Cue Card # 194: When you missed an important appointment

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 194

Describe a time when you missed an important appointment.

You should say:

• when it was
• what type of appointment it was
• why you missed the appointment

and explain how you felt about it. 

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

Model Answer:

I missed an important appointment about 10 years ago when I was a 10th-grade high school student. At that time, I was so much interested in joining a “cadet college” – a special military schooling system to groom future army officers. Today, I would share this experience with you.

It was not easy at all to get admission to these cadet colleges as they had a very rigorous “testing” system to meet their strict physical and academic requirements. So, I prepared myself really well, both physically and academically, to pass the cadet college test. I was lucky enough to pass the written and physical tests. Finally, it was time for a “viva voce” (an oral examination), and this is where I fell short and missed my appointment. Let me tell you what really happened.

I was all ready to go to the test centre by taking a bus, and it was only a 20-25 minute ride from my home. As a precaution, I started my journey almost one hour before my scheduled viva voce. But, alas! Even one hour was not enough for me to arrive at my destination on that day as the bus had to reroute through another road. And it had to reroute because some major construction works were going on the road. Because of this change of road, it took me about 50 minutes to arrive at my test centre. However, even though, I did arrive before my scheduled examination, I failed to report on time. In fact, I was supposed to report at least 15 minutes before my scheduled viva voce, but I fell short by just 5 minutes, and since no-nonsense is/was allowed in military college rule, my appointment for that day was cancelled.

Needless to say, I felt really terrible about the missed opportunity to impress upon the examination board. I also felt that I was probably not destined to study at a cadet college since I couldn’t arrive at the test centre on time. Finally, I also felt that I was very careless not to hit the road even earlier since it was a serious matter in my life and career.