IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card

Describe a time when you had to wait in a long queue

: You should say

when it was
how long the queue was
what was it about
and explain how you felt about waiting in this long queue

: Sample Answer

I think this is an easy topic for me and I be able to speak about one such recent event when I had to wait more than an hour in a very long queue. Thank you for this nice cue card topic

It would not be more than 3-4 months ago and it was just before the Christmas and New Year time. On a Sunday evening, I went to a supermall near my home to do some necessary shopping. I spent almost 45 minutes to pick up all the essential items and the number of items was more than usual! Then I approached to the checkout point of the mall. While shopping, I noticed that many people were shopping and most of them were shopping for the Christmas and New Year celebration. Due to this, the crowd seemed a bit larger than usual. However, as soon as I reached near the checkout point, I was overwhelmed. I had no idea how large the queue in this shopping mall could be

There were more than 5 checkout points but each of those was surprisingly crowded. I could not decide which queue to stand in! Strangely I was people behind me was forcing to go ahead and I had no other alternative but to stand in the nearest queue. I actually counted the number of people who were also waiting in my queue ahead of me. IT was probably 21 or 22 and I got quite anxious to leave the shopping mall as soon as possible. The cash registers and the sales persons were very busy and most of the customers’ shopping cart were full

At a point of my waiting in this long queue, I thought to put back my items on the shelves and leave the shopping mall. However, I discarded the idea as those items were important for me and my family. Many items were for the Christmas and the New Year celebration and I could not leave without buying these items. Moreover, I thought all other shopping centres would also be crowded at this time of the year. After 30 minutes or so I started playing games on my mobile phone. I did so for about half an hour and then I noticed that the line in front of me had become smaller. On the other hand, the number of people behind me had grown to more than 50. Most of the people were shopping for the two major approaching festivals and all of them were waiting in the queue peacefully. The air was filled with the aroma of the festivity and people looked happy and cheerful even though they had to wait in a very long queue for a long time. This thought calmed me and after approximately 25 minutes I paid my bill and the salesgirl wished me merry Christmas. I greeted her back she apologised for the long waiting. I told her that I understand and it was not a big problem for me. However, I knew how irritating and tough it was to wait for such a long hours in a large queue. As soon as I got back to my car and started the engine, I felt much better and I was happy to finally have my shopping done