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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 31 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

It all happened when I was in class 3rd. I was late for my school as I was participating in a cross-country run. I was just late because I had to go to school but my class was late and I just entered the class half an hour late. The teacher scolded me but at that day I realized that being late is a sign of impunctuality and disturbance and unserious mindset which is not good. So I just thought to improve myself and till date I am never late for any meeting or not even a friends gathering or a get-together because I know the value of time. That incident still lasts with me and that is a really bad thing to be late because you have to value time and if you value time, time will value you and that is the most important thing in the world because time is equal to money. If you will not have time, you will not have money and if you will not have money, you will not have time. So yeah, that incident has still stayed in my heart and I guess that was a learning for me or maybe a lesson that had to come at that age so that my teenage years and adulthood years are really good. Thank you.

Band 6

I would like to talk about a time when I was late for an important event which was my graduation ceremony that occurred a few months back and it was raining heavily that day and we were already late for the event and during the travel our car got broke and due to heavy rain all the electricity line was on the road and all the trees fell down blocking the roads so we couldn't take our car and move further it took a lot of time in conducting all the fire stations and electricity board purpose to move out the trees and electricity lines and cables it was very dangerous and I was very nervous and very sad thinking that I will miss that event and it was an important occasion in my life as I was graduating from my college as a B.Pharm graduate I also had an award ceremony for being topper in my class and I thought that I would not be able to collect my award but luckily we were on time and I was very happy that I could collect my graduation certificate from my professor and everyone seemed very happy and I was very happy that I could meet all my friends after the ceremony.

Band 6

So, one of the most important meeting I missed was the orientation meeting. It actually happened 2 years ago when I am new to the city. I actually travelled from my hometown to this city for job purpose. I actually missed the orientation session on the first day of my job because I woke up late. I really missed the orientation where I can meet the new peers and colleagues. I don't even know the experience. I missed the part where people get to introduce themselves and the tour of the campus. So, I really felt very bad when I missed that experience. I shouldn't have been late in the first place. That is how I felt.

Band 6

I would like to talk about an occasion that I feel I felt really terrible last month I was last month I I went for an interview in a bus in a public service and on the way the bus broken down the passengers panicked passengers panicked I felt really anxious because there was only one hour left for my interview in addition there are many things to do when I reach the interview destination and finally I couldn't attend the meeting it was not my mistake I think I believe moreover it's the mistake of the authorities in in my country it's their responsibility to take care of the road the roads are roads are really bad in our hometown so it's very difficult to travel through that and on on that day it was a heavy rain and traffic heavy rain and traffic so I can't get on time authority should take care of the situations and they should not allow such vehicles to vehicles to pass through that road

Band 6

So, recently me and my school friends went for a staycation to Lonavala and all of us were going to meet at Pune station and we were going to catch a local to reach to the Lonavala railway station. All of us were about to travel on our own and reach Pune station, meanwhile me who was travelling solo to Pune station, I booked an Uber auto and the auto driver did not check the location where the drop off location was and he straight away started following the map. Now, what happened was that the route to go to Pune station is very straightforward and easy to reach, easily connected with all the other modes of transport and it is less crowded in the morning time. But this guy following the map, he took me from some other route and unfortunately what happened, I was stuck in traffic and I was already running late, all of my other friends were waiting for me at the station, at the platform, the tickets were in their hands and I am still not there, everybody was very much worried. I was so, so scared that I don't know what's going to happen now, what's the next thing that is going to happen, am I, you know, missing the local, missing the train or will I be able to catch it on time, luckily I did not find any traffic signals that day but the vehicle traffic was too much, that's the reason it got delayed but I was saved with the, because of the traffic.

Band 6

So, I'm teaching in a private school named Silverbells Public School. I'm a HAT teacher here. So, a day before yesterday, our principal decided that he will take a meeting tomorrow. So, we asked all of us to get prepared for the meeting. In that meeting, we all have to decide about the classwork, how students are working, what all stuffs we can change. Because on Saturday, we are having our meeting. We were all prepared for it. But yesterday, when the day come for the meeting, I got late because actually my health got deteriorated. I was all, my body was shivering, my hand are paining, I am having headache and everything went wrong just before an hour of our meeting. And that meeting was really important because I was a HAT teacher there. I have to carry out this meeting. Somehow, I was not able to, you know, get up. I was feeling very low. The meeting started at 11 but at 12 also still I was sitting. I was not able to move. But after lot of pressure, I was getting from my seniors to come to the office. I get up, I went there. My colleagues, my principal, especially my principal, he scolded me badly, which I felt bad because there is nothing I can do with my health. If I am not feeling good, how can I come there? But he did not understood that thing and he scolded me in front of everyone. Later on, when everyone went, the meeting went fantastic. When everyone went out of the office, he just stopped me and asked about my situation.

Band 6

So, meetings are important and when we fix a meeting with somebody, it is essential that we reach on time and respect other person's time and schedule as well. This is an important lesson that I learned as I started my sales career around five years back and there was an important meeting that I had with one of the senior government officials. It was quite far from my place and I also had to attend one other meeting prior to the scheduled meeting. I miscalculated the time it will take for me to go from place A to place B and I underestimated the distance and the traffic during that point in time in the day. Hence, as I started from my location at the customer one, I saw as per the Google Maps, it was taking me more than the expected time and I was going to be late by 15 minutes. At that point in time, I understood the mistake that I had done because this was a meeting that I had got after a lot of persuasion with the customer. I then immediately called up the customer and informed that I will be late because of this miscalculation of time at my part. I apologized and I asked him if he would like to reschedule or continue with the meeting. He appreciated that I respected his time and he said we can continue with the meeting and however, he will need to end the meeting at the same time because he had a follow-up meeting after that and he was gracious enough to allow me a meeting that day and the meeting went well. We had subsequent meetings with this official and we created a rapport over time. However, this incident made me realize that being on time is important, keeping some buffer time prior to any schedule.

Band 6

It was my semester exam, for which I was running late. I started from my home at the usual time. But unexpected traffic was awaiting for me. I tried to change my route to a different one even though it was a longer distance because I might make it there instead of being stagnant in a particular place. I diverted, drove my bike fast to reach the place despite having a mathematical conversion in my mind whether I would reach the exam in time. Yet I was being 30 minutes late to my semester exam and a total of 3 hours exam. I already lost 30 minutes. But again I had to run from my main block building where I had a parking. I had to sweat. Heartbeat was rapid. I was nervous. And complete disaster for a student on an exam day. Yet I wrote my exam perfectly fine. Maybe there was a bit of doubt like whether I did my exam. If I had more time, I might have been satisfied.

Band 5-6

There was a time when I missed an important event. It was 10 years ago when we had an event organized by our school. I was supposed to perform in that very particular program and my role was a footballer. I had to show and perform some skills over there but due to some mistransportation or I can say that when I left my house I was waiting for my school bus but it didn't come at the right time so I was waiting again then my father told me that I will take you to the school by myself and he took his scooter out of the home and I sat on the scooter and we went to our school and when we entered in our school and the place where the concert was going on or the place where I was supposed to perform was already over so I couldn't perform my task and this is the moment which I still remember and still regret why I was late that day or why my school bus was late on that day.

Band 5-6

I would like to talk about a situation where I was late for an event. It was my cousin's wedding two years ago. I already planned the schedule for the weekend and the stay. But on the day of the wedding, I miscalculated the traffic and I was late to leave my room. So unfortunately, there was a huge traffic jam and I was late to leave my room and I was late to leave my room.
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