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IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card.

Describe a person you know who gave a clever solution to a problem.

You should say:

• who that person was
• what the problem was
• what solution he/she gave

and explain why you think it was a clever solution.

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you're going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

Model Answer 1:

People say that there are some people who are book smart while there are the others who are street smart. But, sometimes, I think that the street smart persons come handier than the others. After all, it was the street smart person, who gave me a clever solution to a problem, and this is his story.

Kyle and I attended the same school and the same classes. Kyle, a very street smart boy, didn’t really like to go to the school on a regular basis. Instead, he would rather like to roam around here and there with his friends – friends who were just as smart as him. As for me, I liked going to school and attending the classes, but what I never liked was to carry a load of books in my backpack from home to school and then to home again every day, either because I was physically weak or because I was a bit too lazy. But, whatever was that the reason, I was desperately trying to find a solution to this book carrying problem.

So, I asked Kyle for a solution, and in response, he simply told me to give him some money (that I had saved from my tiffin money). Then, he told me to wait for a couple of days. Up and until that point, I had no clue what his plan was with my money, but exactly after two days, Kyle handed me another set of school books and told me to keep them at my school locker. Apparently, he bought those books with my money, and the idea was that I would keep one set of the book at home and the other set at my school locker so that I wouldn’t really need to carry the books again from home to school and vice versa.

Anyway, the solution was simply brilliant and very clever considering our age. It was smart also because it wouldn’t only help me save my breath, but would also save me the time to organize them at home. Besides, the solution also gave me ideas about what else I could have done with my saved up tiffin money.

Sample Answer 2:

It was Mr Simpson who gave me a smart solution to a problem I was in. In fact, without his help, I would not have been able to get rid of the predicament. With his extraordinary intelligence, he helped me out and I am grateful to him. This is a very smart candidate task card and I am honoured to have it in my share. I will answer it in brief now.

I was having trouble with my cell phone charging back up time. It was a trouble for me and I could not get the right power backup as I was supposed to get. Battery draining was a very common issue with this phone set. So, I had to remain worried about my mobile phone charging issue. I barely used the phone lest the charge is lost. But Mr Simpson advised me to follow some charge cycles and also asked me to change the phone charger. I never thought of the issue. And to my surprise, it worked very well.  

Mr Simpson is my neighbour and works as an IT expert at a local company. I have a good relationship with him and share my issues to get his valuable suggestions. Being an Android user, it is really hard when you have a phone and you cannot use it. I was experiencing the matter and I shared the fact with him to get some solutions. He asked me to change the charging adapter and also to install an application to complete charging cycle.

It was a clever solution indeed. In fact, I was planning to change my phone set. If I would not get the solution, I would have changed the phone within a couple of days. But following the instructions, I was able to get back a better battery backup.

More Ideas to talk about this Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card topic:

Topic: Describe a person you know who gave a clever solution to a problem.

1. Samuel is one of my cousins and he lives in the same area where I live in the UK. A few months ago, I was in trouble with one of my college mates. He was an irritating character and I did not want to keep his company. But I could not find any suitable solution. Samuel told me not to avoid him, and that would be harmful. He advised me to maintain an ordinary relationship with him. I did so. And finally found that it was not irritating anymore. It was a smart solution from Samuel.

2. Roberto is my college friend, here in Spain, and he gave me a clever solution to completing an assignment. I was in trouble to get the idea for assignment completion. In fact, I could not have the slightest idea of what to do. So, I sought help from Roberto. He suggested me to get in the library and check similar other projects to generate an idea. I was amazed at his suggestion. Later, I got an idea and implemented that.

3. Maria gave me a very smart solution for my mobile phone problem. I was in deep trouble with my phone set and did was not working properly. Often it came to a standstill position and took long times to resume on its functionality. Maria suggested me to reset the phone. She also told that it might be happening for longer use. So, I reset the phone and never had such issues anymore. It was an intelligent solution for me.

4. Mr Anigato, my superior at the office in Kyoto, gave a very smart solution to a problem. Actually, my recent presentation theme caused serious trouble for me. I could not organize them in order and I was to present them at the board meeting of my office. So, I asked my boss to provide some solutions. He advised me to track the priority of the issues and I did so. Later, I found that I completed the task smoothly. It was an intelligent resolution indeed. 

5. I did not know what to do when there was a problem with my computer at the office. So, I asked the IT specialist to take care of the issue. He simply asked me to run a virus check. I doubted on the matter. And also thought that the man might be escaping his job. But I found that he was true. My computer was affected by numerous types of virus and the anti-virus cleaned everything. After that, I have been working smoothly with the machine. It was a great solution.

Similar other cue card topics that you should be able to answer with your preparation for this cue card topic:

1. Describe someone intelligent you know.
2. Describe a person who does something well.
3. Describe a recent event when you took someone's advice.
4. Describe a problem you have recently faced.
5. Describe a time when you had to work hard to solve a problem.
6. Describe a recent success you have achieved. 

• IELTS Cue Card
• Candidate Task Card

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