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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 6-7

    Actually, it's my brother. He gave advice for my career. When I was completed my 10th grade, I got less score in the mark sheet. So, my brother suggested me to go to the commerce not to study science. So, that time I was insisting to my brother not to go to the commerce or economics. I want to study science. So, he suggested me, based on your knowledge and your marks, you have to study commerce. It is easier to compare to the science. So, in that moment, he gave me advice to study economics. Because of that incident, now my whole lifestyle and my career is changed. And it was a great advice which he gave to me at that time. Because I am an immature boy at that time and I don't know what to do. I am just following what my friends are doing. I am also following the same way. So, that was the best advice in my life which I got from my brother.

    Band 6-7

    It was a time when I was in 11th standard and I was just 17 years old and my mother she helped me with my studies and then she asked me and during my 11th standard to study alone and just achieve my goals like as a woman it was a very dedicating task to achieve a goal because a woman has more barriers to cross and get guided to that place but she was a person who was keen in her work and was perfectly doing what was given to her she was a perfect hero basically so she told me she struggled a lot and her father didn't allow her to go for studies and she was like a person who always wished to get a doctorate in the name of her but she didn't have the potential or any background to achieve that goal and she asked me if I could fulfill her dream in like zero efforts like everything was given for me and everything is still given so I could just fulfill her dream into reality and this striked me a lot and I went on studying in 11th and 12th like a pro and became a holder of the class that S first rank holder with 99.5 percentage and it affected

    Band 6-7

    I am exhilarated to say that I have always been placed with good people in my life. Everyone gave me advice, it always works for me. I remember last time on 15th August, my senior has advised me to do something in my career and I apply that. I have seen some positive changes after that in my career and so many people, so many times I remember that everyone gave me right advice, everyone always encourages me for good things or to improve myself for my benefit.

    Band 6-7

    that will lead to a Yep during my IIT exams preparation my father advised me About my study as I was a bright and a brilliant student in my school and course He advised me how to do answers in the competitive exams Do answers until you are confident about it that it will be correct and you would get a plus four marks Not a minus one. So he saved me that until you don't feel that it is correct Don't use that option because that will lead to your minus negative in your exams so I'm really following this advice until now Well, he also advised me that this exams consists both your intelligence and your emotional mental well-being if You get anxiety depression and stressful during the exams that means you're not prepared for this examination because Emotionals mentality also help in the exams. Well Most of the students got fails exam because of the Weak emotion but this advice really helps me because as Upcoming my exams are coming now, and I was to chill and relax and free To give exams and after when I gave the exams, I feel very relieved and if I watch my marks, that was too good Then I compared my marks from those marks which I did with my most stressful Situations and it was really a great improvement. I have ever seen

    Band 6-7

    So the person who has played a main role in my life, for my work and my success, my guru, my teacher, whose name is Raghavendra Sheth, he's a professor in our college. So I met him when I was in the second year of my engineering, where I was a bit struggling for my courses. So when I met him, I was struggling a lot in the courses. So nobody was taking me or taking in the teams. So he just called me up and said some things which made me think stronger and positively. So he was like, don't regret what you are doing right now, but focus on the future and focus on the present, what you have and what you have the strong skills. So he told me just to focus on your skills and stick on it, work on it and be hard to stick on the process which you are going through and have a very great mindset and be prepared before involving in the work and be smart. So these are the things which made me stronger and go and play with things which I was going through. So these are the some topics when I met him, we discussed a lot. He made me a very strong person while speaking and last year I got the two national level awards in my projects and he was the person.

    Band 6-7

    Today, I would like to share an experience of my managerial work with you all. The best advice given to me is by my manager. When I used to be an intern in JW Marriott, he told me that you should never run after the money in the initial stages of your career. You should always chase for an experience and gain knowledge as much as you can because eventually you will be able to excel in life if you have an experience and know proper knowledge about the industry. If you run behind money, you won't be able to stand and sustain in the industry. And I think that the suggestion he gave me has at some extent changed my mindset and my perspective towards the industry and my career.

    Band 6-7

    My manager is a person who gave me the piece of advice where he said that acquiring a new skill will keep you on top of the technology. Learning a new skill is not that easy. But firstly, to learn a new cutting-edge technology takes time and it will reap its fruits with time. Being in a corporate world, somebody explaining or giving a piece of advice to grow in the career is rare. This particular piece of kind words took me to the next level where I gave it more importance to learn a new skill more than being caught with the negative comments given by the co-workers. Furthermore, keeping on going with the agenda of learning a new skill requires a lot of effort whether it is rain or shine, I have to show up every day to the learning skill. This gave me a new confidence after completion of my studies in the new technology brought me to a limelight where my work was showcased in front of the whole team and my supervisor praised me for all my work. Initially, I did not take everything serious but my efforts reaped fruits.

    Band 6-7

    well I remember last time when I was with my father he told me that you should improve at your studies more because last time I was not good at my academics so during my college I came third in academics so my father told me that you should do a lot of hard work to achieve the first position and you need to practice more and more to gain more knowledge gain more experience so that you can achieve better position he told me to remember the answers by writing it down on a paper and then after that try to learn these written notes so I did that as my father told and it worked quite well and I followed that path and I started to write first and then remember those and then try to remember those answers so it was a good advice from my father and it helped me a lot throughout my entire course and it also helped me to gain some knowledge which indirectly led to the good marks at academics so yeah it was a quite good

    Band 6-7

    A few months back, I was talking to one of my uncles, Kailash, regarding my plans of studying abroad in Germany. He stays in Germany from the last 20 years and he explained the various pros and cons to me. He mentioned some of the popular universities in Germany that he recommends, which was TU Munich, Aachen University. He mentioned about the course called Battery Technology, however, I am from an industrial engineering background, so I was unsure if I could do the course in battery technology. In addition to that, I was also very confused about whether to work first or to study first. He gave me an advice stating an example of two of his friends who worked first and then studied and one of his friends who studied first and then worked. So I weighed the pros and cons of this and it made me realize that I want to study first and then continue to work. His advice made me think and it helped me decide because of the examples he gave of his friends. His advice was very clear and it came with a lot of experience, which I value. I considered his advice to be a good advice and I proceeded with my applications for masters in Germany. I started looking at the course that he mentioned, which was related to battery technology. I realized that it is not very difficult to cope up with it even after my bachelors in industrial engineering. In conclusion, I would say that his advice was very effective and made me decide what I want to do.

    Band 6-7

    When I was in 10th grade, one teacher was there whose name is Shalini. She advised me like to get good marks, first you have to pray well. You have to ask everything to God. After that you should respect teachers. If you do these two things, you will get good marks automatically. I followed that advice. Early morning I pray well. From that time I started to pray daily early morning around 4 to 5, around like that, morning timings. After that, till now I am giving full respect to my teachers. Whenever I see them, I wish them, then after that whatever they are giving the work or something I will do that. Then I got, then I even I studied well. My mark was out of 500, I got 453, 10th standard. After that I followed properly, like respect and other things will give you good attitude towards the teachers, give you good marks and everything.
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