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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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    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

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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.
    Describe a time when your friend damaged something you owned
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    Anonymous student Band 7

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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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    Anonymous student Band 7.5

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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

    I would like to share an experience. The experience is, I have met a foreigner friend of mine after a very long years. So, we were speaking about education systems in his country and my country. So, he was telling me that his country always lacks in education system and they doesn't provide him the quality of education. And there is no practical learnings in his country and always everything is related to theoretical knowledge. So, the students lack in practical knowledge which is very important for them to work after the education. So, they are lacking in such practical knowledge. And he was praising about my country, that is my India's education system. Here we have lot of lab hours in our curriculum which will make us understand the topics theoretically and practically we are doing it. So, we will have a better understanding of the subject. And also I was thinking that it will be very difficult to study in India and our system, education system is very poor. And we should adopt education system from another country, another foreign countries which is more developed. But then this was an eye opening experience for me when my foreigner friend who studies in USA have told me like this that your country's education system is great and we need to adopt your culture and education system. So, that was really a proud moment for an Indian.

    Band 6-7

    When I hear about this topic, the first thing that comes to my mind is about my professor's suggestion which is about study abroad. She said to me, you can go and study abroad because there is plenty of offers and study you will get. So I take it as personal and am looking forward to it because I really want to study abroad. So now I am trying to get some university for admissions and I am looking forward to it.

    Band 6-7

    It was not long time back when my co-principal investigator said that he saw a lot of potential in me when he took my interview and I can improve in a lot of ways by taking small steps at a time and this really motivated me and I felt like somebody is by my side who is gonna help me with my work and can give me positive suggestions regarding it. This happened when I was little demotivated already because everybody else were busy with their work and they weren't helping me so much but sir took time aside for me to discuss with me about how I can progress in my career and that really made me feel confident about progressing further and to rely on him for future benefits.

    Band 6-7

    I have always loved constructive criticism and that's what makes a person work more hard in his life. So there was this one time, my ex-firm where I was working as a junior associate, my manager or my senior partner, when I was about to leave that firm, I asked him advice on how my performance had been through the entire one and a half years of the tenure that I stayed there. He said quite a good things about me but there was one negative feedback that I still have with me and I still try to work on that, was he said that try to get deeper into the things you are dealing with. For example, there was a case, I used to work in a law firm so there was a case, there was a case regarding, I cannot go into the case, so there was a case wherein I had to have a deeper and better understanding of the law but I did not have that and in fact, I had a better understanding on the facts of the case. So having both the things simultaneously go together would have been better, he said. So he also said that I have a pattern of going into the facts of the case and not much about the law since I was a very junior person there and I was learning, so that was a drawback that I had, I have tried to work on that. Now whenever I read a topic or I delve into something, I try to, you know, I try to get deeper into the understanding of the topic, that advice made me feel good about myself because I thought something was lacking in me that I had to move in inside and since then I have been trying to develop that, yeah, thank you.

    Band 6-7

    I'm not type of person that takes advice from many people but the only person I run to whenever I'm in a problem or need an opinion about something is my aunt her name is Ravinder. She is from my mother's side and we get along really well. Moreover my aunt helps me in my studies and we have a great bond. So this one time I was stuck in a study problem. I don't used to go to school much of the times because of some bullying issues but at the end at the time of exams I was really stressed about how I will learn everything in my syllabus for the exams since they were board exams and I had to be prepared because I didn't know anything that would be coming in the exams. So I decided to talk to her about it. At first she gave me an opinion about going through everything the whole syllabus in my books and learning it but I thought how would that even work still she insisted and I did that. At first I had problem in beginning from the beginning but slowly I got a hang of it. Additionally during my exams I took help from her and she taught me many topics since she also opted humanities in 12th and I scored really well in my exams. Although I have hard times implementing two opinions but her opinions are well understood.

    Band 6-7

    Yes, it was my professor, Mr. Amit Batra, who had given me advice upon my project work which I had done on marketing events which take place in hospitality industry. He was mesmerized and he said that my project was the best compared to the others and was also awarded a trophy of the best student because he feels that I have consistency, I have confidence but I lack in time management. It is the only way he said that I shall improve to grow in professionalism because time is one's God, can never be brought back. So whatever I am describing, whatever work I am doing, it must be based upon time and if a person never respects time, he never respects anything else. So that was the only flaw he had found in me that I was not doing well. So other all things, he was very much impressed and my project work was also set up in the notice board of my college.

    Band 6-7

    One of my friends in my career, when we meet during our convocation, she gave me a positive and valuable advice in my life. She said whenever you join an organization, always set limitation boundaries and maintain your decorum. I think she was right on that time because now I realize why it is important in my life and those advice really very helpful today in that time. I really appreciate her. She understands what I need in my future and she also gave me one of the valuable advice to connect people and strong your communication skills because it gave you more opportunity in your career. I strongly believe she was absolutely right because when you connect people, they give you some kind of opportunity for those connections and positive attitude. I think more connections and links gave you a better opportunity.

    Band 6-7

    Yeah, in the year of 2017, I was studying in the intermediate, like 12th class. In that time, the principal called me to the principal's desk and asked me, you have not qualified for the BTEC exam, your score is very low. In that time, I was very depressed about myself. My commissioner called me, his name is Mahesh sir. He's telling about physics in my 12th class. He advised me in a very positive way. Go to home and prepare well. In that time, I realized about myself, okay, I will also study the entrance exam of BTEC. I'll study 45 days without any distractions with focus. And I'm weak in mathematics and I'm strong in physics and chemistry. I leave myself doubted and practice day by day. Some tips my sir given, like logical thinking and how to solve problems, problem solving. Like that, he gave me, you are not an average student, you are a topper, but don't put shortcuts in the hard work, please put your all efforts and try it, you can do it. And after two months of preparation, I gave my exam in 2017. I got 28,000 rank and I got $5,000 scholarship also. In Indian price, it is approximately four to five lakhs and studied well in BTEC. And it's the best time for me.

    Band 6-7

    It was my first tournament of a football when I was teen, especially 13 years old. There was a coach named Dhrumil Pandya. He gave me an advice that if you put all your sweat and blood to achieve a career in football, you will do it. Who is this person? He is my coach. He is the person who is behind me and behind what I am right now. He has made me what I am right now. He said, if you achieve the goal, the people will always appreciate your success, but no one will see your hard work. And this advice affected me because it directly connects with my heart. And I was in shock that, yeah, he's telling right. If you can do it, you have to see the success. If you have to see the success, you have to put hard work. And if you don't put hard work, nothing can be achievable. And it just felt like I am the best right now because the advice what he has given me is the advice which I got from the God. He was an angel for me who gave me the best advice. I would like to share on this advice to the younger generation who are now currently in their team and looking forward to make a career in football. Everyone will appreciate your success, but no one will see your hard work, talent, dedication, passion.

    Band 6-7

    Mr. Keshav, my lecturer in graduation was the English teaching professor. He is the one who inspired me and he is the one who suggested me to concentrate focus on English language. Because of which today I am in a position that I can teach the students of classes senior secondary effectively and they love my teaching.
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