arrow back icon Top Answers

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.

    bulb icon

    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.

    bulb icon

    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.

    bulb icon

    Tip

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

    calendar icon

    IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

    Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

    Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

    location icon

    Pitampura Test Centre, New Delhi

    Answer

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 8

    location icon

    Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

    Answer

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 6.5

    location icon

    Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

    Answer

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7

    location icon

    Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

    Answer

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

    location icon

    CBD Belapur Test Centre, Navi Mumbai

    Answer

    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

    occasion I got engagement and my husband suggested me that when I got results when I get 8.5 in my results my husband praised me so much he and also he said that I need more improvement in my subjects and I need more marks in subjects as I get more subjects and also I can gain more knowledge he said and he advised more effectively he daily advises me to study in study purpose in work purpose in job purpose all he will encourages me he won't discourages me he will he always makes me so proud and when I'm studying also he gives some more suggestions how to study how to read and how to success in exams and how to get good score in exams and and I felt very happy and I felt very happy with my husband's suggestion because after parents to look after me is my husband so I will always listen to my husband's suggestions because his is more important in my life when I listen to his suggestions then only I will get more more important lessons in life so I felt very happy

    Band >7

    A person who has given me a positive advice about my career was one of my school teachers. Her name is Shiny. She taught me English in my school and she's one person who supported me to be an English teacher. I always wanted to teach children, though teaching was seen as not important or not a good job in my family or in my society. Everyone wants to be a doctor or an engineer. So I did not get a lot of support from people around me except for Shiny teacher. She supported me from the very beginning. She said we are in need of teachers, especially English teachers. There is a lot of availability in the job. You have to go for it. You don't have to worry about what others say because they are not the ones who are taking care of your life. This is your own life and you have to do what you are passionate about because if you go and do something which you are not interested in, you will not be able to do well in that field. So please make sure that you do what you want to do. You will be good at it and being an English teacher is a respectable job. It's going to be amazing to be a teacher and she advised me a lot and helped me in the matter. I will always remember her. She is still in contact with me. She still calls me whenever she is free and asks me how everything is going and whenever I have any need, I do approach her and she helps me in all the matters. Till today, she is my greatest support to be an English teacher and she is the one who has inspired me to be an English teacher also. It's looking at her that I am going to take up this field to be a teacher and I am really excited about my future.

    Band >7

    Since my childhood I've just had one dream of going abroad to study and just grab and gain a lot of experience and opportunities that studying abroad has to offer. Just recently there was a debate going on at my home regarding whether or not I should go abroad to study or if I should just settle back here in India. And that led to a pretty big conversation between my parents, my brother and I while we were sitting across the dining table and discussing. And that is when my parents and my brother gave me a really good advice that made me think if just going abroad is the goal or is it something else. So they told me that no matter where you go, no matter how you go, what matters is your education.

    Band 7

    Since my childhood, I was a weak student in academics. I did not have any interest on pursuing my master's degree in abroad. Somehow I managed to do my undergrad in computer science just because my parents forced me to do it. The other day, my father came to me, sat with me and he started knowing things about me. He started to give some advices. He said that any job, any nature of work can give money but it's only your studies, your academics that will give you respect among society. From the time I listened to his advice, I was very curious to learn to do my master's degree in United States. I started to explore which would suit me the best to do my master's. And I was able to figure out that cyber security is the best path for me to lead my career because I was always interested to know how technology works behind the scenes in terms of protecting data and digital world. And then I started to shortlist universities to apply for it. I have also given my IELTS exam in which I secured 8 band score. The day my father gave me advice, that triggered me and now I am in a good position. I have completed my master's. I am in a good job.

    Band 7

    I recently had a session with my supervisor who advised me to not evaluate my work performance based on the number of revisiting clients and follow-up consultations that I had. What was immediately helpful was it could help me focus on my current sessions by being present with my client here and now with them. I was able to focus on what they were saying and give them immediate feedback and reflect their thoughts and feelings more acutely. My supervisor has been very effective in guiding me and providing me with relevant advice whenever I need it. My supervisor also has been a person of strength and support for me, a source of wisdom as well as a source of emotional comfort. The most immediate effect that I saw was in my practice when I was able to reflect better, I started getting more positive feedback and this in turn helped me lower my anxiety in the session by not thinking about my performance. I conversely improved my performance. Ironically, performance anxiety has been seen as a source of motivation, however, literature suggests that performance anxiety has a negative impact on performance. Furthermore, I'd like to add that if I continue taking this advice, I'd be able to be more acutely aware of other anxieties that I may have that may play a role in how I reflect my client's feelings.

    Band 7

    So my dad was the person who input positivity and inspiration in me regarding to my studies. It was when after my 11th grade when I scored low marks in my 11th grade examination. And I felt pretty depressed about it. So my dad was the one who advised me on how I could improve my grades. Moreover, he also told me where I lack and what changes I need to do in myself to do my studies better and perform well in exams. I felt a lot of inspiration after his advice and I realized that I was on the wrong path and what all mistakes I was doing due to which my grades were not improving. He also told me that other than my study methods, my attitude towards the study should also be improved. He thought that my attitude towards how I approach things was not so good. He was an inspiring person for me and will always be. His advices and recommendations to my study and work are always beneficial to me. Thank you.

    Band 6-7

    Okay, so it recently happened with me, so right now I'm in the third year of my graduation. So what happened was, I was just, it's actually my uncle, so we were just at home and he came, so we were just, you know, just deciding what, having a conversation about what I'm going to be doing next and then I was actually about, I was thinking that I would prefer or I would choose to do an, give an entrance exam called as IIT-Shan and then I would do an MSc in organic chemistry because that is the subject that I like the most, so I thought I would be doing that. So, but then he gave me a different perspective of how I can, you know, take another path. He gave, in that moment, I can literally, okay, so that moment, it changed my perspective towards what I'm going to do now. Now, so what he said actually was, you can also try for the pharmaceutical industry and it is a growing sector in India and which is true that it is a really interesting sector. It is related with the chemistry as well, so it's in my field and so that's when I started to looking up with the courses of different pharmaceutical courses in the, which are out there. I found some of them, some in the, like, through scholarships, commonwealth scholarships, there are some courses in the ICT as well, so they have different entrance exams for it. So, it just genuinely affected me and I think right now, it's a better option than doing an MSc. So, yeah, that's, it was genuinely a very helpful suggestion that he gave me. It was a very sudden and spontaneous one, but it was genuinely helpful and I'm looking forward to it.

    Band 6-7

    Today I am talking about the person who gave me a suggestion about my work after completing my studies. Her name is Tisila Benjamin. She is my internship supervisor. I worked with her for a duration of six months. I finished my Master's. At the end of my Master's, I did my Master's internship with her. During this time, she helped me. She gave me suggestions on what to do, what kind of jobs to search for during your job search, related to your Master's or related to this current internship program. She told me that my work is experimental. She told me that I have to conduct experiments and take results. Based on that, I have to validate and write a report based on the results. She told me that I have to search for a job like a testing engineer or a research engineer. After completing my internship, I got my job after six months. She is very happy with the job that I got. In France, it is very difficult to get a job. I have to learn English and French at the same time. She helped me a lot. She even taught me how to speak and how to crack an interview in French. Some of the interviews I have given in French. Later, in the technical interviews, I performed in English. Why did I perform in English? All my Bachelor's courses in India as well as Master's courses in France are all in English. That's why it is difficult to find a job.

    Band 6-7

    In one occasion, when someone gave me a positive advice, he was very polite, his name Rahul, he suggested me, son please do LLB, LLB scope a lot of there in the world, so that suggestion is very useful for me and I have completed LLB last year, so that's good advice for me he gave me, so I will thank him, so thank you so much.

    Band 6-7

    There was a time that I have been there sitting and doing nothing and here where my father came to me and started to advise me about reading more. Actually reading is an unmatchable habit that I didn't gain it while being, when I was younger. So I did this, I listened to him and he suggested some websites for me. It was amazing. First I was, just to be honest, I was bored by the content and the topic of books I used to read. But after all, I managed to search on web for other websites that can suggest top rated books. They are joyful and I can keep reading without being uninterested, uninterested.
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
    ielts logo

    Get the IELTS Prep App

    Star rating icon

    4.2

    1M+ Installs

     app download banner image

    Get the app link on your phone

    +91

    Or download app from

    google play storeapp store
    master ielts speaking ad