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Describe something you were disappointed about.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • What was it about?
  • When did it happen?
  • Why did it disappoint you?
Show all 46 answers

Cue 1:What was it about?

  • Clearly state the event or situation that caused your disappointment.
  • Provide some background information to help the listener understand the context.

Example

I was really disappointed when I found out that my favorite music concert was canceled. I had been looking forward to it for months, as it was a chance to see my favorite band live.

Cue 2:When did it happen?

  • Mention the date or time frame when the event occurred.
  • Describe any preparations you made leading up to the event.

Example

The concert was scheduled for last Saturday evening. I had already bought my ticket weeks in advance and even planned to go with my friends, which made the anticipation even more exciting.

Cue 3:Why did it disappoint you?

  • Explain your feelings about the cancellation and why it mattered to you.
  • Discuss any personal significance the event held for you.

Example

It disappointed me because I had been eagerly waiting for this concert as it was a rare opportunity to see my favorite band perform live. I felt let down not just because of the cancellation, but also because I had made plans with my friends, and we were all looking forward to the experience together.

Conclusion

  • Summarize your feelings about the disappointment.
  • Reflect on any lessons learned or how you coped with the situation.

Example

In conclusion, while I was very disappointed about the concert being canceled, I learned to appreciate the moments I have with friends, even if they don't go as planned. We ended up having a fun evening together at home, which turned out to be a memorable experience in its own way.

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 Descriptions

Using vague language can make your answer unclear. If you don't provide specific details about the disappointment, the examiner may find it hard to understand your experience.

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Tip

Use specific examples and details to describe the situation clearly. Mention what happened and how it affected you.

2: Lack of Structure

A disorganized response can confuse the listener. If you jump between points without a clear order, it may be difficult for the examiner to follow your story.

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Tip

Organize your answer by following the cues: start with what it was about, then when it happened, and finally why it disappointed you.

Overly Negative Tone

Focusing too much on negativity can make your answer less engaging. While disappointment is a valid emotion, it's important to balance it with some positive reflections.

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Tip

After explaining your disappointment, consider adding a lesson learned or how you moved on from the experience to create a more balanced response.

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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

I would like to talk about a moment when I was really disappointed. It was back in 2016 when I was preparing for my NEET UG exam. It was a very important moment that I was waiting for throughout the year for my results. I think I probably gave all my will and my knowledge into the exam but still I couldn't get as far as I wanted to and I was really disappointed and sad about the time. But I think that was the moment when I decided that some things are not meant for everybody and we should all be thankful that there's something that will turn around and we will be able to work towards a different task that has maybe assigned to us by the almighty God. And therefore I turned this failure and disappointment around and I worked towards my goal of actually working for the environment which was one of the priorities in my life. Later on as well I started preparing for my Environmental Science Masters and I got rank 4 in a university which is ranked 3 in the whole country India and therefore I think how you can work towards a disappointment even after getting disappointment at the point of time. I turned it around and I worked towards my goal and ultimately I achieved it and today I do feel that that amount of disappointment or sadness that I brought to me at that point of time was really important because it gave me a lesson in life of what not to do or what not to do.

Band 6-7

Yeah, I would like to share something that I was disappointed about, that was regarding my MCET exam. So I gave my MCET exam in 2013, the first attempt. So and I got a rank of 5000 something, 5000 plus, which is actually a good rank compared like 2 lakh people give that test. And so when I when I was about to go into the counseling, there was certain there was certain thing that the rank ranges and the seat allocation was done on caste basis. So that was something disappointed me because the lower caste people who got about 20,000 and 25,000 rank got a slot or a seat in that in a particular university or a college. But whereas, whereas me who got in a 5000 so on rank, due to my creamy layer caste, I wasn't being allotted to any medical college because we do have a cut off for every particular class. And then I got to know this at that point, reservations do disappoint people who were even married. So that was the time I got disappointed and later. And however, I gave my second attempt for that MCET exam. And even in that year in 2014, the same thing happened. The marriage like me who got 3000-4000 rank were not allotted the seat and the people who got 20,000 and 30,000 with a reservation have a seat, but this wasn't disappointing in my career. And the thing which made me to switch my career, I had a dreams of getting into a medicine and I want to become a doctor, but because of

Band 6-7

So, it was a time in 2014 when I felt disappointed about the exam failure which I have given in 2014 and it was the exam of NEET which I was not able to clear. It was the exam for preparation of MBBS and I was fully focused and I did so much of preparation for my exams. Later, when I appeared for the exam, I was completely blank. I was not able to understand how to initiate, how to write, how to give the answers. I was completely feeling blue when after so much of hard work, I was not able to achieve the grades what I was looking forward. Though the exam was very important to get something in Government College, I was planning to get a high score in my NEET exam and unfortunately when the result came, I was completely disappointed about the result, what I achieved. After clearing that exam, I thought to get any Government College admission so I could better do my work. After that, this exam I prepared after class 12 only, so after my examination of finishing my intermediate, I started preparing rigorously because it was two years of hardship. I devoted my two years of hardship for this exam but unfortunately the results and outcomes were not on my side.

Band 6-7

Ever since I was a child, I would often get upset when things didn't go the way I planned. The same thing happened a few days back where we planned to go on this trip to an amusing park and suddenly we had to cancel our plans due to some reasons my cousin gave. She wanted to attend some crusades which were last minute information from her side and we had to completely postpone our trip to the amusement park. It has disappointed me a lot because I was counting on it. I have been planning it for months and I was pretty much upset with the fact that I couldn't do anything about the fact that I can't go on this trip at the moment. That disappointed me a lot because I didn't have much time left to explore. I thought that I could cover this trip with the time that I've left with since I've been planning to go abroad in the coming few months and that has disappointed me a lot. Apart from cancelling this trip, we've also wanted to visit some local restaurants just to explore but then I had to cancel that also as I got food poison and added to that.

Band 6-7

answers I was quite amazed the at the level of the question paper because in general the question paper doesn't seem to be that way I did quite silly mistakes silly mistakes while attempting the answers some of were like the putting the wrong negative and positive signs and misinterpretation of the question

Band 6-7

I would like to share with you the time when I was disappointed. It was about my SEM 1 score. I received this score in 2021 when I gave my first semester exam. I was quite disappointed with my score as I received only 7.5 GPA which was quite low as compared to my expectations. I recently had a good GPA and I have improved over the years but this GPA was really low and made me feel disappointed. Just before giving this exam, I had given an entrance exam to enter into this college. The exam was about technical questions and I received around 94.5 percentile in this exam and I was quite confident. Rather, I would say I was overconfident and I thought everything is very easy for me and I avoided preparing for the exam and started doing it on the last moment which did not result really well and gave me a low band score. I was very disappointed in myself as it felt like I had let down my parents who were paying relatively much higher fees for my course and it felt like I had not stayed up to their expectations. Also, my parents knew that I had the potential to score really well but seeing me not take my studies seriously disappointed them as well which is something that I would not have done.

Band 6-7

The most disappointing I was most disappointed with the 2022 to 2024 on recession. It was because a lot of companies cut their expenses to increase their profits as a result of which a lot of people lose their jobs, which adversely affects their families. This also decreases confidence in the employees as they have the fear of losing their jobs anytime during their service. It started in 2022 after the COVID. It was because during the COVID times, there was a lot of boom in the online services due to which many companies allowed their employees to work from home. This has increased their profits and a lot of work could be done from their homes and this also reduced the requirement of going to offices and working for the projects. A lot of work was done online from the employers and the

Band 6-7

So, something that I was disappointed about was the CAT exam that I gave in the month of December last year. The result came right after two days of me really enjoying my life away at a college fest and I was utterly disappointed by it. I had worked hard, I had worked really hard for the exam and I still did not make the cut. I did try really hard to clear the exam and what I was disappointed about most was the fact that all that hard work led me to nowhere. What I learnt from it is that sometimes life does give you chances and it's okay if you mess up those chances because what matters is how hard you tried and I did try my level best. If only I could succeed.

Band 6-7

During my whole life I never felt disappointed with my decision but I vividly remember one moment when I really disappointed by my performance. It was the time when I was in my 12th standard and I was appearing in the exam which could lead me to the medical science. The exam name is NEET, it is conducted by the Indian authority that exam is only to check the eligibility of candidate whether he or she is able to study their undergraduate degree in the medical science or not. I was disappointed because when the result released I saw that I failed in that exam. So it was very miserable moment for me, my family and me were in shock because I really did very hard to crack that exam but didn't get a fruitful result.

Band 6-7

I generally don't feel disappointed thinking about the past things, because past is past, I cannot change those things, but right now I try to be positive and to be optimistic in the situations which I am going through, but still I do get disappointed in certain things specially, I am a PG student, I am a master student, so I will be doing my research work, so during my research work I have to go through a lot of obstacles, there will be a lot of setbacks, I have to juggle with lot of things, academic writing, research work, article writing, a lot of stuffs have to be handled by me, sometimes I feel I lack the skill to do it, on many things, many confusions would arise, most of the times I would be vague and lot of things, so whenever I plan something and it goes in opposite direction and when I get the poorest results, I feel very disappointed, I feel so dejected, but then I tell to myself all the obstacles and setbacks are all stepping stones for success and I move forward with a positive mindset, so that I will attain a good position for my PhD.
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