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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 5-6

Two years before I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job. I had an interview related to my job.

Band 5-6

I am in national credit groups and I am the senior, that means I am leader of the entire group and I have to command and my group was with 50 people and I have to command. It was August 15th, we did 20 practice sessions and the following day at sharp at 6 I need to be there on the parade ground and do my commanding, without my command nobody could march and it was the following day I came, I thought I would be there at 6 but I was not because my alarm didn't rang. So I was sleeping and I woke up at 9 o'clock but the event was at 6 and all the plan got into vain because I am the important person to be there, to have to be there but I was not there due to my alarm thing and it still makes me feel so awful because it was the first ever event that I have to do and at that moment I will be given my rank also, that's the most terrible event that I have ever gone through anything like that.

Band 5-6

Yes, I have missed an interview when I was in Hyderabad. At the time, after my post-graduation, I have scheduled an interview at afternoon. I have started early in the morning at 9 a.m. So I used my two-wheeler to reach the office, which is 28 kilometers far away from our home. So I started at 9 a.m. The interview is at 12 p.m. I started well, but unfortunately there is a huge traffic I have encountered in between way to my office address. So there I have struck mostly 45 minutes I have been into traffic. It's not a good feeling over there. By this incident, I went late by 15 minutes. So they have rejected me, of course. By this weird experience, I have come to know that we have to be more punctual. We have to be prepared well. We have to be pre-planned about our time. So if we fix one time, we have to be at least one hour earlier than the prescribed schedule.

Band 5-6

I was never late for any meeting but I can say I just got here by mistake but I can say other things about like review meeting I hate review meeting because whenever we have the meeting it was disaster we got terrible anxiety because we they want to hear us what we went to say want to say they just to speak their mind and put pressure on us with either is true or not they it was possible or not they just put pressure on us and they never listen to us so we hate review meeting that's why and other thing you can say I was never late for any meeting I was always ahead of time because of my higher-ups any of them reached there so that's not the problem I was late once when I was in a yoga day right I missed that one because I was sleep I sleep till morning and it was a 4 a.m. and that time I was child and my mother father not really instruct in trust interested in all these things so they didn't really care about waking me up and I got up late and I just missed this whole thing and I still regret it I mean I really want to go but now that I think about it it's not very big thing to go there but they got the t-shirt and I want the t-shirt but still it's not very fascinating being rich there they just for they just to bring people for the head they just want the head head count that's why they call all of the schools to bring their children so they can say that oh we

Band 5-6

Well, I would like to talk about the time that I was late for an important event and that was a birthday party. It was my most favorite cousin's party and after that I felt very regret by getting late for it. The main reason for getting late for it because of the place and I was very new to that place. It was held in Kochi, a place in Ernakulam, in Kerala. The party was held in an apartment, not their house so I and my family was new to that apartment. We were going there in our car and we were stuck in the road without knowing the place. Apart from that, it was too late and I think the time will be around 9 o'clock and at that time there were no one at that road. So we became more tensed and panicked without knowing the correct place. We called the aunt who were in that apartment and we asked her about the place, where is that place and for our luck she sent the location to us but that was not accurate. Again we got trapped in the road without knowing the correct place. Moreover, my family were almost 6 members and inside the car it was so hot and everyone got angry by sitting too much time in the car. Finally for our luck, we...

Band 5-6

Yeah, sorry. It was happened last June. It was happened during my last interview time. The reason for missing that job is my presence was, I was delayed. I reached the office very late because I missed my bus. So it was a very hectic day. On that day, there was heavy traffic. So I missed my bus and so that I lost that job. Once I lost the job, I felt very good because that job is very important to my life, career growth. On that day, I felt very bad because I'm unable to get the job. That was the only reason I missed my bus.

Band 5-6

I still vividly remember the incidents which I was really late for my exam and it was my semester exam so I was working a part-time job in Decathlon so I couldn't reach my exam on time because there was a huge traffic in my city so that was a major reason so I was late for the exam and the exam hall teacher was requesting me to get a letter from the principal so I have to write a letter to the principal requesting that please allow me to write the exam and it took me around 5-10 minutes to get the signature from the principal so even though exam was late and another 10 minutes took for the letter moreover the teacher allowed me and I was really panicked I was completely in sweat and I was dehydrated and I was completely blank and I was thinking like what shall I do now and many things were going on from the first thing was like whether I'll pass this exam or what because of the traffic and there was a teacher was requesting me to get a letter from the principal this was the reason so I was late and that made me really unpleasant moment in my life so then somehow I managed to just take a 5-10 minutes break in the exam hall by just relaxing myself on a bench sitting on a bench then I started to write my exam somehow I attended all the question whichever is possible then by the end of the exam I was really quite happy

Band 5-6

No audio text available

Band 5-6

Well, to be honest I am a punctual person, but today I would like to shed some light on an event when I was late to arrive and it was none other than my school organization party. It was our farewell party at that day. I awoken late so when I awoken I found that the time is going to very late, so I was late Well, to be honest I am a punctual person, but today I would like to shed some light on an event when I was late to arrive and it was none other than my school organization party. It was our farewell party at that time I slept at night till late so I cannot awakened early so I got late and when I awoken I found that I am late, the clock is at alarming rate and quickly I took bath and got ready for going to farewell party and when I headed to party I found that the teachers are very angry for me and me and my teacher had a conflict, but I feel very bad that on that special day we had such bad experience, but after sometime I apologize to teacher and teacher forgives me, I was over the moon that I had this lovely teacher and after sometime we decided to do ramp walk and girls started doing ramp walk and cat walk and boys started doing modeling and

Band 5

One of my favorite TV series is Breaking Bad. It revolves around a high school chemistry teacher named Walter White who turns to cooking and selling methamphetamine after being diagnosed with cancer. The series explores his transformation from a humble teacher to a ruthless drug lord. The character development is exceptional and the plot is fully of suspense and unexpected twists. Watching this series has not only entertained me but also made me reflect on moral dilemmas and the consequences of one of actions. I'm practically found on the TV series Breaking Bad. It tells me the story of Walter White, a chemistry teacher who parents with a former student, Jessie Pinkman, to produce and distribute methamphetamine. The series is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and it brilliantly portrays the complexities of human nature and the impact of choices. The gripping storyline and outstanding performances by the cast make it an unforgettable experience. The series has captivated me with its intense drama and thought-provoking themes.
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