Describe a situation when you helped someone IELTS Cue Card

IELTS CUE CARD TOPIC

Describe a situation when you helped someone
You should say:

What the situation was
Who the person was
How you helped them
And explain how you felt after helping him/her.

Sample 1

Being a generous person, I love to help others, and there have been many situations when I have provided unabated support. One of them is a unique experience and hence worth mentioning. Two years back, one of my friends told me that he had failed his English exam and could not apply to college.

He came to me for support because since childhood, I’ve always got good marks in English, and since he was a bosom friend, I tried to help him.

And to do that, firstly, I analyzed his problem. His problem was that he needed to improve his grammar, although he had a good knowledge of tenses. Applying them in actual life situations was challenging for him. So, I started from the basics.

First, I taught him the parts of the speech. Then, we worked on tenses. I told him how to use various kinds of tenses. You can use a present simple tense to talk about daily regular actions and a present continuous tense for ongoing actions. And every day, I practiced with him for two to three hours.

Sometimes, I would go to his home. Sometimes, we would do it online. The help provided worked like a charm because he passed his English exams with flying colors and was immediately admitted to the college; he was pleased.

And I also felt good because my knowledge provided a platform for a person to get ahead in life. And I also learned that I could work as an English trainer. So after that, I started offering English tuition at my home, and now I make good money from that. Lastly, that experience was good for me and will remain in my memories.

Sample 2

Being a generous person, I always provide unabated support to others.
And one year back, one of my neighbors came to me, and he was in abysmal condition because of being overweight. He had to join a job,
but due to being overweight, he was rejected.

Since I am good at maintaining health, he contacted me, and I decided to help him. For that, I made a routine for him for eating and exercising.
Moreover, I told him bluntly that losing weight thrives primarily on a combination of diet and adequate exercise. Diet contributes 80%, and exercise contributes 20%.

So further, I suggested he take all the meals between sunrise and sunset. So, every day, he started having breakfast at 7, lunch at 1 pm, and dinner at around 6 pm. And with me, he used to go for a walk every morning and every evening for one hour each. Initially, he got no result, but after 15 days, he felt light. Within three months, he lost around 15 kg.
In six months, he lost around 25 kg.

He started looking like a fit person. Then he went for a job interview, and he cleared it. He got the job with a good salary package. That was a plum job. My initiative helped him live a good life, and I felt very good about it because my advice worked like a charm for him.

Sample 3

I remember a few occasions when I tried to help other people; there was a particular event when I helped a low-income family during COVID-19. As we all know, COVID-19 hit us very badly, and many people were becoming unemployed, and some of them had to give up their jobs.

And there was one family. Five family members were near my house, and the head of the family was a mechanic. And I knew him because I used to go to his shop if I had any problem with my bike, so I liked to go there. He liked to repair it within no time, and sometimes he charged me for a big problem, and sometimes he did not charge if there was any short problem.

So yes, during COVID, he had to give up his job and had no other source to earn money. Hence, he was looking for help. He asked for help from other people, so I felt very bad when I learned about his situation. I talked to my mother about it, and she said we should help him. My mother gave me some money, and I went to the shop and bought groceries for him for one month.

I went to his house, and I gave him all the groceries and snacks. I felt very satisfied and very pleased after helping him. He was very thankful to his family for treating me like I was their dear one, and I was very blessed because it was the first time I had helped someone, and I came to know how satisfying it is to help someone.

Follow-ups

Here are some examples of follow-up questions that the examiner might ask during your speaking part 3 related to the cue card “Describe a situation when you helped someone ”.

1. Should people be very kind when they help others?

Yes, kindness is an important attribute to have. If you exhibit it, others feel good and satisfied. Moreover, they take you as a positive person, and the support they receive from you makes more sense.

2. Should children be taught to be kind to others?

Yes, people from all walks of life should teach children to be kind to others because if the kids develop the habit of helping others in the budding years, then they come out to be responsible citizens when they grow up, and this creates a good society where people look forward to each other to provide unabated support during unforeseen contingencies.

3. Should parents help their kids with their homework?

Parents should help the kids with their homework because, in the formative years, the children need their parents’ support. When parents do this, then they remain more attached to the children, and they can understand their child’s psychology in a better way. So, it bridges the gap between parents and children and creates a cordial relationship between them.

4. What kind of advice should parents give to their children?

Parents should provide positive guidance to the children, like setting goals, setting deadlines, and working with determination, dedication, and discipline.

5. Should parents give children advice and why?

Yes, parents should advise children because a sizable portion of their childhood is spent with their parents, and as we know, we become the average of five people we meet or interact with. So, cheerful and practical advice from parents can help children lead their lives toward an impressive growth trajectory.

6. Can kids provide any help to parents?

Yes, kids can significantly help their parents by doing household chores like mopping, dusting, etc. They can also help their parents in challenging situations by minimizing their expenditures. They should also create a good environment inside the house so parents can focus on their work.

7. Do you like helping others?

Yes, I like helping others because since childhood, I have had this habit of providing unabated support to others, and I feel good doing that. Moreover, it helps me to connect with people because I’m a social butterfly.

8. In your view, should children be taught to help others?

Yes, certainly. We should teach children to help others because that leads to a good society where people work harmoniously and get enough support during challenging situations.

9. How can we encourage children to help others?

There is no denying this conviction that children do not follow the advice. They follow the examples. So, to motivate children to help others, we should set a good precedent by helping the people around us, and when the elders do so, children follow them.

10. Do you think people are less willing to help others these days compared to the past?

Yes, people of the contemporary epoch remain too busy in their work due to fierce competition and spiralling inflation. Due to that, they need more time to help others. They are also less willing because people run after instant gratification, so they must pay more attention to helping others.

11. Do people trust others as much as they used to in the past?

The trust level has declined considerably in the last few decades, and this is because society has become comfort-oriented, and most people run towards raking in big bucks. So, to do that, they dupe other persons and indulge in fraud. That’s why the society has become less trustworthy these days.

12. How do people in your community help one another?

People in my community help each other by sharing rides, helping people with household chores, and especially providing financial support to their neighbours in case of unforeseen contingencies.

13. In what ways can volunteering benefit both the volunteer and the community?

They can get many benefits from volunteering related to specific work. First of all, they get motivated because they have experience helping someone. They also know how to share and care for each other.

And they know teamwork because sometimes they work as a volunteer in a team. Apart from that, they will be punctual in their work and be more disciplined in their life because when they work with other people, they know how discipline is essential to everyone.

14. Do you believe governments should do more to encourage citizens to engage in acts of kindness and help others?

Yes. The government can take some measures to support volunteer work and increase the number of people doing this type of work by arranging some kinds of awareness programs, which are very important for the community.

If the community knows their neighbours and the people staying with them in the same community how important it is for them, then they are more aware and willing to help each other.

15. How can schools promote a culture of cooperation among students? Schools should encourage collaboration with students by managing many things. First, they have to do volunteer work, like planting some trees and knowing how we can help each other.

It is essential for them because these are the skills they know from their generation, and then they have an all-around development in their future because they know the benefits of volunteer work. They have a lot of benefits, as they get motivated.

Apart from that, when they start from a very young age, they have a lot of experience for the future, like at a later age, which is very important for their work.

16. What role can technology play in facilitating acts of kindness and helping others?

Technology also plays a crucial role in increasing kindness in society because people have a lot of social media apps on their phones. They can watch different types of volunteer work and grow through them. Apart from that, they also want to join some NGOs online and increase to help them.

Sometimes, they can share their work while doing it, and sometimes, they can donate money to support others.

17. What are some situations where helping others might have led to problems?

In my life, I didn’t get this type of experience when I helped someone, which led to trouble. Still, one of my friends told me that sometimes she helped one of the people to give her some money because her friend told her he needed some money to buy some books.

Still, he used that money to take some drugs, and when she found out about it from her parents at that time, she was very stressed. Because she thought that she had given the money to help him, but she used her money for the wrong purposes. I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s true.