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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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    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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    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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    Anonymous student Band 6.5

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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

    so my sister was very low in the recent days so I checked on her what was the cost she was telling about her and submission lines and she was not able to meet the deadline and she didn't submit any of the documents she had to do for her PhD so that time I told her that this is not only the last day for the submission she will be given a new chance or she can create something or she can even talk to someone regarding this because this is a opportunity that she can obtain to place herself in a bolder way rather than being afraid and worried about what she has not done before though we are like two peas in a pod we have a contrasting nature I used to be always very bold and I used to take decisions well in case of her she is a little rigid and she's not open to many opinions and perspectives so I always tell her not to be very strong in your inner thoughts and I am always telling her to try things which she hasn't done before in addition to that I even told her that she had to take some rest because she has been doing this for a long time and she didn't had any break in between she was working also

    Band 6-7

    There are lots of advice I have been given in my life to people who I know very well. The advice most recently I have been given to my brother who completed his 10th and was going for his higher secondary studies. He was confused to take a course of commerce or science. He was asking as I took commerce, he was asking that what did you do? My brother's name is Janir and I gave him an advice to take commerce course because it has a bright future ahead. And as I completed I scored very well in it.

    Band 6-7

    Okay, so basically I'll be speaking about a piece of good advice that I gave someone. So the person who I gave the advice to was one of my juniors. She was very stressed about her exams. So she came up to me for help. So I advised her about all the points and all the important topics. In addition, I even told her to go through all the past papers to be sure to get good marks. And moreover, I even told her to not take too much stress. At the same time, enjoy her life in the university because we don't get this chance again. I gave her the advice because she was very, very stressed when she came to me. And I kind of saw myself in her when I saw her because I was the same when I went to my senior and my seniors helped me too. I found that from my side it was helpful for her. Because overall till I finished she was there for me and supported me throughout. And to sum up, I feel that you should always help your juniors. And people should not bully or rag them just because they are your juniors and make use of them. Instead, show them the right way and don't allow them to make the mistakes that you have made. Because when you help someone, it's always a good thing and it comes back to you. All in all, when we give someone an advice, the same thing comes back to us. So we don't have to face the music anymore. Thank you.

    Band 6-7

    One notable advice that I have recently given is about my college to a fresher who wanted to join in my college in the course of computer science. She came with an ambiguity whether to choose computer science or electronics and communication. I was sitting in the garden waiting for my friend, then she has come to me with a lot of pressure and other burdens, I could clearly see that on her face. She asked me my opinion regarding which course to choose, then I have told her that computer science would help her throughout the career, but if she is interested especially in designing some electronic things, then ECE would help her. Then after a talk, we both figured out that she is not much interested in designing some electronic and communication objects. So I vividly described her how computer science subject goes, how the course is planned, what all that are involved in this course and how should she be prepared for everything, how all the semesters will be there, which is the difficult part, which is the easy part. I have told her everything and gave her a very prominent advice regarding how one should behave in engineering colleges, especially being a computer science student.

    Band 6-7

    Giving advice to someone, especially such as friends and relatives etc are usually not my fault, but I do remember giving advice to my friend and helping him decide on a career opportunity, especially the academic field that he wanted to go. He was a microbiology graduate just like me and he was worried on taking up microbiology course again after graduation and I was able to help him decide on a better foundation that best aligns with his interests which was bioinformatics. The reason why I helped him shift to bioinformatics from microbiology is because bioinformatics is a better subject because it aligns with computers and AI technology. It would help him because he is really interested in computers as well as he is a person who needs stability and he is also a person who wants to try new things, a curious minded. So, along with all of that I suggested him and now he is really happy about it. So, yes that is the best advice I think I have influenced on someone's life.

    Band 6-7

    I am not a kind of person who gives advice to everyone, but I am going to talk about a moment when I gave advice to one of my friends. It was when I was studying in my college days, in my bachelor degree. I had a friend named Reshma Pankaj. She was one of my best friends. We have good friendship. She used to help me with studies and preparing notes. So from another friend, I came to know that Reshma was not coming to hostel on the nights. She is bunking the hostel and staying out with her friends and she used to repeat the same thing every day. So I came to know about it and I advised Reshma not to do that because if a problem happens, the college management will turn against her. And what happened is that she didn't like the way I gave advice. She told me, you are not the person who needs to advise me. It's my personal life. I will do whatever I want. And what happened is that on the coming exam, she flunked all papers and the college management told about this issue to her parents. She was forced to move out of the hostel. And later she cleared the exam and till the course finished, she was out of hostel. And once when we had a friendly talk, she told me that, sorry because I was rude to you when you gave advice. And she realized her mistake and she told sorry. I feel at last she has realized my value and my friendship.

    Band 6-7

    My father has not had a easy childhood that he gave to us. He had a struggling childhood wherein he had to earn for himself and his family. I am lucky enough to be provided for everything by him. Recently I gave him an advice to stop working so much and relaxing and enjoying what he has earned. To give you a little context, my dad has his own business and he has been running it for the past 26-27 years. Now he is aged 52 and I just gave him an advice that he should retire now or should start working on himself rather than giving so much into his business. I would want him to enjoy his time and his money on himself rather than going out of his way and securing a future for his children. My dad wants me to continue his legacy and for this he has been working day and night so that he opens a successful business which I can carry forward. I gave him an advice that he doesn't know whether he will get this luxury that he has earned in his next life and he should enjoy every bit of it in this life where he has struggled hard to achieve it. Hopefully he does follow that advice. Currently I don't see him following that advice and he still does go out of his ways to provide for me and my family and I am grateful for that but I would really want my dad to spend a little more on himself.

    Band 6-7

    Recently, I gave my brother an advice regarding his studies, how to improve and cope up with his test and other extracurricular activities, so basically I told him to understand and study rather than just memorizing because memorizing helps cracking the exams with good scores but at the end of the day or after few years, it doesn't make sense because when we understand and study, we get to know the things exactly and with more practical experience if we learn a thing, we will be able to tell it in a different ways. If we learn in one way, we will be able to present the same task or same thing in n number of ways, this could only be achieved when we are learning practically and demonstrating the things whatever we learn, so if I or someone ask him in future, he must be able to demonstrate the thing, so that he has acquired the correct knowledge and the steps. I mainly gave him advice because currently he is in 10th grade, he needs to choose group for higher secondary, so I told him to clearly sit and think upon in which domain he is actually interested, whether this domain will fit him because that is going to decide our future. I wouldn't say that's the future but it will play definitely a major role in the future because there will be 4 groups, so if I choose computer science group, so I may go in the physics domain, I may go in the chemistry domain, I may go in the maths domain as well or am I going to engineering, there are many fields under that but we have to think clearly and our goals should be clear, so this is the one I am interested in, so because of these things I told him to consider these criterias in mind and then to proceed, he felt very happy and supportive.

    Band 6-7

    I advised one of my friends, her name is Jamila. She was having a hard time about having children because her husband was having a medical problem. Now after four years of trying, they have two kids, twins. And after two weeks, she will have the third one, Inshallah. I advise her and support her and give her many solutions, many names of doctors that can help her. Now, Alhamdulillah, after that, she keeps it to herself and she feels good right now. And I don't know, Wallah.

    Band 6-7

    Okay, I gave advice to my sister because she was doing pharmacy related to the academics I did because in order to succeed in life, in order to achieve in life, motivation is very important, very crucial thing and because the several times I am going to teach my sister because of in order to academic growth, in order to do interest in the research especially the pharmacokinetics and pharmacopharmacy, development of new ideas, development of new inventions and new skills in order to implement in the higher level of research, it will definitely useful for the future growth, for example, in order to secure the PhD, in order to acquire the PhD in abroad, it was really helpful for the daily life, this motivation, I would really in order to success, in order to achieve, in order to move forward in life, this motivation is very important to the academics.
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