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

Describe a situation when you were late

: You should say

What was the event you were late for
What was the reason that you were late
How did you feel about it

and explain how you handled it

: Sample Answer

The city I live in has a severe traffic jam problem and due to that, we often get late to reach our destination. One such event when I was late in an important exam was a frustrating experience for me. It was 2 years ago when I was a student in the university. I had an exam at 8.30 am which I thought would be at 9.30 am. I did this mistake because I noted the time wrongly in my notebook. I prepared for the exam well and left home at 8.15 am as my usual journey to my university takes around 40 minutes. According to the schedule, I should have reached at least 30 minutes before the exam time

I already had the wrong idea about the exam timing and I found that it was raining outside and there were only a few transportations available on the road. I had to wait at the bus stoppage for more than 30 minutes before I actually got into a bus. To my surprise, the traffic on the road was very bad. The buses were moving very slowly because of the unavoidable traffic jam. I was hoping desperately to reach the university in time. But that was not my day! I reached at the exam hall at 10.15 am and I was shocked to learn that the exam would end only in 15 minutes. I was so worried and anxious that I could not think clearly what to do

I felt helpless at that time and was asked the teacher what can I do now. He asked me to come after the exam ends. I followed him as soon as he left the exam room. I noticed that some of my classmates were also looking at me with surprise and were probably thinking how careless I was to miss such an important exam

After I reach the class exam coordinator’s room, he took me to our advising tutor and asked me to give a good reason why I was late for the exam. I told everything that has happened and the coordinator arranged an exam in his room. As a penalty, he deducted 20 minutes from the exam time and asked me to finish the exam and leave the answer sheet to him. I was kind of worried and felt a bit relieved also. As my preparation was good, I had been able to answer all the questions in the due time. Thus the situation was handled and I was not in a big trouble for the late I made unintentionally