IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card # 109
Describe a time when you needed more than the allowed time to finish a task.
You should say:
- when it was
- what the task was
- how long it took you to finish the task
and explain why you needed more time to finish 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 have been reasonably prompt in finishing my tasks on time because it always provided me with a certain sense of peace and mental satisfaction in my mind. But, of course, there have been occasions before when I needed some extra time to finish my tasks (as frustrating and troubling as it was), and today, I would like to talk about one such occasion.
It happened about 6 years ago, when I was a final year student at my university, and I was studying business administration with a Management Information System major. Now, I am not sure about the other majors or faculties, but, as a student of business administration, I had to take care of a huge load of assignments almost every week, if not even more frequently. As if these gigantic load of assignments was not enough to cause us stress, some of our teachers used to be very strict on their deadlines for submitting finished assignments. Nevertheless, against all the odds, I was fortunate enough to finish all my assignments on time except the one, and a very important one in that, which asked me to write a complicated computer program during the first semester of my final year.
Anyway, I was also equally up to the challenge, but then something terrible happened – I got an eye infection. Of course, I thought that eye infection would go away by itself soon, but as time passed, the infection started to get worse. So, I went to a doctor who told me to give my eyes a complete rest for at least a week.
Not to mention, I panicked badly after learning the news as my assignment was due in the next few days. But, I called my professor and explained the situation to him. I also asked him to allow me an extra week to finish my assignment as my eyes were really pink and hurting. Initially, of course, I wasn’t too optimistic that my request would be accepted, but, to my pleasant surprise, he did allow me the extra time to finish my assignment without penalising me for the delay.