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Describe a journey that didn't go as planned.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What was the destination?
  • With whom were you going?
  • What went wrong?
Show all 34 answers

Cue 1:What was the destination?

  • Begin by clearly stating the destination of your journey, making it relatable and specific.
  • Provide some context about why you chose this destination, such as its significance or your expectations.

Example

I was supposed to travel to Manali, a beautiful hill station in Himachal Pradesh, known for its stunning landscapes and pleasant weather. I had been looking forward to this trip for months, as it was my first vacation after a long time.

Cue 2:With whom were you going?

  • Mention the people you were traveling with, highlighting your relationship with them.
  • Share a brief insight into why this group was significant for this journey.

Example

I was going with my college friends, who I hadn't seen in years. We had planned this trip as a reunion to relive our college days and create new memories together.

Cue 3:What went wrong?

  • Describe the specific issues that arose during the journey, ensuring to convey your feelings about the situation.
  • Explain how these problems affected your plans and the overall experience.

Example

Unfortunately, our bus broke down halfway through the journey due to engine failure. We were stranded for hours in the middle of nowhere, and by the time we got a replacement bus, it was too late to reach Manali before nightfall. This unexpected delay turned our excitement into frustration.

Conclusion

  • Summarize the overall impact of the journey on you and your friends.
  • Reflect on any lessons learned or how you adapted to the situation.

Example

Despite the setbacks, we made the best of our time together, sharing stories and laughter while waiting. This experience taught us the importance of patience and adaptability, reminding us that sometimes the journey is more memorable than the destination itself.

Following this structure will ensure you cover all the essential points while providing a clear and engaging response to the cue card topic.

Tips to answer this Cue Card

1: Lack of Detail in the Journey

Providing vague information about the journey can make your answer less engaging. Specific details help the examiner understand your experience better and keep their interest.

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Tip

Include specific details about the destination, the people you traveled with, and the events that unfolded during the journey.

2: Neglecting Emotional Impact

Failing to express how the journey affected you emotionally can make your answer feel flat. Sharing your feelings adds depth and personal connection to your story.

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Tip

Reflect on your emotions during the journey and share how the unexpected events made you feel, whether it was frustration, disappointment, or humor.

Ignoring the Structure of the Answer

A disorganized response can confuse the listener. It's important to structure your answer clearly to ensure it flows logically and is easy to follow.

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Tip

Use a clear structure: start with the destination, introduce your companions, describe what went wrong, and conclude with your reflections on the experience.

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IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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Pitampura Test Centre, New Delhi

Answer

I like to taste different types of cuisine. Here I would like to talk about my favorite dish at my traditional festival of Onam which is Sadya. Sadya is popular in my city. We are experimenting these cuisines on Onam festival day. Onam is a famous festival in my city. All family members get together in my home and we make a delicious Sadya. There are many ingredients includes that Sadya. Moreover, we make a big feast that day as well as we create a lot of memories together and we wear that day the traditional dress called Sari and men wear the Dhotis. That festival is really important to us because the whole day we are conducting different kinds of games at our homes and all the family members came together. It's a memorable day in my life. This is the festival. We are making the Sambar and Aviyal. These all the kinds of foods are making with the vegetables.
Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

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Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

Answer

The toy which I liked in my childhood was a panda doll, which makes me pleasant and makes me more blush. The pandas are the most beautiful creatures of the world, which looks gigantic and has pooshy cheeks and they are like stars in the clouds and they dream in me. Furthermore, these have been given by my father. My father is a very very beautiful artistic person, who makes me think of that. Every day you will face every difficulties and make you suffer and move forward. Pandas are always seen in Japanese countries. It is my lifelong dream to visit a Japanese country and click a photo with the original pandas, which makes sounds better.
Describe a time you were in a place where you didn't know the local language
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

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Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

Answer

As India is a very large country full of diversity, so there are many places which have their own language and speak their native language. The place which I visited and I didn't know about their language was Leladakh, which is about 300 km away from my hometown and it is a very good place as it consists of different kind of trees, animals and have many scenic views and I visited over there last year in summers as it was the best time to visit because it has many, it was cold over there and we had summers in our area so it was the best time to visit over there and I went over there with my whole family.
Describe a time when your friend damaged something you owned
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

Answer

When I was a kid, I had a little pencil box which had these four buttons which gave the pencil box an operative use. When you press the button, the box would open up. When you press the second button, a little part of it would slide out. Basically it was just a little electronical and a fun thing to have and I owned it when I was in 6th. One day after break, I was standing and talking there with one of my friends and another friend of mine was running through the hallway and accidentally she pushed my shoulder and my pencil box hit the ground and it broke into multiple pieces to the point that it was not functional anymore.
Describe a book you recently read
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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CBD Belapur Test Centre, Navi Mumbai

Answer

It Ends With Us is a book I read recently. It's by the author Colleen Hoare. It's mainly a story about two teenagers, Atlas and Lily, and how they just handle their life going through high school, adolescence, and just domestic violence at home. Both of them come from very, very different families. However, they have one common determining factor between them, which is domestic violence. The abuse that they've seen their moms go through is just insane, and they connect through that on a different level. They're actually in the same high school, but they never speak to each other until Atlas actually crashes into an empty house next to Lily's villa. When Atlas is homeless and he doesn't have anywhere to go, he just comes and breaks into the house next to Lily's, and Lily helps him with all the daily necessities like clothes and food, medicines and stuff. Furthermore, their friendship blossoms into love, but it doesn't really fructify as Atlas has to leave. This book really gave me a lot of knowledge about domestic abuse and how to deal with it.

All Answers

Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

Band 6-7

Journeys are rejuvenating the minds of many people. The journey I remember that we screwed up was of Manali trekking. Actually, we were going for Kedarkandha trekking, the place which is full of snow and the mountain seems draped with snowy blankets. But we end up going to Manali trek because of the train we missed to the Kedarkandha. At that time, my friends were telling that we should return to our home rather than going to the place called Manali because the Rohtang park which was the famous spot in Manali was about to get closed due to the heavy snowfall over there. The only thing we have to wonder was the valleys and the top of the mountains in which we can have the views of it. Paragliding is one of the activities we have done over there with my friends. The very crucial thing was that my friends were having so much fun and we used to play that song which is so much famous in the movie of Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani which was also about the trip to Manali. At that time, we were feeling that anything mesmerizing was happening around us but we ended up having fun even if we were in the wrong trekking place. We enjoyed a much.

Band 6-7

Two years ago, my family planned for an outing of three days to Goa and we were very excited for this journey and we started from our home by our own car. My brother and my father, they were driving themselves and we left from there and the journey was, it was good and a little bit of tiring, however, the post journey was a bit complicated because as soon as we reached Goa, we took some time to relax, to calm ourselves and to get some rest and the following day, my brother, he got fever and it was really bad and he started, he was feeling nauseous and he started vomiting so and the place was also new to us and we did not have a proper access for the medical or for the clinic as we are visitors there, so it was quite challenging for us, but we managed somehow, we took tablets from our home, by living from our home, so we had some medicines and we managed by endos, but as soon as he was fine, then we started exploring Goa and it was a very nice place, but we were whenever we remind the journey, the first thing that comes into our mind is the

Band 6-7

The journey to Nepal, I think I still remember, I think it was during my 12th standard. We a group of 24 family members were traveling by train from Warangal railway station to Raksol railway station. On the way, we also visited Calcutta. So during the journey to Calcutta, we lost my bag. It was really all my clothes and my basic needs were there in my bag. So me and my father had to get down one station prior to the Calcutta and have to travel back and file a complaint in the police station. It was a very hectic. We finally got the bag luckily. Otherwise, I would have faced a lot of problem in buying all those things again. And later we came back and met all our family members, enjoyed the visit to Calcutta Kalima temple and then later we started our journey to Nepal, that Pashupatinath temple. It was a very adventurous trip actually. So the bus traveled through a very narrow space of mountain ranges where if luckily there was no any accident or anything. Otherwise, I think today I might not be here. And during the return journey back to Raksol railway station, as it is a border of Nepal and India, we need to walk, I think around six kilometers because there were no

Band 6-7

I'm going to share my experience of a trip from college to Hyderabad. We were all excited for the Hyderabad trip. It was the talk of the town for weeks and when it finally came upon us, we were ecstatic. We spent a great load of time packing our suitcases and telling each other how incredible the journey was going to be. Even though one of us could not make it, we were incredibly excited to come back and tell her the whole story of how the trip went. On the first day of us reaching there, everything was normal. We reached the hotel, we unpacked, we were talking about where we were going to go, how we were going to go, what we were going to do and we did. We saw the Charminar, we walked along the streets of Charminar, we took in the sights, we drank Irani chai, the whole nine yards. Everything started to derail as soon as two of my friends started to get into an argument. To be completely honest, I don't know what the argument was about. It was something very petty but the argument escalated into something huge that tore our group of eight into two.

Band 6-7

Last year, we planned to visit Wanderlaw which is an amusement park. I have been wishing to visit that place for a long time. We had Pongal holidays which was very convenient for my working husband as I am always free at my home. My brother-in-law and his girlfriend were also planning to come with us. So, the four of us planned to visit Wanderlaw. Suddenly, the plan got deviated because my brother-in-law's girlfriend raised some issues as she needs some time to take care of her old age mother. She needs to make some last minute arrangements and all. So we said, yeah, take your time, do some of your arrangements and get back to us about the planning. But then she came up with another excuse that she has some crusades that she needs to attend and we can only start planning after the crusades are done with and that is a bit of a time constraint for us as we didn't have much time left on us. So we had to cancel that plan. I was very disappointed because I was planning to go there for months. I was very excited to experience all those rides and experience that Wanderlaw has to offer but instead we ended up, you know, exploring the local restaurants.

Band 6-7

I was traveling with my family to Bural which is a district in Bhoj Bhoj and we planned on going through a particular route that would help us reach the place faster but due to some construction work on the highway we had to change our route and take a different route that was congested because it went through the narrow lanes of the village this is why our journey didn't go as planned but we reached our destination on time

Band 6-7

Last year, I have planned a Goa trip with my female friends. So, there are almost 10 female friends of mine. And me, total 11 girls planned for a Goa trip. And it was one of the most planned trip of my life. And everything was good. But then the villa we have booked over there was not looking as it was shown in the Instagram. So, we booked the villa through the Instagram advertisement. And then it was not like that. And all the static pics and everything attracted us to book that villa. But it was not that aesthetic. The bedroom were very small. We all 11 girls could not able to fit in that 3 bedroom villa. Because it was very small. And we enquired. So, they told us that it was about 4 bathrooms including toilet. But when we went there, it was only 2 toilets which are common. So, we were very disappointed with the stay place. But then we demanded another very nice villa with the same price. And we literally wasted our first day of Goa trip to explore the places to stay with the same price.

Band 6-7

The previous month we had planned a journey to Manali for our holidays. It was planned with my friends and we were supposed to leave in the morning at 9 o'clock. But it did not turn out to be the way we had planned. That is because there was a car which had to be arrived at 9 o'clock to start the journey. However, it did not arrive on time. In fact, the driver said that he will not come because he fell ill. And we did not have any backup with us. And we were confused as to what we should do. Moreover, one of the friends that was supposed to come on the trip, backed out. And we were upset too that we have to leave without that close friend. It was kind of shocking for us. However, we did not stop. We instead booked tickets for the train on the same day and we left for the journey. After that, everything was very peaceful and nothing went wrong after that. We were happily enjoying songs on the way to our destination. We enjoyed at the destination. We had strawberry milkshake in Manali. We played with snow. We did shopping. We did everything that we wanted to do. So, it was over and all. It was a very nice journey. So, yes. I really liked it.

Band 6-7

Thank you for this wonderful cue card. It reminded me of one of the most lovely experience. I have been lucky enough to have a number of memorable journeys over the years. This journey is one of the most memorable journey of life that took place after I got married. I had gone to honeymoon with my husband far away from my hometown. So naturally, I was very much excited. The excitement grew even bigger when we decided that we will travel by flight since the travel time will be reduced. We were told that the flight will take approximately 2-3 hours to reach Chandigarh and we will have to hire a cab from Chandigarh to Shimla which is approximately 50 km from Chandigarh airport. Honestly, this was a whole new experience for me and I just could not wait to board the flight. I was super excited to travel by flight since travelling by flight has always been my favourite mode of commute. The objects outside the flight felt that they were just coming at our sight and vanishing like some ghosts within a fraction of a second. Anyway, I remember every minute of this journey so well because this was my first trip with my husband. Furthermore, mainly because we felt joy in exploring the city and enjoying the wonderful weather and most delicious foods I have ever eaten with an affordable price. The only thing that went wrong was the motion sickness I felt during the flight. However, same was resolved within few minutes after I took the medicine. So, this is one of the most memorable journeys I have ever had in my life.

Band 6-7

The destination was Himalayas. I started my journey from Bangalore, boarded the flight from Bangalore to nearest airport near Himalayas. I started my journey from Delhi airport to Himalayas through a car, via a car. On the way to the Himalayas on the hill station there was heavy snow and storm coming in and I got stuck in the snow for around four years, four hours and eventually I had to turn back to my hometown due to the unavailability of the road for the next week.
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