Cue Card # 80: When you received incorrect information

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 80

Describe a time when you received incorrect information.

You should say:

• when it was
• what wrong information you received
• why this happened

and explain how you managed the situation.

[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 am pretty sure that nobody really likes to deal with the incorrect information, be it on an important matter or a petty matter. But, despite our best efforts and intention, we just can’t seem to escape from it, just like I didn’t about a few years ago when I also had to deal with it about 6 or 7 years ago.

Back then, I was going through a rather rough time because I just had lost my job (because of the complete shutting down of my company), and I was attending new interviews, one after another, in order to become a productive citizen once again. But, while my mission of getting new interview calls was running in full swing, I received an email, with all the detail information on it, from a very renowned company, inviting me to attend an interview. Naturally, I became very excited and was getting ready to arrive at a city, completely unknown to me, in order to attend the interview.

Everything seemed to be fine with the information on the email except, of course, when I reported to the company authority about my interview, the lady at the reception seemed very surprised, as she, according to her, was not aware of any interview on that day. Rather, the interview was supposed to take place about a week later from then. Trying to hide my huge disappointment, I showed the email to the lady, and she ran inside to talk to her human resource manager to find out what actually had transpired. After coming back, she immediately apologized to me and told me that apparently, a new employee, at the human resource department made a mistake when using an automated emailing system to inform the prospective job applicants about their interview dates.

After learning that, I, of course, felt very frustrated and politely asked them not to make such mistake again because such mistake was only very demoralizing for a job candidate but also cost his/her time and money. However, there was also a consolation for me because my interview would be held only a week later.