arrow back icon Top Answers

Describe an instance when you received an apology.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • Who apologized?
  • When & why did they do it?
  • How did you feel about it?
Show all 32 answers

Cue 1:Who apologized?

  • Begin by identifying the person who apologized and your relationship with them.
  • Mention any relevant context that makes their apology significant.

Example

The person who apologized was my close friend, Ravi. We had been friends since childhood, and we often shared our thoughts and feelings openly.

Cue 2:When & why did they do it?

  • Describe the situation leading up to the apology, including the time and place.
  • Explain the reason behind the apology, focusing on the specific incident that caused it.

Example

It was during a weekend get-together at my house last month. Ravi accidentally spilled a drink on my laptop, which was a huge concern for me as I had important files saved on it. He felt terrible about the incident and wanted to make things right.

Cue 3:How did you feel about it?

  • Share your initial reaction to the apology and how it affected your feelings towards the person.
  • Discuss any resolution or outcome that followed the apology.

Example

When Ravi apologized, I felt relieved and appreciated his honesty. It showed me that he valued our friendship and was genuinely remorseful. I reassured him that it was just an accident, and we ended up laughing about it later, which strengthened our bond.

Conclusion

  • Summarize the importance of the apology in your relationship.
  • Reflect on what you learned from this experience.

Example

Overall, Ravi's apology was significant as it reinforced our friendship. It taught me that mistakes happen, but sincere apologies can mend relationships and bring people closer together.

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 the details of your experience.

bulb icon

Tip

Be specific about who apologized and the context. Use clear examples to illustrate your feelings and the situation.

2: Ignoring Emotional Impact

Failing to express how the apology affected you emotionally can weaken your response. It’s important to convey your feelings to create a connection with the listener.

bulb icon

Tip

Describe your feelings in detail. Explain how the apology made you feel at that moment and how it affected your relationship with the person.

Lack of Structure

A disorganized response can make it hard for the examiner to follow your story. It may lead to a lower score in coherence and fluency.

bulb icon

Tip

Organize your answer by following the cues: start with who apologized, then explain when and why, and finally share your feelings about it.

calendar icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

location icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

location icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

location icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

location icon

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
anonymous person icon

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

location icon

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

I recently received an apology from one of my juniors that I have worked extremely closely with. So this person is somebody I have been working with for the past one, one and a half years by now on a research project. And she had been a little uninvolved lately. So I decided to talk to her about it. And I expressed my concern about her not being actively involved in the research project and how we would not be able to give her the credits that she actually deserves for that. So once we had that conversation, she apologized to me that she hasn't been able to be performed as well as we expect her to. And she explained to me how she why she wasn't able to perform that well and how she had been busy with her academics. So we had a thorough discussion on how she could help herself in this and how we could also help her out in that. But I think I felt good that she decided to apologize to me because it was necessary for her to understand that because of her, the work was not only being slowed down. It was her who was losing in the process as well. So I think I made a good choice by going ahead and talking to her. And she also made an extremely good choice by deciding to apologize to me about it. And I also believe that the discussion we had in all of this may tend to better results in the future, which will lead to such an opportunity not ever coming ever again.

Band 6-7

So, recently my manager has apologised to me as we were working on a certain project and there was a certain skill set that should be added in the certification. As part of my job is to create these certifications and roadmaps and we had a small argument about that a certain skill set should be added in it or not. As per my research and knowledge, I argued with him that this should be added as per the statistics and trends but he was thinking quite the opposite, however we had a discussion over this and later on he found out that that skill set should be added in that particular certification so he came to me and he apologised to me that he was incorrect and I was correct at that time. At that time, I feel that I was relieved that I was correct and I argued over the correct thing which I think is a good sense of right that I had on that time. And also, later on I feel bad that I shouldn't argue with him that much that what I did at that time but eventually we discussed it over and the issue was resolved.

Band 6-7

Recently, my friend came back to me and said that he wanted to have a talk with me, because it has been a really long time since we contacted each other and had a conversation or we met. In the last year, in December, my friend Gaurav abruptly disconnected the call and said that he didn't want to talk to me, because I was being brutally honest about how his behaviour in the recent days has been, I was being honest about how he has to focus on his career, but he didn't listen to me and abruptly disconnected with me and didn't talk to me for like three months. Also, as he wanted to apologise to me, so he came in December last year and said that he is really sorry for how he reacted. Although it was for his good, still he reacted so much. I was really disheartened and I felt really overwhelming how he reacted to my honest opinion about his career. It was a really bad experience for me as he was such a good friend of mine and I never expected this from him at least.

Band 6-7

Actually, first of all, thinking about an apology that reminds me of years back when my college days, where my friend, her name is Daisy, she actually apologized to me, begging on my knees to forgive her that she did mistakes, she actually misunderstood what all things that happened. And the situation is that one day she had a friend named Ken, and Ken and Daisy were talking about something and they had a fight over it, and later on, talking with Ken, I actually supported Daisy that she was a very nice girl, she didn't mean to do that, but still, things happen. And all those things, I've talked to Ken about that, and later on, moving forward, Daisy has actually heard from somebody that I have told bad about Daisy. And thinking about that, that made me a lot of pain, and later on, Daisy actually told me that, you are the person who is doing all this, you're making me bad, you're putting out my name in the bad place, and all. Later on, moving forward, after a week or maybe two, we were not talking, we were not having any conversations, we were not having any interactions at all, even though in class she's not looking at me, I'm not looking at her, we were total strangers for two weeks. And the next day, after the two weeks, she came to me and asked me, why didn't you tell me this earlier? And I was like, what, what is the thing which I told you, which I haven't told you? You said, if you did that for good, then why didn't you tell me? And I told her, only because of this, I wanted you to trust me. You're not trusting me, and you think that I do it? There's nothing which I can do in it. And at that time, she felt very guilty, she had a guilty feeling, she begged to me, please don't do this to me, I'm very sorry for that. So at that moment, I felt very happy, but later on, thinking about it, I was like, why don't people trust me? And I felt very bad about myself being

Band 6-7

so I am going to talk about apology that I received it was last time from a colleague of mine we had some disappointment or like quarrel we can say quarrel okay so it it happened few months back and we had to share a project together and we had to work on it together and deliver the project within the deadline to the client so some of the mishappening happened there and she wasn't quite able to catch up with the me in that project so she wasn't quite able to understand but she did not confronted it to me that she is not able to understand and she was not able to complete her part of work so when I completed my part of work she just put everything on me that I was supposed to do her part as well so she said that her part was to just test it and deliver it so when I confronted her that this is not how things work we had to do whatever is an instructed to us so she then understood it and she apologized at first I felt gas that I was gaslighted gaslighted into the situation but then I forgave her because after that I felt relieved because when you feel angry it's not like other one is getting affected with it it's me only who is getting affected I only get hurt when I am angry and I feel overwhelmed so that's why I just forgave her and since then we tried to talk the situation out and she apologized as well so I think it's better if you if you just accept your mistake and apologize things can go back to normal and since then it's been okay

Band 6-7

About apologies, I can say that whenever I am receiving apologies, I usually try to understand the intention behind them. If the person is sincere and regrets their actions, I accept the apology gratefully and move forward. Forgiving someone not only helps rebuild trust, but also brings peace to the relationship too. So, this is my thinking about the apologies, otherwise I don't have any other words to discuss about it more, so this is the point I hope you will receive. At the time, I also consider the contents and my relationship with the person. If the apology comes from someone close, I focus on resolving the issue and strengthening the bond. On the other hand, if it's a casual acquaintance, I acknowledge their apology and let the matter go, maintaining mutual respect. I try to take lessons from the accident, whether it's setting boundaries or improving communication, each situation offers an opportunity to grow.

Band 6-7

The apology that comes to mind is the apology that I received from my ex-boyfriend two years ago and this was because he cheated on me with his ex-girlfriend and lied to me about it and I found out about it on his phone from a text message that she sent him telling me that her pregnancy test was negative. So I was very, very much hurt and I started crying a lot and he apologized for it over and over but it didn't really make much of a difference to me because that was a breaking point of sorts. Furthermore, I had kept on trusting him but he kept on breaking my trust so it was not enough at that point. I felt like I was used over and over again and his apology didn't matter to me at that moment but now I feel better about it and I've accepted his apology so it's okay between us right now.

Band 6-7

A student of mine apologised to me recently. I am a teacher and I had a discussion with my students where I was trying to tell them to be more respectful towards the teacher and about my own experience not feeling respected enough when I teach them. This student in particular took this advice for himself. However, I did not intend it to just reach him and not others. I was happy that he came forward and apologised for the whole class although there was no reason for him to do it since he is a good student. I did not want that he should have come and apologised. Instead, if the whole class could have come together and asked for an apology, it would have made me feel more content. Satisfaction was not what I was looking for. I want them to become good students and good human beings. Agreeing to your mistakes is a first step towards being a good human being.

Band 6-7

To talk about an incident where I got an apology, I have to go back 5 years. It was a cricket match. It was a league match between Chennai and Trichy and I was representing my side which is Chennai. It was a very crucial match as the winners of this match will proceed to finals and I was batting for my team. My team needed 50 runs of the last 30 balls and I was the last agonized batsman. I was batting really well. I was able to score 20 odd runs from 10 balls and hence my team only required 10 runs further. And at that moment, I got out. It was a leg before wicket. Even though the ball was pitching and the impact was outside of stump, the umpire gave it an out. I was stunned by the decision. Even the opposition bowlers had a disbelief in their face when the umpire raised his finger. I went to the umpire and appealed this decision but he didn't change his decision. To my surprise, after the match got over, which we won anyways, the umpire approached me and he told me that the decision that he gave was wrong and that it was not out. I asked him a question why he didn't respond immediately or why he didn't change his decision. He told me that he was clouded at that moment and that only he realized the mistake that he done after the next ball. I told him that this could have been a costly mistake as we would have lost the match and we wouldn't have went through the finals. As we made it to the finals, I didn't feel that bad about the decision. But still, it would have been a pleasant experience if I had guided my team to the victory. Overall, I accepted his apology.

Band 6-7

Well, since my childhood to this present time, I have had received countless apologies from everyone, but today I would like to talk about an instance when I get an apology from a someone stranger. I vividly remember last month, my father gave me a work and sent me out of the city and I was on the bike, speed of about 40 to 50 km per hour and suddenly someone came on the road with the speed of approximately 70 to 80 km per mile. It was, he was so fast and I was, as soon as I can react, as long as I can react anything, he hit, he come and hit me and I got injured very badly. It was very unfortunate incident of my life and after so many arguments, he realized his mistake and apology, asked for apology. So this was the incidence of my life where I got apology from stranger and after that he also take me into the hospital and complete my all procedure and pay for my hospital expenses. Eventually it was a very unpleasant experience of my life, which I never want it to repeat in my life again. So this was the incident when I get an apology.
1 2 3 4
ielts logo

Get the IELTS Prep App

Star rating icon

4.2

1M+ Installs

 app download banner image

Get the app link on your phone

+91

Or download app from

google play storeapp store
master ielts speaking ad