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Describe an occasion when someone gave you positive advice or suggestions about your work/study: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Who is the person?
  • What he/she said?
  • How the advice/suggestion affected you?
  • And explain how you felt about the advice/suggestions.
Show all 161 answers

Cue 1:Who is the person?

  • Introduce the person who gave you the advice, mentioning their relationship to you, such as a teacher, mentor, or friend.
  • Provide some context about their background or expertise that makes their advice valuable.

Example

The person who gave me positive advice was my college professor, Dr. Sharma. He was not only my mentor but also an expert in the field of environmental science, which is my area of study.

Cue 2:What he/she said?

  • Summarize the key points of the advice or suggestions they provided.
  • Make sure to include specific phrases or ideas that stood out to you.

Example

Dr. Sharma suggested that I focus on practical projects to enhance my understanding of theoretical concepts. He said, 'Real-world experience will make your resume stand out and deepen your knowledge.'

Cue 3:How the advice/suggestion affected you?

  • Explain how you implemented the advice in your work or studies.
  • Discuss any changes in your approach or mindset as a result of the advice.

Example

After his suggestion, I started participating in various environmental projects and internships. This hands-on experience helped me grasp complex theories better and boosted my confidence in my abilities.

Cue 4:And explain how you felt about the advice/suggestions.

  • Share your feelings about receiving the advice and how it impacted your relationship with the person.
  • Reflect on the long-term benefits of the advice on your personal and professional growth.

Example

I felt grateful and inspired by Dr. Sharma's advice. It strengthened my respect for him and motivated me to pursue my studies with more passion. I realized that good guidance can truly shape one's career.

Conclusion

    Example

    In conclusion, receiving positive advice from Dr. Sharma not only improved my academic performance but also instilled a sense of direction in my career. It reminded me of the importance of seeking guidance and learning from experienced individuals.

    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: Lack of Specificity

    Being vague about the advice received can weaken your response. Specific details help illustrate the impact of the advice and make your answer more engaging.

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    Tip

    Include specific examples of what the person said and how it directly influenced your work or study.

    2: Ignoring Personal Feelings

    Failing to express your feelings about the advice can make your response less personal. Sharing your emotions adds depth to your answer.

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    Tip

    Describe how the advice made you feel, whether it was motivated, inspired, or relieved.

    Overly Complex Language

    Using complicated vocabulary or structures can confuse the listener. Clarity is key in speaking tasks, especially for non-native speakers.

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    Tip

    Use simple and clear language to convey your thoughts effectively, ensuring your message is understood.

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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 7

    So, the occasion when someone gave me a positive advice or let's say some critical suggestions about my work or study was when I was trying to score really well but I could not score good enough. I was scoring really bad and then I met one of my teachers. The teacher gave me a really positive advice and told me to never give up and always keep trying harder and harder while being consistent at the same time. This remark made me think critically about what actually I am doing with my life and I started working on making myself consistent rather than just trying harder because I personally believe consistency brings perfection with time.

    Band 7

    I'd like to talk about an occasion when I received very helpful advice about my studies. It was from my economics professor during my second year at university. At that time I was struggling with time management. I used to spend hours making detailed notes but ended up with very little time for revision. My professor noticed this when I missed a couple of deadlines and she suggested a simple but powerful strategy. Focus on understanding the concepts first, then use short summaries and mind maps instead of writing pages of notes. I followed her advice and it completely transformed my approach to studying. Not only did I save a lot of time but I also retained information much better. In fact, my exam results improved significantly and I started feeling more confident in class discussions. I felt truly grateful for her suggestion because it showed she cared about my progress. More importantly, it taught me that sometimes working smart is more effective than working hard. Even today I still use her method whenever I prepare for exams or projects.

    Band 7

    A specific occasion that comes to my mind when someone gave me advice that stayed with me long after was when I'd gone for a seminar with my CEO, Mishra Ashish Dalia, to teach young aspiring college students about AI tools with him. He was leading the seminar and I had a section where I was going to be talking about specific AI tools and examples of how to use them. It was one of the first times that I was doing public speaking, but he was someone who'd done this a thousand times over. He'd done seminars, meetings, exhibitions, expos, and he in general is an extroverted person, so this was a piece of cake for him. He thought that he'd seen something in me, that is why he decided to take me along with him and I, to be honest, did not give my best. I was very well prepared and when I'd practiced with him earlier, he was very impressed with the way I was speaking. However, when I was speaking in a public setting with a group of students, I was fumbling quite often, I was very flustered, I didn't know how to use my hands, how to stand, I was moving very often and he told me that, Aman, you have a lot of potential, but you are not using your potential and it's not something you learn overnight, but something you have to practice day in and day out. At night, after that, I was practicing every night for my communication skills. Soon after, I had my appraiser and he was very impressed with what I had changed in terms of my communication skills and how my command was over the language and the rule and it only positively impacted me. So, no...

    Band 7

    When I was asking about my performance during a performance review at work, I received feedback from a team lead who told me that I need to have a little more structure in how I manage or handle tasks. Initially that made me a little confused and even slightly hurt because I thought I had proper structure but as I tried to hear him out and not act on emotions, I realized that he meant well and he wanted to see me grow. What he said was that I tend to have a lot of things on my mind at once and it would make more sense to structure or make a little bullet list, checklist of different tasks or different things I had on my mind for the day and slowly check them out one by one and add data to the list as soon as I get the information and this has actually affected me positively. It has helped me gain more control over my time and my time management in general. Initially I felt a little bit upset about getting some feedback but now I am actually asking for more feedback because of how it has helped me improve a lot in this area of life and subsequently in other areas of life too.

    Band 7

    Everyone wants to excel in their studies, be it getting their dream marks or being at the top of the class. I too love to do my best in my studies and my dream is to get a high score. However, I was noticing that in my 12th grade, my maths marks were remaining stagnant. The marks had saturated at about 85% and no matter how hard I tried, I was unable to lift the score up. I didn't explicitly ask for any advice, but my maths sir, who was observing my journey very closely, came to me and gave me this amazing piece of advice that I would like to share. He told me that such mathematics exams are quite difficult and require you to think out of the box. If your mind is not free enough, you would not be able to perform such critical thinking. Hence, he told me to regularly exercise and meditate so that due to these physical activities, my mind would become fresher and my focus would improve. I was quite skeptical towards this advice because I did not have the time to exercise due to my busy study schedule, but I decided to follow his advice since he was much more experienced than me. So, I started doing that and my stagnant score saw drastic change within a month. My score rose up to 95 or even 97% and it was a great achievement for me. I was very satisfied by my great performance and decided to blindly follow any advice that my maths sir gave me. I thanked him heartily for this amazing advice and am making sure that I would continue exercising and meditating regularly to improve my focus.

    Band 7

    The person I liked the most was Shanmugam Paramashivam sir. He was my previous school principal. He advised me regarding a shift from CBSE to IB. So, that is a very important decision in my life. Basically, I am a CBSE educator and I do lesson plans aligned with CBSE. But when sir gave me this opportunity to shift into IB, that advice changed my life. I learnt a lot of things in IB and more about the inclusion. And this advice now make me as a inclusion school head. So, this is a very good experience and that advice is sincere and this special education thing is not a very meagre job. Actually, it includes emotions, feelings, behaviours, what not, everything. Children are very near to our heart. Once they connect to us, they build a rapport with us, they felt very happy. They can tell us what they are feeling, what they are into their lives and what will be their goal in the future. So, everything. So, this positive advice make me to work more, to give success to the students, those who believe in me and the individual plans like IEPs, what I make.

    Band 7

    A piece of positive advice that truly influenced me was given by my mentor during my undergraduate studies. At that time, I was struggling with a fashion design assignment and was overwhelmed by the pressure to make it perfect. My mentor said, perfection is the enemy of progress. Focus on experiencing your creativity first and the technical occurrence will follow. Those words had a profound impact on me. They shifted my perspective from obsessing over tiny details to actually enjoying the creative journey. Because of this suggestion, I felt more confident and I produced one of my best designs for that semester. Not only did I receive high grades, but I also gained a sense of freedom in my work. I felt deeply motivated and thankful for this advice. It taught me to value progress and innovation over unnecessary perfectionism. And I still carry this lesson with me in both my academic and personal life.

    Band 7

    The one person who gave me a really good piece of advice is my professor from the university. While I was studying, I wasn't able to manage my expenses. As I was attending the classes regularly, my professor got to know about my condition and he suggested me to work as a part-timer at some of the government degree college. So, I decided to take up the career. I started with a part-time career and I went for it. That was really a life-changing advice for me. My professor used to support me with the notes and the lectures, recorded lectures for the university. I used to take up classes at the degree college. This not only built me financially but also pushed me towards my career. That made me realize what I am supposed to do with my life and that actually built my life.

    Band 7

    Well, I would like to tell you about my subject Mathematics. Till my 6th grade, I used to hate Mathematics. But when I entered in my 7th grade, my subject teacher encouraged me a lot. He motivated me by giving incredible remarks on my notebooks and also he appreciated me. He always told my performance commendable and due to his indispensable role in my life, his motivation, I got full marks in my half yearly examination as well as in annual examination. This was the result of his appreciation which could not be replaced by anything else. He is the person who is totally responsible for this marvelous performance.

    Band 7

    One occasion that I clearly remember is when one of my professors gave me positive advice about my studies during my post-graduate course. I was feeling a little overwhelmed with the workload and uncertain about how to manage research, assignments and presentation all at once. During a consultation, my professor noticed my concern and encouraged me to take a more organized approach rather than worrying about everything together. She suggested that I break larger tasks into smaller goals and set realistic deadlines for each. She also advised me to read consistently every day, even if it was only for an hour, instead of leaving things to the last minute. What made her advice so valuable was the way she motivated me. Instead of pointing out my shortcomings, she reminded me of the strengths she had observed in my work, such as my analytical skills and creativity. This gave me a lot of confidence. I followed her suggestions and soon noticed a real improvement in my productivity and understanding of the subjects. That conversation not only helped me perform better in my studies but also taught me the importance of discipline and positive thinking in academic life. It was really a great experience and I was overwhelmed with the motivation she gave me that day.
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