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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

My biggest disappointment in life was with my faith in God. Now, there are many people who turn from their faith and turn towards atheism, agnosticism and whatnot, and I was no different. The death of a dear friend with whom I had many great future prospects, it hit me hard and it hit me deeply. And knowing that there was no consolation, there was no comfort from the Divine, there was no shoulder to cry on during my darkest hour, that was my biggest disappointment. And furthermore, as I waited and waited and waited for a response from God, it dawned on me that there was no one coming to help, there was no one coming to give a sense of comfort or consolation, no one to pick me up from the grief and help stick the shattered pieces back together. And that's when I realised that I have to get back up on my own. Today, my second biggest disappointment is finding the strength to get back up on my own. And until this day, it makes me feel alone and abandoned.

Band 6-7

There are many things I'm disappointed about actually, but the one that stands out is one of my badminton matches. It's a badminton match that is held between two districts. Mainly I'm from, my native is Vishakhapatnam. It is Vishakhapatnam versus Vijayanagaram. It's another district. So it's a district and final match that's going to take you to the nationals. That's when you represent your whole national level. But I couldn't make it and it's sad. And moreover my mom and dad also couldn't make it to the match. They couldn't get to see me play. They were busy that day and my mom is so busy and my dad had to go out of town for some kind of work and they couldn't make it to the match. And my brother is not, you know my brother is a school-going kid and he couldn't come to the match. If I would have won that I would be playing nationals somewhere and representing my whole state. But I couldn't make it and it's very disappointing that I couldn't make it and even my parents couldn't watch me play. And yeah I probably, I get more disappointed when I think about that point because I just lost two points with my opponent, with my opponent. So she's trained by some of the high-tech you know coaches but yeah that's not the point. But actually it's just a two mix, you know. Losing for two points or like one to five points, it's more disappointing. It feels like all your effort is going vain. That you didn't practice enough or something like that. But in reality it's not that. I get more disappointed because firstly my mom and dad couldn't make it and yeah I didn't win it.

Band 6-7

The time when I was disappointed was a few days back when I had given my first attempt of GRE. I was sure that my 3 months of training was enough for it and I had given my best at it. After the test I got to know that I hadn't scored what I wanted but I had scored something that was not even good. After knowing that I was quite disappointed with myself that after putting so much preparation in it I lacked a lot of knowledge about GRE. I got quite disappointed with myself for the whole day and I wasted another day in being disappointed with myself. After that I decided that I will not be disappointed anymore and I will give it another go and prepare again for the next attempt. This disappointment taught me a lot about myself and that it's not good to be disappointed with myself when I can give it another go and see where I land.

Band 6-7

I am a person who generally doesn't bother when I am upset or you know I have a time phase of being sad or sorrow but certain times when I highly expect from myself and I tend to disappoint myself I think that is a time where my wall crashes down. I go in completely a zone where I am nonchalant about things regarding to my day to day life and I seem to be unbothered and I just distance myself from the world. So when I was doing my graduation in Roshni, I remember this incident happened where I was expecting my marks regarding the sociology exam, it was the second semester exam and I had to do good in that exam because of my lecturers pressure and it was my favourite subject too. So I wanted to impress him, I wanted to make him happy by getting the good marks. Eventually I scored good but not well enough to be the first person with the good marks in the class. So I think that was very much disappointing for myself where I felt that I could have done better, maybe I took it for granted because I used to always score good marks. I think this feeling that I have got where I felt like I let myself down in front of my lecturer is because I have always been number one, I have always had the privilege to get the attention of the class and the pampered one even by my family and my lecturers. So I think this is the reason why that I couldn't stand being second and I do not appreciate this habit of mine, this quality of mine but thing is I think it should be a person's feeling of how they portray themselves.

Band 6-7

Okay, so I have been recently disappointed by my favorite movie franchise which is the Marvel movie franchise, Marvel Universe and why did it disappoint? It happened when they have released their new movie which is called Doctor Strange and Multiverse of Madness. It happened because I had been expecting a lot from the movie because they had indicated the introduction of various old characters from various universes but that did not seem to be the case as they were just playing a minute role in the movie but I had expected them to be handling a bigger role and bringing more impact into the movie but however, they were just being portrayed as side characters.

Band 6-7

Being rational human beings, it's a very natural thing to get disappointed in various aspects of our life and many a times there have been circumstances where I have also been disappointed in many things that have occurred in my life. However, one of the significant disappointments which I can remember is that even after getting into the institution which I wanted to be a part of, I couldn't go ahead with that. It was about the financial aspect due to which I couldn't go forward with that and that was pretty much touching and heartbreaking but then that's how life is, life should go on and another significant disappointment which I can reckon is how my uncle was very judgmental on one of the aspect or opinion which I shared with him and how he had the stereotype mentality about it. However, I can't change his perspective but I really did advise him to not keep up with those opinions because it won't work in today's world, that is way old and time is changing and people can't go ahead with the stereotype mentality so that is again another disappointing factor that I can remember of. Again, there are a lot of disappointments in life so to talk about it is like so much, I can't just pick one or two but these are a few that really

Band 6-7

So yes, regarding the disappointment that was there in my life, the disappointment that I will be talking about is something academic. So I am an academic achiever and I associate my identity with what I do with academics. As a result of this, I am someone who puts in a lot of sweat and blood into my studies and I always aim for the best. I aim for nothing less than the stars, the moon and the stars, that's what it is for me, every single time. So naturally, as a part of this, I was preparing very well for my post-graduation exams and I wanted nothing lesser than the gold medal itself, that is to be the topper of my batch. And in this regard, I later on got to know that I just lost the gold medal by a couple of points. This happened a couple of months back. If I recall correctly, it was probably last October and it was during the announcement of who won the medal that I got to know that it's not me. And there was no doubt of the disappointed look that I had in my eyes. And to be quite frank, I can still feel the disappointment. I felt this way because I expected it, you see, and I believe even people who taught me, my parents, my teachers, my professors, all of them expected this from me. Moreover, there were a lot of benefits of becoming the gold medalist, including a sure shot at the interviews and an easy way into a job, which I missed out along with this. So you can imagine that I was quite devastated at the end of all of this.

Band 6-7

I did not get good marks in my NEET exam after my high school, it happened about 5 years ago. Even after doing my hard work, I was not able to score enough marks, which led to change in my field and it also led to depression and anxiety. Thank you. My mother and father did not approve of getting me into a different field of study as well. I did not get good marks in my NEET exam as well. Thank you.

Band 6-7

Disappointment, a word that is often considered as a negative adjective, but on a personal note, I think it's something that helps you reflect truly on what you want to be and what you are. So, I think that draws a line of distinction and helps one reflect on what they want to do and how they can go about it. Recent experience of disappointment would be in the previous semester of my college where I felt quite disappointed with myself for not embracing my true self and who I am. I felt I failed to embrace my flaws, my mistakes, but at the end of the day, I truly think that those in totality make me who I am and I felt a little disappointed with myself that I failed to embrace them for who I am and I think it is a disappointment because I think a person can truly embrace and cherish one's own personality only when they learn to embrace both the negatives and positives of it. It is only when a person embraces it himself or herself, only then can he or she expect the external world to accept it and embrace it. So I truly think that the process of acceptance starts from within and then blooms with the outside world. So that is one personal instance I would like to share here.

Band 6-7

So, yesterday I planned my Sunday and all the tasks that I wanted to complete on Sunday because after that again I'll have my working days and I may not be able to get enough time to do my personal tasks. So I specially kept my Sunday to complete all the personal tasks and now I am sitting and the complete Sunday is gone and the tasks that I have scheduled for myself include that I have to prepare for the IELTS exam as well as I have to do some hair care and skin care. Also I have to wash my clothes and with this I also have to do a complete and write response to few of my office email and now I am sitting and the whole Sunday is gone and what all I had done in the whole day was just sleeping and neither I prepared for, neither I practiced for my exam nor I have done my banking paper process nor I completed my application on online portal and with this I am also supposed to end my day with finishing.
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