IELTS Cue Card Sample 20 – Topic: An experience you had as a team member

IELTS Cue Card for IELTS Speaking:

Describe a person you were friendly to, although you did not really like them (him or her)/Describe an experience you had as a member of a team.

Describe a person you were friendly to, although you did not really like them (him or her)
You should say:
who this person was
when and where it happened
what the situation was
why you didn’t like this person
and explain why you were (or had to be) friendly to this person
and explain what the results were after you were friendly to this person

Describe an experience you had as a member of a team.
You should say:
where it was
who were the members of the team
what you did together in this team
and explain why you became a member of this team or explain what the purpose of the team was

BAND 9.0 SAMPLE ANSWER:

I would like to describe a person who I had to be friendly to, although I did not really like her. I think this situation is quite common in our lives, especially when we have to act as part of a team.

A couple of months ago, I was assigned to a team at my workplace in order to tackle a big project. As part of the team, I had to cooperate closely with this person. However, we had never really liked each other for several reasons. Firstly, she is much older than I am, so she always thinks she is right and disregards the opinions of others. I would describe her as both bossy and officious, although she did not have a more senior position than I did in the company. Secondly, I considered her irresponsible because she did not appear to me to pay serious attention to the project. So, although it was supposedly a group project, I ended up working all on my own as much as possible in order to see the task through.

As the work was vital for our company, we had to be successful. I therefore had no choice except to collaborate with her in order to finish the job. I would rather have done all the work alone, but if I had refused to work with her as part of the team, then the evaluation of my job performance would have been affected at the end of the year. So, knowing her personality as I did, I swallowed my pride and tried to be patient. Despite our many arguments, we completed the task on time. I learned that sometimes people can work together, even though they don‟t get on with each other. It just needs a little bit of time and patience to work things out, and each person has to compromise to achieve a common goal.

USEFUL VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS FOR IELTS SPEAKING:
 disregard = to pay no attention to something or someone.
 bossy = a bossy person is someone who is always telling other people what to do.
 officious = an officious person is someone who uses their authority or position to give orders to others – another word would be domineering.
 irresponsible = an irresponsible person has no feeling of responsibility for something.
 supposedly = according to what most people think.
 end up = to find yourself in a situation that you did not expect to be in.
 on my own = alone.
 see…..through = if we see something through, we do not give up until it is finished.
 collaborate = to work together with others to achieve something.
 swallowed my pride = to hide my feelings, even though I wanted to express what I was thinking.
 get on with = to get on with someone is to have a friendly relationship with them.
 work things out = to find a solution.
 compromise = to give up some of your ideas in order to come to an agreement with someone.

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