Describe a time when you helped a friend
IELTS CUE CARD TOPIC
Describe a time when you helped a friend
When it was?
How you helped him/her?
Why you helped him/her?
How did you feel about it?
NOTE – The examiner gives you one minute to plan your answer, and to help you prepare for the topic, the examiner provides you with a pencil and a notepad. You’ll have to answer the questions given on the topic for one-to-two minutes
Sample Answer 1
Introduction
- True friendship fills your life with joy.
- It thrives primarily on love and support provided by friends to each other.
- Although I have provided support to my friends many times, one instance is worth sharing.
When it was?
- Last month due to the corona pandemic, my city was in a state of lockdown.
- During that time, my friend Andrew needed my help as he was unwell.
- Although the administration banned stepping out of homes, I managed to help my friend.
How you helped him/her?
- Andrew is my bosom friend and my next-door neighbour too.
- He had called me and told me that he is having severe pain in his throat coupled with a high fever.
- Immediately I had gone to his home and picked him to take him to the nearby hospital.
- Since his symptoms were of Corona disease, I wore a PPE Kit to protect myself.
- When we had stepped out of our society in the car, the local police stopped us.
- Despite repeated requests, the concerned policeman was not allowing us to go further.
- My friend’s health condition was deteriorating.
- I immediately send a message to the Commissioner of police on his Twitter handle.
- I explained the whole scenario in the message.
- After 10 minutes, I received a permission letter on my phone.
- We reached the hospital. The doctor gave him treatment.
- Upon reaching home, we both quarantined ourselves.
- After 2-3 days, Andrew recovered.
- Moreover, the report of the corona test for both of us turned out to be negative.
- We both had a sigh of relief.
Why you helped him/her?
- I helped him because I believe helping each other in tough times is our bounden duty.
How did you feel about it?
- When Andrew had recovered, I felt like I did a great job by taking the risk of going out during lockdown to help my friend.
Sample Answer 2
Introduction:
- Being an altruist person, I have this habit of helping others
- Due to this habit, I regularly help others
When it was?
- Recently I got an opportunity to help one of my friends
- One of my friends named Stephen was finding it quite difficult to crack the maths examination of 12th standard
- He made three attempts but failed every time
- Since I was good at mathematics, I decided to provide him support
Why you helped him/her?
- Being his bosom friend, for me helping him was my bounden duty.
How you helped him/her?
- I started devoting two hours every day with him.
- While teaching him, I realized that he was hardworking.
- He used to put his 100 % in studies by learning with determination, dedication and discipline.
- But his efforts were not converting to fruitful results.
- After a week, I realized that his mathematics basics were unclear.
- For one week, I taught his mathematics from scratch.
- He had burnt midnight oil during this one week and gave his best.
- The process of learning the basics of mathematic as a teenager is a bit boring, but I made it interesting for him.
- After that, his performance started improving, and he started getting good score in the mock tests.
- He did three months of rigorous practice under my guidance.
- Although he was nervous while taking the exam, he passed it with flying colours.
And how you felt about it?
- I had a sigh of relief
- Since I was teaching someone for the first time, I was not that confident.
- However, when the result was in our favour, we both were jubilant.
Sample Answer 3
Introduction
Being an altruist person, I have this habit of helping others. And when it is about helping my friends, I leave no stone unturned. Recently I got an opportunity to help my friend.
When it was?
At the beginning of 2021, my friend Tina called me. She told me that she was in a state of depression for few months. The reason was her burgeoning weight. She wanted me to help her in her weight loss journey.
How you helped him/her?
Like Tina, I was also an obese person a few years back. However, by working hard on my fitness, I managed to lose weight.
To put Tina on the right trajectory, I taught her the science of weight loss from scratch.
She believed that for effective weight loss rigorous exercise is a must. My primary task was to change her belief.
When I told her that she needs to focus more on her diet than exercise to reduce weight, her reaction was shocking.
However, on my persistence, she started following my diet plan.
She started taking all meals between 7 am and 7 pm, coupled with a daily walk for one hour.
Moreover, she refrained from consuming sugar and wheat flour.
After following the path shown by me, she lost 20 kgs weight in six months.
Why you helped him/her?
I helped Tina because, during my tough times, she always provides me with unabated support.
How did you feel about it?
I was in a state of euphoria because my knowledge and experience brought a paradigm shift in my bosom friend’s life.
Sample Answer 4
Introduction
Friends are an integral part of our life. Whether we are going through a purple patch or a lean patch in our lives, we like to discuss it with our friends. Being an altruist person, I regularly help others.
Recently I helped one of my friends to come out of depression.
When it was?
Last year my friend Andrew lost money in business. Due to failure, he had lost faith in his ability and started blaming himself.
When I came to know about this, I provided unabated support to Andrew.
How you helped him/her?
Andrew is my bosom friend since childhood. He used to be the topper of the class, and he has this uncanny knack for going beyond the conventional domain to gain success in life.
Due to this habit, he experimented a lot in his business and failed miserably.
I helped him by restarting his office. For one month, I worked with him in this business venture and made him know his mistake.
While working with me, he realized that he could have done his work with determination, dedication, and discipline rather than experimenting a lot.
That one month led to a paradigm shift in his thinking, and now his business is back on track, and he is in a state of euphoria.
Why you helped him/her?
I helped him because, during my tough times, he always helps me.
How did you feel about it?
I felt good because, with my efforts, I had led my friend’s career towards an impressive growth trajectory.
Sample Answer 5
Introduction:
Since my childhood, my parents have always taught me to go beyond the conventional domain to help others. Due to their teachings, I always try to help others whenever someone is in need.
When it was?
Last year my friend told me to take care of his home in his absence.
Why you helped him/her?
During that time, a lot of burglaries were happening in our area. My friend had to attend an urgent interview for a plum job with a multinational company. Since no one was there to take care of his home in his absence, I decided to help him.
How you helped him/her?
Due to the corona pandemic, I was working from home those days. For one week, I shifted to my friend’s house in his absence.
My primary duty was to save the house from burglary. To do so I used to lock all the doors and windows before going to the bad.
Apart from this, I took extreme care of his garden. He had numerous vegetables, fruits and flowers planted in his garden area. I would water the plants every day to keep them in a good shape.
While staying there, I found that his rear lawn was in a bad condition. Every evening I would clean it and plant something for its revival. With my efforts, I managed to bring it back to its original shape.
And how you felt about it?
I felt good after fulfilling my promise. Because I was able to hand over my friend’s house to him in mint condition.
Moreover, I gained extreme pleasure by helping him.
Follow up Questions
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 time when you helped a friend”.
1. How do people usually help each other?
People usually help each other by providing support to each other during happy as well as tough times. The support could be either monetary or non-monetary. Like providing money, goods or services to your near and dear ones in case of a requirement.
2. How is online help different from real-life help?
In this era of digitalisation, there is not much of a difference between online and real-life help. Because in case you want to offer your services personally by going to the person’s place then real-life help is the only option. Otherwise, the benefits served from both options are more or less the same.
3. Should school be responsible for teaching students how to cooperate?
I think the onus of teaching the students how to cooperate should be on the schools, parents and society. Because students spend around eight hours in the school, the rest of the time they spend with their family or in the company of their near and dear ones.
4. What are the differences between help from friends and help from family?
The help from family is more prompt and regular because our family is emotionally attached to us. Whereas, help from friends is also available in case of a need, but that is not as speedy as help from the family.
5. Do you like helping others?
Being an altruist, and philanthropic person, I find extreme satisfaction in helping others. Therefore whenever someone known to me is in need, I always try to help that person.
6. Should parents teach helping others to their children?
Yes, because the habit of helping others is important to lead a happy and fruitful life. Moreover, learning this habit in childhood from parents help the kids to inculcate this practice in their routine. Hence, when they grow up in life, they turn out to be responsible citizens.
7. Do you think nowadays people do more good work as compared to the past?
Most people of this era are doing more good work as compared to the past. Because they are getting unabated support from the technology. People sitting in one corner of the world can provide support to a person staying in a remote area through the internet. Such kind of facilities was not available two years back.
8. Will you help others in the future?
Being an altruistic person, I have this habit of helping others. In future also, I will be helping others.
9. How do you encourage children to help others?
Children follow the examples set by their parents and teachers. Therefore to motivate the children to help others, parents and teachers must join hands and help the underprivileged people. Upon seeing them helping others, Children too would develop this habit.
10. How do world social organizations such as Red Cross collect their funds worldwide?
A major portion of their collection comes from digital advertisements. Red-cross effectively utilizes the power of the internet to strengthen its exchequer.
11. Do small non-government organizations always need big organizations’ help or can they collect funds themselves?
In this modern era where technology has made inroads in our lives, small charitable organisations need not be dependent on big organisations to collect funds. They can do so at their end by utilizing the services of the right technology.
12. Do you think people in your country should help foreigners who are visiting your country and who need help? (Why? / Why not?)
Yes because as per our culture, for us a guest is akin to a god. People of my country are philanthropic and altruistic by nature. In our culture, a tourist is a guest for all the denizens. This practice is there for ages. As per our religious texts, it is the bounden duty of every resident to help the guests.
13. What is the most important way for a country to help foreigners who are visiting the country?
The central focus of a foreigner while visiting another county is on safety. Therefore, all the citizens should offer unabated support to foreigners. Moreover, we must help them to gain knowledge about our culture. This way we can make cordial relationships with foreign tourists.
14. Many people only look out for themselves and never think about helping others. What do you think of this attitude?
This attitude is detrimental to the welfare of society. Because human beings are social animals, we need each other’s support for our survival.