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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 got disappointed when I met with a finger injury on my ship while working at the bottom platform of the cargo hold. I was assigned with the task of putting a portable exhaust inside a DV manhole. At that time, the safety mesh of the blower fan was not in place and there was very dim lighting. So as I proceeded with the task to check where the suction and exhaust was, I got my finger caught in one of the blades of the fan. It really disappointed me that I made such a mistake which caused me an injury, a loss of blood and something to remember by, a lesson for life. What things I remember is that I should not repeat the same mistake as it was a very risky thing to do. I didn't took the proper procedure to follow for the task and it really bothered me that because of such a mistake, till now my finger has not fully recovered.

Band 6-7

I remember when was the last time I get really disappointed on myself which is when my IELTS result came out on 15th of December 2024. I was really disappointed on the result on myself you can say because I have done really well in the exam but I don't know why my band score was really low and yeah definitely at that time I need to practice more. I just thought the schedule, I just prepared the schedule and doing things right afterwards and eventually my disappointment just fades away over the time. So that's all about the disappointment I had.

Band 6-7

For this one, I have to take you back to 2020. It was during the COVID time. I had just finished an examination and I was waiting for the results to be published. On the day in which the results are supposed to be published, I was a bit nervous and a bit excited too, because if I were to pass all the subjects, I would have passed the engineering on that day itself. It was a really nervous situation and I got the news that the results were about to be published from my friend Anshaddin. Even though it was like 4 or 5 years ago, I still remember it like it was just yesterday. At that time, I started looking for the results. The website was really erratic and it was crashing every time. All the tension just built up and up. It was really stressful. While I was looking at the results, I found out that I failed to pass just one subject. The subject was called Introduction to Engineering Dynamics. It was considered to be a really tough subject, so I was hoping that I would clear it. I had studied a lot and concentrated a lot on the subject. To know that I hadn't passed the subject...

Band 6-7

I think I am disappointed from my last employers because they were not giving me the compensation I deserved, the appreciation for the work I have done for them. I was there since last six years and still never got promoted. There was no pay raise in the means periodic intervals. They used to give us the raise as per their convenience and not thinking about the employees welfare. The employees welfare was very pathetic and my boss was too diplomatic. He never clarified things for you, always ready to blame you for any work that was done wrong and he was the one who was never supportive to you. The management is always right for him and the employees working under him are always wrong and that's where the disappointment started and it took me to leave that job finally. Now I am in new organization and by being in that organization I do realize that things were really very bad there. The situation, the scenario I faced there gave me lot of lessons with the disappointment that I faced. Today I am now feeling really great that I finally took a step to leave that job and now I am in a new place with new opportunities. So sometimes disappointment is good for you. You should get disappointed with bad things to have new space for new things in your life and I absolutely feel proud on my part that after facing such a situation I was always being honest to my work and I worked very diligently and very gracefully. I completed all my tasks since my notice period was running.

Band 6-7

I took a vacation. I went on a vacation with my family to Andaman and Nicoba Island a week ago. I was really excited because it was an exotic location which is comparable to Maldives or Mauritius or Indonesia for example but it's also very budget-friendly. I had planned the whole trip elaborately and made sure that I included every must-see point in my itinerary. So we land in Port Blair around 3 o'clock and the weather is abysmal. It's the worst to say the least because there was a prediction of cyclone around that area and I didn't know that and I was so disappointed when I landed because I knew that this could potentially affect my itinerary and inhibit me from seeing places which I want to go and that's exactly what happened. After we landed we freshened up and went to see the first attraction which is Corbin's Curve Beach and the minute we reached there the rain started pouring heavily and it was worst to say the least. On top of it the island is quite underdeveloped because the electricity went out in about half an hour and there was a blackout and we couldn't see anything. It was raining torrentially and we had to figure out how to get back to the hotel. Still we were not discouraged. We thought that okay we'll see more places next day and next day we realized that the place we wanted to see was shut down because there was no boat to take us there so it was a very bad

Band 6-7

Being a private person I generally don't feel free to share about the things that I am disappointed about but as this is a really important evaluation I would like to open up with you to state that I was most disappointed about when I didn't get an admission to a university called Symbiosis for pursuing my degree in law. I was really looking forward to my admission in that said college because I had a lot of friends who are currently studying there in their final year pursuing law and with the reputation that the college carries I find it really disappointing about how I was not able to qualify for the entrance exams for the college which made me choose a college which was lacking the character that the college I wanted to pursue did. It happened in the mids of 2020 where I was unable to clear the common entrance test for the same. It really broke my heart and I really felt that I let my parents down by not being able to get into this university. The disappointment crept in more about me as a person as I was not able to deliver on the promise that my father had made me give where I had promised him that I would get into a great college which I unfortunately couldn't but ever since that incident happened I have been striving for the past four years making sure that I would be successful in getting a university for my master's and I'm thankful for the same that I am in a positive mental space that I will definitely find myself

Band 6-7

So basically I am in 12th standard. I have choosed science stream which is very hard to study. There are very difficult subjects in it. So I had a joint tuition classes near by my house and they were very good at teaching at first. I used to understand everything and score good marks. But later on I experienced that they were not teaching really good and I was not getting good marks too. And the schedule was really very hectic. So I had to leave the class. I decided to leave the class after the first semester examination. And then I left the class. But the disappointing thing was that my friends in the tuition classes are not in the same college that I am. And we don't meet, we also don't meet outside the classes and all. But we used to meet in the classes only. So now they are not going to meet me. So that was the disappointing thing happened to me recently.

Band 6-7

The education system never failed to disappoint me in my country. The day I passed out of my engineering college, I realized that I was not updated with the latest technologies. I have worked on old technologies, old trends and few technologies which were outdated. And because of these factors, I was really disappointed. My coursework didn't offer me much of exposure. It was just a passing on of information and there were no interactions, there were no innovations. It was just write down your assignments and submit it. No one was interested in checking and how the progress is. Everyone was only focusing on the marks, not on the development and overall growth of the student. And regardless of this, there were toppers and students which were getting failed. But I think that doesn't matter because the kind of education system they were in, I will say that won't matter because that education system is old school, not a new one. There is a certain need of big changes to be brought in the system and I don't know.

Band 6-7

There are many things happened with me which disappointed me and one thing which disappointed me the most was when my friends played a prank on me. It was, it is about 2 years ago when one day my friends called me to come on ground to play cricket. So, I, in the evening I went on the ground and when I, when I got at the ground I saw that there was no one and then I called my friend asking him where is he. So then he answered that he was at his home. Then I went his home but there, there was a lock. So then I again called him and then he said that he is on another friend's house with all friends waiting for him, me. So then I went there but there was also a lock. So at third time when I called him he said that he was at my home. So when I went to my home and I saw there and I saw that there was no one at my house then I get to know that they played a prank on me and this made me very disappointed because on that day my so much time was wasted and also my so much energy was lost and it was, I did not, didn't expect this from my friends to play a prank like this on me and this thing made me disappointed so much in my life.

Band 6-7

So, the thing that I remember now is when my 12th standards results came and I find myself with a very low grade in mathematics and that grade had a great impact on my percentage and my final percentage. Even though I was able to score very high marks in the other subjects but this mark led me to go from a very bright student to an average student with an average percentage. So, I was very sad and disappointed in the fact that I scored such a low marks and also was very sad because I had to face my teachers who had taught me and I had to confront them and explain why I did not score the marks they expected. And then there is one teacher who also called me and asked what happened, is there anything like they expected a lot and I was not able to achieve it. So, they asked me that if is there something like is it a problem related with the examiner or do we need to send it to revaluation or something or like. So, I told it is fine I think I thought I studied only that much and I thought that was enough for me to score a good mark. But consequently I realized that it was not the thing.
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