Describe an experience you had as a member of a team.
You should say:
- What it was?
- Who were the members of the team?
- What role did you play in this team?
- And explain how you achieved your goal?
Model Answer:
- I have had both negative and positive experiences while working in teams.
- Today, I am going to talk about the best experience I have had.
- I think it was because I had a good rapport with the team members and also because the role, I undertook was something I enjoyed a lot.
- In 12th standard as a part of the course of economics, our class was given a team project.
- My teacher made teams of three members and the team members were selected randomly.
- Unfortunately, I did not know any of the other team members in my group.
- I mean I knew their names but nothing more than that.
- So, I was very apprehensive at the beginning, but it all changed with time.
- We were allowed to choose the topic of the project ourselves.
- So, we chose the topic of global economic crisis during 2007-2008.
- All of us were very curious about what happened for such a big crisis and moreover why India was not very affected.
- You can say I was the nerd in the team, so I was given the role of collecting data.
- However, both the other team members also helped.
- I still remember how we spent every afternoon sitting and reading books on the topic in the library.
- We also read some journals on the topic on the internet.
- It was during this part that we three became really good friends.
- I compiled all the information and then all of it into divided different portions and wrote it down.
- The last part of the project was team presentation.
- I was really afraid as I found speaking in front of people really daunting.
- But my team mates really helped me then. I think we practiced giving the presentation three four times and that made me much more confident.
- I think we all did really well in the presentation because only two teams got an A grade in the presentation and we were one of the two.
Follow ups
- Do you like to work alone or work with a partner?
I like working alone because I kind of hate being dependent upon other people. However, it also depends upon the team members. If I have a good rapport with the team members, I find it rather enjoyable. - What kind of people are good to work with?
The most important quality I try to look for in team members is sincerity. I mean sincerity with work. I have unfortunately worked with a lot of people who procrastinate endlessly, and I really dislike working with such people. - Do you like group work or group learning?
Yes, group learning/work is certainly enjoyable because it involves sharing of ideas and discussions. Working/Studying alone sometimes can be very boring. However, sometimes it is also irritating especially if some of the team members like talking a lot because then I get distracted. - What are the advantages of studying alone?
The biggest advantage of studying alone undoubtedly is that we can concentrate better. So, it is more efficient to study alone. Another advantage of studying alone is the flexibility it offers. What I mean is that we can study whenever or wherever we want, and we can study at our pace. - What can children learn through teamwork?
The main benefit I feel is children learn how to cooperate and work along with others. This is really beneficial in adult life when people have to work together on projects. - What are the disadvantages of working in a team?
I think, firstly, working in a team can be really inefficient because we have to work at common group speed. Secondly, it sometimes leads to feeling of helplessness if the other members are not very sincere about their work and we are dependent upon them to finish their work. - Is it good to have differences in a team?
Well both yes and no. Yes, because team differences make sure more time is spent deliberating on issues, which means there are less chances of errors. No, because having differences means that it slows things down. - What are key skills and abilities needed to be successful in a team.
I think the main skill required to be successful is the ability to work well with others. People should be accommodating, but also not so accommodating that they lose their voice. What I mean is that they should be open to ideas of others but also express their ideas and reservations about ideas of others.
Other Sample:
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.
