the basics and this advice helped him a lot, he was actually not interested to work in that solar designing company, solar design company, but that was not giving satisfaction job, he was not getting the job satisfaction and also not getting paid, so this helped him a lot and he took up my advice, now after two years, still we are in good touch, so it still gives me credit for helping him out to point him in the right direction.

    Band 6-7

    The one advice that I remember giving to someone was to my sister. It was because she seemed to be oblivious to people suffering around her. She never used to be kind or be forgiving to her friends who made mistakes or were silly around her. So I used to advise her saying that she has to be more kind and generous, sometimes even forgiving. That is the only way they can nurture their friendships and keep them close to their heart forever and help each other in need so that their friendships blossom. I asked her to have a great time with her friends. Sometimes life is all about making mistakes and rectifying them and enjoying them. So I really wanted her to have a great time in her hostel at her college as well so that when she looks back, she sees a lot of happy moments, the silly mistakes that they made together and a lot of great memories for the future onwards.
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