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Describe a time when missed or were late for an important meeting/event: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • When it happened?
  • What happened?
  • Why you missed/were late for it?
  • And explain how you felt about this experience.
Show all 38 answers

Cue 1:When it happened?

  • Start by specifying the date and time of the event to provide context.
  • Mention the location of the meeting or event to give a clear picture.

Example

It was on a rainy Monday morning last month when I was supposed to attend an important team meeting at the office at 10 AM.

Cue 2:What happened?

  • Describe the events leading up to the meeting to create a narrative.
  • Include any specific incidents that contributed to the situation.

Example

I had planned everything the night before, but as I was getting ready, I realized I had misplaced my car keys. I spent nearly 30 minutes searching for them, which made me late.

Cue 3:Why you missed/were late for it?

  • Explain the reasons for your delay in a straightforward manner.
  • Reflect on any external factors that may have contributed to the situation.

Example

I was late because of my own oversight in keeping my keys in a designated spot. The rain also made the roads congested, which added to my delay.

Cue 4:And explain how you felt about this experience.

  • Share your emotions regarding the experience to make it relatable.
  • Discuss any lessons learned or changes you made afterward.

Example

I felt embarrassed and anxious when I finally arrived, as I hate being late. This experience taught me to be more organized and to prepare for such situations in advance.

Conclusion

  • Summarize the key points of your experience succinctly.
  • Reflect on how this incident has impacted your approach to time management.

Example

In conclusion, being late for that meeting was a wake-up call for me. I now prioritize being punctual and have set reminders to avoid similar situations in the future.

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: Vague Responses

Providing vague or unclear answers can make your response less engaging and informative. It may leave the examiner confused about your experience.

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Tip

Be specific about the details of the event, including exact times and circumstances to create a clearer picture.

2: Lack of Emotion

Failing to express how you felt about the experience can make your answer seem flat. Emotions help to connect with the listener.

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Tip

Share your feelings honestly, whether it was frustration, embarrassment, or regret, to add depth to your response.

Ignoring the Cues

Neglecting to address all the cues can lead to an incomplete answer. This may affect your fluency and coherence scores.

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Tip

Make sure to cover each cue systematically, ensuring you explain when it happened, what occurred, and why you were late.

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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

Before six months I was appearing the semester one exam of my MBA. During that time I usually log in on time for exams because the exams were held online and I was appearing for those exams online from home but during one of my exam I was unable to log in on time due to the technical glitch which has happened just before five minutes of my exam was started. I felt very scared at that time and I was very furious and I realized for the action what should I take at the time. Then I called customer care and I have registered the complaint and after that the problem was solved and I was able to log in. From that event I have learned that such technical glitches can happen anytime. The situation taught me a good lesson that we need to always check the internet connection before appearing such important events in future also. Moreover such situation can happen anytime during the online appearing meetings. The situation was very complicated although but I have handled it very carefully and I was very happy at that time.

Band 6-7

The incident I'm going to talk about happened in my 9th semester of the college, where we had a review meeting of my project. We have 0th, 1st, 2nd and 3rd reviews of the MSc project that we will be undertaking in the 10th semester. So the 0th review will be carried out in the 9th semester itself where we have to present what are the things we are going to do as a part of the project. So this meeting was scheduled for 12.30am on December 10th and I was actually preparing for the review meeting, correcting my powerpoint and getting my speech ready from my hostel and for some reasons the students who were presenting before me finished their review earlier and my slots got preponed which I was totally unaware about. So I got informed about it at the last moment I had to rush to the venue of the meeting. So by the time I reached there, it was almost time to get in. So I hardly got any time to mentally prepare before entering into the interview panel, before starting my review. So it was totally a rushful situation. I felt really bad about it. Even though it was not a big fault on my part, I wish I had reached there before itself so that I could perform better without getting tensed for the review.

Band 6-7

Sure, so I was late for the meeting that I had in the afternoon but due to some traffic or something came up in the road, so that is why I was late for the meeting and secondly I have not planned it out and I have not scheduled it out. So that was the first reason I think that I was late. So after getting the bashments from the founders, so I have seen that you should have a calendar with you and you should schedule and should use some tools where you can schedule all these things and why I was doing that is just that for the meeting you should be prepared beforehand. So involved in so many activities has catered my focus and has diverted my focus from one thing to other. So that is also the second reason I can say that I was late and that gave me a horrible experience though but apart from this, seeing the brighter side, I have already implemented the things and is at the very great experience and at the great work on improving these things.

Band 6-7

Not too many days but recently I missed my project demo for my experimentation session because it was very much hard me to come on time as I was stuck in traffic but I was a team lead so it was actually very much important for me to be there on time as I was the one who should lead the team members for getting the result or going for a better experimentation as I know everything in that experimentation but due to traffic and other things I was not able to be on time. I felt very bad for my teammates because they got scoldings from the externals and the experiment setup people because I was not on time so they waited for me and it was very much late for them to go for other meetings or other things so my teammates got this thing scolded from my side so yeah I felt very bad.

Band 6-7

An important meeting or event which I missed is my internal examination. It was open elective. In my CEM VI, I was extremely late for the examination because I was got stuck up in the traffic. I was really tensed and angry because of it. I couldn't able to focus on the exam, moreover the examiners scolded me for being late and I was asked to seat myself in the end of the row like it was completely in the corner. Like there would be no place for seating or like completely an outcast. So I feel terrible and pity for being late. It was absolutely my mistake because I can't complain about the traffic. Although it was not in my hand, I could have taken a better step like I could have get myself ready a bit earlier so that I could have reached my examination on time. Therefore, it was...

Band 6-7

I would like to talk about an event which was held in Mumbai. Before the event, I gathered all the information about where the event is being held. The office staff has told me all the times and location of that area. It is a very big event which is I think like a conference. For that, I started preparation and I was the chief guest in that. I completed all the preparation. It is far from my village. For that, I booked a ticket with return journey. They consulted me again in phone to confirm I am coming or not. I told them everything. I will be there on that day before your time. While going, I reached railway station. After reaching, I asked someone when the train is arriving. Then he told me the train has departed. I shopped and saw the ticket, booking time and everything which was

Band 6-7

Thank you for the great question. It helped me jog through my memories and made me remember all of, many of my past mistakes. So the incident that I want to talk about, it just happened recently. It was when I went to give an interview for the college admission. My sister had talked to the principal and I was called in the early morning of 8am. So from Bellagopi to my home, till the college, it was about 2 hours distance. So I woke up early. Now that I look back on it, I feel like it was partly not my mistake but rather of the auto driver. So yeah, let's get back to the question. So I arrived in Mysore at about 7.30 I guess and then I hired an auto rickshaw and gave them the name of my college which is the J.S.S. School of Nursing. When I said J.S.S. School of Nursing, I didn't know that in Mysore there were plenty of J.S.S. schools. So the auto driver left me in another location which was also a J.S.S. location but not my college. So I waited there for quite some time but my sister wasn't able to find me and I was I was not able to find her too. So we lost much time in that finding thing and then at last we got to know that I had been dropped off to the wrong location and then I went to another location and again the driver dropped me off to the wrong location. So that was a very unpleasant experience but thankfully I made it in about 10 minutes late I guess and fortunately the principal was not that mad so I guess it all came out great. But yeah that was a very hectic morning for me but I got the admission, I got the seat and right now I am studying here so

Band 6-7

I missed an important event where I was invited by an honoured college for a debate competition for which I worked months and months preparing for it. I missed it because my bus was late and it wasn't an excuse for me to make. But generally that day I woke up late, got a late bus too, then got delayed by everything and I kind of blamed it on my life, how my life is terrible for me, how tough it is for me. And obviously the college that invited me told me that it was my mistake and my carelessness that made the situation worse. They were waiting for me for first half an hour for me to start for the debate competitions with other participants. They had to wait for me which made the event go very very boggless and I had to kind of particularly be felt sorry, apologetic and guilty for what I did. But it was honestly my fault, I missed it and I don't want to blame it on someone else because it was my mistake to be starting with. It was rare, the event took place in Bandra, my house is in Kandibli so it was a huge distance I had to cover in one day. So yeah, eventually I missed a bus which made my plans go haywire and I couldn't complete my vision of the day which was to participate in it and make my parents proud of it. But whatever, I guess it's fate.

Band 6

So, basically I was bit late for one of the office meeting, one of my office meeting last year. So, the meeting was about the Volkswagen project, the name of the project was Volkswagen 316 project. The CEOs of the Skoda and Volkswagen were there and the project involved, the project meeting involved was the many, many leaders were there. So, I have to prepare, I had to prepare one of the key presentation for it and so I went, I went to go there from my, from my bike but I got stuck, I got stuck in the traffic of Pune and I got late by around 40, 40 to 50 minutes and it was a horrible experience because I got exposed there because many industry leaders were there and it was a horrible experience. So, basically I went there and gave them the explanation about, about it because of the traffic, I got late, etc., etc., so many leaders, many leaders were angry on me on that part but I somehow managed the situation well and present the, present the slides of my PPT, then all leaders were impressed but the overall experience was terrible for me and I learnt a lot of lessons that day, we have to be on time like in office or in most of the presentations.

Band 6

I was recently late for my client debugging meeting which held place last week. I got late because my internet connection was weak for a couple of minutes which resulted in a prolonged delay in me joining the meeting room. The meeting was supposed to be held at 12 in the morning but I managed to join around 15 minutes past 12. We were supposed to discuss some important requirements for our large language model which we were able to discuss. However, due to me being late, the meeting was also delayed to incorporate me being able to be present in the meeting. I was very afraid when I was late for the meeting. I was afraid, I was confused about why this was happening. I was worried about what I would say to my seniors.
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