IELTS Speaking Part 2: Topic card; Describe a piece of information which you think is not correct; with discussion, model answer and Part 3 questions

September 28, 2022May 2, 2023

In this post on IELTS Speaking Part 2, I’m going to discuss a topic card that has recently appeared in some IELTS tests around the world. Here we are going to describe a model answer for the topic ‘a piece of information which you think is not correct’. You will find a short discussion on how to prepare yourself for the cue card as well as some notes that will help you speak fluently. You will also get some part-3 questions at the end of the post.

Discussion on the topic:

Here is a set of ideas on which you can arrange your answer.

information regarding a job (wrong info. related to job specification, salary, location)
information on a particular subject
information on an exam result (wrong info. about a result)
information about a product (misleading marketing)

Model answer:

Due to the rapid advancement in the field of technology, finding information regarding nearly everything has become an extremely easy prospect for all of us. And yet, surprisingly, we sometimes find ourselves in situations when we are given incorrect information that makes our experience depressing. For this given topic card, I would like to describe an event when I found some information I was provided was untrue and that haunts me till now.

It was probably a couple of years ago when I was hunting for a job online. I came across a reputed job search engine of country that displayed some recent vacancies in my district. I was elated to discover about a job opening in a non-government organization. Now, being an extremely cautious person, I took a close look at all the given requirements and minimum qualifications, experiences, salary, promotion, and all other facilities that would be provided by the company. When I thought everything was in my favour, I did not hesitate to apply for the job that very day. I uploaded all my documents along with the application letter. There was an email address where I was supposed to send my application and I did that accordingly. I was sent a congratulations mail immediately as a confirmation of the successful application from the company. The mail also included some instruction about what to do next.

However, things went cold since then. Even though I was told not to send any more mail and they would contact me within 3/5 working days; I did not receive any further news for the following 2 weeks. I waited patiently for another week. Then, I thought to do an inquiry regarding my prospect of receiving some news from the NGO. To my utter surprise, the email address was shown as invalid. I could not believe my eyes, I double, and triple checked it. I started feeling anxious about the documents I had submitted. It was such a frustrating situation for me.

Luckily, some of my friends also applied at the same company and shared with me similar experience. Later we found out that it was nothing but a hoax. The company went bankrupt and wanted to cover up some of their wrongdoings by putting false job-opening news on the market.

At that time, I understood that some companies in the market do this sort of evil stuff just to either hide their problems or bad activities or just to gather information from common people to do further damage. It was my decision to apply for the job without proper scrutiny which I regret till to date.

Part 3 questions:

How do people search for information nowadays? Does technology play a part here?
Why is wrong information bad for us?
Why do people spread wrong information? Does it benefit anyone in particular?
What can be done to stop such situation? / What measures can be taken to stop the spread of false information?
What are the effects of misleading advertisements? Should this be made illegal everywhere?

Here are model answers to some other speaking topic cards for your preparation: