IELTS Speaking Part 2: team project

Describe a team project that you worked on. You should say:

• what it was
• 
what you did
• 
and how you felt about it.

Example answer (band 9):

I’d like to talk about a team project that I was involved in during my final term at business school. There were four of us on the team, and our task was to work with a local company to research a new market, in a European country, for one of their products or services. Our objective was to produce a report and give a presentation.

The first thing we did was split into two groups of two. We had been assigned a company that produced a range of bicycle accessories, so two of us spent some time getting to know the company while the other two researched the market and the competitors in the target country, which was Germany. In the end, I think it was a successful project because we managed to identify a possible gap in the market in Germany for one of the company’s products. Our group presentation also went really well.

Until that point, the course had been all about business theory, so it was quite a learning experience to work with a real company. I felt a real sense of accomplishment when we handed in our report and delivered our presentation, and I think all of us were proud of what we had done.

Comments

[ZIAUL HUDA]

Hai,
Simon
You have used excellent phrases in your description. It is really helpful to ielts students.

[James]

SAMPLE ANSWER

I'm going to talk about a recent project in film-making class where we had to make a short movie,a documentary of sorts, on any topic we wanted.

My team picked the topic of exploring TV advertising trends through the decades as we thought it would be quite amusing to compare the different styles and forms of commercials over the years. Although the project turned out very well and I was pleased with the final result, I felt disappointed in the lack of communication between team members.

Because of everything I had going on during the semester, I had opted not to be the group leader, which on looking back may have been an error on my part. Unfortunately, some of the group members failed to turn in their research on time, and our leader did not proactively follow up with them about it. After we started to fall behind the schedule we had mapped out, I decided to jump in and map out a new timeline for our team so we could get the project completed by the deadline. It was clear that the film editing would be very time consuming so the tasks were broken into distinguishable parts and assigned to pairs to finish.

In the end, we managed to get everything done with time to spare but most of our work ended up being during the busiest week of the term for me and for some of the other members, so I wish the communications had been more organized and thorough earlier on. The lesson I learned from this experience is to ensure that I am an active participant even when I am not the leader, which can maximize my relationships within the group and improve my skills along with those of other team members.

[emam]

Hi every body,
I wont to share this cue card question and I hope you fine it helpful.
Describe the street you use to live in when you were young .
where is this street.
How it HAS changed.
How you FEEL about this change.

I lived in Alsahafa street until I was 12, when my father got a better job and we could afford to move to a nicer part of capital Khartoum\Sudan. Neverhteless, I still felt attached to my old home untile I returned there 3 years later.

Alsahafa street as I remembered, it was a warm, neighborly place with some of ageing blocks that needs renovation.I t was also considerably saver place to live, with relatively little crime compared to other part areas.
Today, however the street changed beyond recognition .Most of the old building have been torn down and replaced by newer, more spacious construction.Unlike before there are no children playing in the street a sign the crime rate are higher and people are more cautious , in addition,there are now shops in the ground floor of nearly every block.

I have mixed feeling about this change, I believe that Alsahafa street was a better place to live in three years ago when there was acommunity spirit,a friendly chat or a pice of advice and i would love it again as it use to be.
good luck for you exams.

[Zaineb]

Hello Simon
thanks for your lovely site
today i got my result and i acheive required bands.
My heartly thanks to you because that was not possible without your site and ebook.[don't know where to post comments that's why writing here]
Finally i can apply for my ORE exam...
Thanks alot

[Simon]

Congratulations Zaineb! I'm glad my site helped!

[beatrix2355]

Today my dreams came true
Listening: 8.5
Reading: 7.5
Writing: 7.5
Speaking: 7.5
Overall: 8.0
Thank you:)

[rose]

CONGRATS
Lets share with us , how do you prepare for your exam

[Soha]

Good evening to all of you,

I would like to talk about a team project which I participated in 2 years ago during my working in my current company as an HR Advisor. The project main task is to create a whole job profile to each employee in the company. We were a team of 9 members and our mission is to collect all relative data to each group of jobs and to create a” Job Profile “for all the company employees.

I was the group leader of this team and I started to divide the 6 members into 2 groups, each group has its own duties and responsibilities. The first group of us was responsible about meeting with employees and to ask them questions bout their day to day tasks and write the date and then meet with the supervisors to confirm the collected date from each employee.

The second group was in charge about writing and developing all collected data and creates whole Job Profile for each group of jobs and craft the requirements for any new job and all related information such as the salary scale and career path of each job in the company.

I believe this project was not only such an amazing experience for all the team members but also it was very beneficial to the company as from this point, we were able to contact with almost 1000 employee of the company and to get to know more about more colleagues and their job’s nature.

From the company perspective, we were also able to develop other products out of this project, such as adjusting the salary scale for several jobs, also develop a clear career path of each group of jobs.

At the end of the project, we were recognized as the best team of the year and were prized a trip to Thailand where all the team members were very happy and proud of their excellent job.

[Soha]

Hi Emam,

Your example is excellent and i tried to simulate your way : Please have a look.

I used to live in El Tahrir Street, It is located in down town Cairo-Egypt, The Street was quite busy yet was the neighborhood for the upper middle class during this period. The street was neat and clean all the time. I lived in this street since I was a child till the age of 22 until after my graduation when I got an opportunity to work and live in the USA.
After 5 years I returned back to visit my family and friends who are still living there, and I found several unexpected changes .

El Tahrir Street had several unique old buildings and houses, all these building have been replaced with contemporary ones which completely changed the significance of the street. I also noticed that there was a huge difference in my neighbor’s attitude. People became unsociable as they used to be, also you can see small shops for car maintenance and other for craftsmen.

I consider these changes are negative, as I think that El Tahrir Street was a better place to live in and that it lost the most important things which are the sense of community and kindness. But I liked the new buildings although they were the most significant sign in the street but it gives a modern touch for it.

[Emam]

Hello Soha,

Thank you very much.that is my part2 speaking test in which i got 777 except W6 disappointed really as I need 7777 minmum.
I just finish reading your model answer of project it is brilliant and will rate band 9 in case your pronunciation is perfect and you able to tell this story in 2 min

regarding the second one , you did well even better than the original.However,when we talk about habits,like, dislike,facts,opinion and beliefs we use present simple .SO, in your last sentence (but I liked the new building...) I would say that : sentences should't start with @but@ remember this point and secondly, I like instead of I liked.

good luck soha and see you

[Sahar]

Hello Simon,
I have found your valuable website only 5 weeks before my exam, since then I tried to gain benefit from every single word in it. Today I got my test results: L7 R7 W7 S7 Overall 7

This is exactly what I need to pursue my master in Canada. I am so grateful to you and good luck everyone,don't give up.

[Soha]

Hi Emam,

Thank you for your comment and feedback.

For the second model answer,I do not understand this rule,Would you please explain it again ? " sentences should not start with but " ??

Thank you

[Soha]

Hi Sahar,

Please tell us how did you maintain the same level for all sections ? It is so amazing !!

I got 7 in all modules but in a diffrent sittings :) but never got 7 together :(

[Soha]

Hi Emam and everybody,

Any ideas about the follwing Speaking questions will be appeciated.

Describe a leader.

Describe a musuem.

describe a recent news which you har recently.

I have deifficulty in describing any musuem ,may be because i do not like them and i've never visited any on

[Soha]

Dear Emam,

What do you think of exchanging writing samples through e-mail.I can check yours and you can do the same for me??

I need to post an essay but it is not relevant to post it here in the speaking section.

If you agree,Please reply here to send you my e-mail for further comunication

Thanks alot,
Soha

[James]

Hi Soha,

I thought you might like to take a look at this description of a museum which I put together. Hope it contains some ideas, vocabulary and phrases which you find useful :)

Speaking Topic

Describe a museum
• When did you go?
• What was in it?
• How did you feel after going there?

Sample Answer

I'm going to talk about my visit to the Field Museum in Chicago. This took place about a year and a half ago when I traveled to the U.S. with my immediate family. To be honest, initially I was not keen on going to the museum because I do not tend to like such places at all. However, after a little persuasion from my parents, we decided to add it to the itinerary.

On entering, I was amazed by the scale and beauty of this building. The museum was divided into a number of specific areas. The first section was related to great inventions throughout history whereas the other ones focused mainly on paintings, embroidery and sculptures. As I am more fascinated with mankind's monumental accomplishments, I spent extra time exploring these and was greatly impressed to see a large exhibition area devoted to the advent of the computer. There was a massive computer on display, which had been made in the 1960s and took up an entire room. I was taken aback with its weight and size which further helped me to understand why there is such a preoccupation for computer engineers to create ever-smaller technological devices.

After a while, my father came and told me that there were also lots of decorative artwork down in the other sections to appreciate so I readily went off for a look. I clearly remember that the work of old masters and even modern artists from all over the world was exhibited including Greek, Roman and Egyptian. The paintings were incredibly beautiful and many depicted the wonders of different historical ages.

The overall experience at the museum was both eye-opening and breath-taking. I saw numerous majestic exhibits and art collections which revealed the traditions, culture and customs of many races. I think that if I had not visited the museum, I would have missed out on something very unique and worthwhile. I feel that everyone should pay a visit to a museum because it keeps themselves well-informed about the progress of humans and may lead to sparking individuals' creativity for the future.

All the best.

James

[Soha]

Hi James.

Thanks a million for your prompet reply.The model answer is quite excellent and coveres all the points of the question.

I do not know how to thank you on your participation.

Have a nice day

[James]

Thanks for the compliments, Soha.

Just glad if I could help you with some structural and development ideas as well as key vocabulary.

Use some of the language and prompts to help you create your own answer - and I would be happy to check it :)

High Quality Language / Prompts

* took place about.......
* initially I was not keen on............, but / however..........
* amazed by.....
* .....was divided into .......
* The first section was .......... whereas the others focused (mainly) on.........
* .......I spent extra time exploring ..............
* ......was greatly impressed to see ........
* a large exhibition area devoted to........
* I was taken aback with / by .......
* After a while, .........
* lots of decorative artwork ........
* appreciate (something)
* I clearly remember that ........
* old masters / modern artists
* depicted the ..........
* The overall experience was both ....... and ..........
* I saw numerous ...... exhibits and ......... collections

[Soha]

sure I will post it once I prepare it.

Maybe i will describe the Egyptian Museum or Louvre in France.

Thanks again for your kind help

Regards,
Soha

[Emam]

Hi Soha,

What I meant regarding the use of word (but)is we never start a sentence with BUT, because it is a conjunction and is used to join clauses in different ways.

It would be great if we did exchange together. So, here is my E.mail

([email protected])

Best wishes.

[Soha]

Ok will send u an email with my last essay.You too feel free to send me urs.

Have a great evening

[Sahar]

Hi Soha,

I just worked on my weak points in each section, one at a time. I followed Simon's tips and tried to cover the most common writing topics. Make a plan for yourself Soha,one of Simon's precious advices is to stop getting anything new one week before the exam,as it is better to know what you know well than to keep on gathering information that you will not have enough time to revise.
This was my first trial in IELTS,and I realized that there are no surprises in the exam once you are well prepared. For example, the line graph in Task 1 writing was on "the percentage of household car ownership in Britain", was familiar to me because it was among the materials of this valuable website.
I believe reading was the toughest part of the exam and it needs a lot of training.
Good luck Soha

[Soha]

Thank you Sahar for your valuable advice.

I will follow your way and will work on my weakness points.

Many thanks and God bless you.
Have a wonderful day.

[Soha]

Hi James,

Here is my describtion,I have serched for information about the Louvre cause i have never visited it :) Please have a look :

I would like to talk about my visit to Louvre Museum which I visited in my last trip 2 years ago with my friends. Frankly speaking I am not very much interested to visit such historical places, but all my friends instead to visit this place as it the most visited museum in the world, so I thought I can give it a try.

In fact, I read a lot about the Louvre in my History subject during the high school time, but I have never ever imagined how amazing and remarkable it is. The museum is originally a royal palace and it is a must-to-visit for anyone who with a slight interest in art.

The museum has a collection of more than 1 million works of art spread over the 3 wings of the old palace. The museum has a diverse collection of antiques, paintings, drawings, and sculptures. After entering the museum through the Louvre Pyramid, you have access to 3 large wings .the first wing is the oldest and largest part of the museum and it houses enormous collection of the Egyptian antiques from ancient Egypt such as Seated Scribe and the statue of Pharaoh Ramses 2nd.

On the ground floor you can see another attraction which is the statue of Aphrodite or better known as “Venus of Milo”
The second wing displays another huge collection of antiques of the Napoleon 3rd Apartments; it houses a number of decorative arts such as clocks, furniture, and wall-hanging objects

The third wing is one of the most crowded of the three wings because it displays one of the highlights of the museum which is the Mona Lisa, a portrait of a woman by Leonardo Da Vinci. Another star attraction is the Winged Victory statue, it is a Greek marble masterpiece displayed at the prominent spot in the atrium.

It was quite pleasant experience for me and by this time I started to have a great interest in visiting historical places and museums. I could not imagine this beauty of genuine masterpieces of arts and paintings and also the huge number of displayed item all in one place.

[Abdul]

@beatrix2355
Great score mate !
you should be proud , really high score

[James]

Hi Soha,

Quite a solid description of the Louvre Museum - with lots of detail and specific vocabulary.

In fact, it is probably too long for Part II speaking - and should be edited down (you could delete one of the wing descriptions or even just shorten them - this would be fine).

I have reworked some of the sentences and language to sound more natural also.

Reworked Version

I would like to talk about my visit to the Louvre Museum which took place on my last trip to Paris 2 years ago with my friends. Frankly speaking, I am not usually so interested in visiting such historical places, but all my friends were keen on going there as it is one of the most visited museums in the world. As such, I thought I should give it a try.

In fact, I had read a lot about the Louvre in our History class at High School, but never really understood or could imagine how amazing and remarkable it truly is. The museum was originally a Royal Palace and these days it is a "must visit" for anyone with a slight interest in Art.

The museum has a collection of more than 1 million works of Art spread over 3 wings of the former palace. It has a diverse collection of antiques, paintings, drawing and sculptures. After entering the museum through the impressive Louvre Pyramid, you have access to these large wings. The first is the oldest and largest part of the museum which houses an enormous collection of ancient Egyptian antiques such as the Seated Scribe and the Statue of Pharaoh Ramses the 2nd.

On the ground floor you can also see another famous attraction - the statue of Aphrodite also known as "Venus of Milo". The second wing displays a huge collection of antiques from Napoleon the 3rd's Apartments including decorative furnishings such as clock, furniture, and wall-hanging objects.

The third wing is one of the most crowded because it displays the highlights of the museums like the Mona Lisa, the renowned portrait of a woman by Leonardo Da Vinci. A further star exhibit is the Winged Victory statue, which is a Greek marble masterpiece displayed prominently in the atrium.

It was quite a pleasant and valuable experience for me to visit this museum and as a consequence, I have started to develop a great interest in visiting other historical places and galleries. Looking back, I really could not imagine the true, majestic beauty of so many genuine masterpieces of art being displayed all in one place but now I'm glad that I took the chance to explore it.

All the best.

James

[Ielts_Soha]

Hi James,

Yes your edited version is much betetr and looks more natural and easier.

Thanks for your effort and help.

Soha

[Simon]

Some really useful discussion and sharing on this page!

Congratulations Beatrix - fantastic scores!

[ravinder singh]

I would like to talk you about the project which I done in 2004. After completed my college I joined a company which had installation work such as cabling,switch,router and power equipment. I was new and had only two days training.First I was very confused about work but I took it a challenge. There were others colleagues how had experience but they were not supporting me.

First I contacted with costumer and know about his requirement. I saw the place and divide team in two group one is picked material and other is installed the rack. Within two hour I installed all the equipment properly. Last main thing was terminate the power and I never did this type of work before it. I called one of my senior he described about the connection. Finally I done MY Job.

I felt very proud my self. One most important thing I knew due this incident that is if you have will power you can do anything

[candy]

Sr but I can ask : What do "sense of accomplishment" mean

[taqqo]

I would like talk about a team Project that i was involved in during my current job. It was a huge team Project among 100 people included. Our primary aim was to research liquefied natural gas impounding area and target depth was between 1000-1500m from the ground. There were seperate several number of crew which were directly linked to each other, such as layout crew who were responsible for layout the seismic cables on the ground, survey crew which were marking the shot points using by gps. Shooter crew is detonated the dynamite on that marked points. Recording crew was observing the shooted points and seismic data. There were also a technical crew including me who was workins as a Party Manager and was responsible for lead the technical team and supervising all crew’s activities. It was really successful team Project because we have finished the project one month ago before the deadline. I was really happy that we were really successful on that kind of a big project.

[Linh Nguyeen]

hi simon, don't you think your answer is too short. it is only spoken in 1:20

[polly]

Hi!
Ok, today I am going to talk about a team project that I was involved in during the last winter holiday. Actually, it was part of a financial competition held by the Finance Club in our school. The competition was about imitating the global economical market from 2003 and 2013. In the competition, the jury valued the price of stock of each company represented by each team and informed them their problems in finance or management, which would affect the price, and the winner was the one with highest stock price in 2015.

There were 5 of us and the first thing we did was to make an agreement on each one's role and I was the spokewoman of our company. My job involved telling other companies and 3 media which were also represented by competitors about our innovations in products, resolutions to the problems and our future plans and, of course, answering their questions. The job was crucial as it was a bridge that connected the company with others and I tried my best to leave a positive image on the media, since their reports let the jury know our company's progress and the more positive they were, the higher the stock price we would attain. Sometimes their questions were quite triky and it was impossible to prepare all the questions they would ask.
In general, I feel that the job was very stressful since the questions were unpredictable and I need to respond to the changing environment very quickly, but it was interesting at the same time. It was about persuading people and propomoting my company's image by a bit of exaggerating and making comparison with others. It gave me a huge sense of achievement if the reports turned out to be beneficial.

May I have a feedback of my answer, such as my grammar mistakes or misuses of words or tense, which would be a great help? Thanks a lot!! Looking forward to your reply.

[Xuan Vu]

Hi all, I'm looking for partner to practice speaking. I'm aiming at 7.5. My current is 7.0. Please feel free to contact with me via my skype: xuan.xuan10

[Rohit]

Talk about an art or a craft project that you did at school. Please say

- What was the project?
- How did you do it?
- How did you feel about it later?

Please can you answer this.