Describe an Occasion When you Wasted your Time- IELTS Cue Card

And explain why you think it was a waste of time.

Sample Answer

At times, we tend to squander our time in doing something that is extremely unproductive and thoughtless. One such time when I wasted my precious time was back then I was preparing for a competitive exam for the master’s program in Business Analytics in one of the renowned universities. I was an aspirant of that course in that very university and while starting it off, I was preparing for it diligently, however, I didn’t realise when I got deflected from the path while preparing for it at my home and started procrastinating.

So, basically for the programme in Business Analytics in that university, one is supposed to appear for an exam, which is the screening test and upon successful attempt and getting a minimum passing marks, one gets admission to that university. The exam was quite intense and required a good amount of preparation. But, all I did was binge watch my favourite movies, binge eat, go out for parties and cared almost negligibly about the exam. As a result, I couldn’t score the minimum cut-off.

I am very repentful for all that I did and the way I profligately wasted the precious seconds of my life, where I could have prepared for the exams easily as I was a good student throughout.

Vocabulary

• Squander

Meaning: Waste
E.g.: I squandered my time all weekend.

• Injudicious

Meaning: Lacking wisdom
E.g.: He was acting so injudiciously that I was almost about to snap at him.

• Diligently

Meaning: Sincerely
E.g.: I was preparing for the occasion diligently as I wanted to perform in the best way.

• Renowned

Meaning: Famous
E.g.: He is a renowned personality and is very popular among the youths.

• Profligately

Meaning: Wastefully
E.g.: He profligately spent all his money and then started begging for ours.

Part 3 Questions

• 1 How can we avoid wasting time?

Well, I believe the very realisation of how invaluable time is for us, helps us in eluding the dynamics to waste them. We may try to enlist the tasks we have for a day or a week, and so on and the time we would take to finish them up. This way we may avoid wasting time.

• 2. Is time management important?

Yes, time management is inevitable for one who wants to succeed in life and the one who fails to do that manages to miss the chance of getting successful.

• 3. Should parents help children manage their time?

Parents play a key role in helping their children to manage their time and also, about how to prioritise their tasks. Parents also help their wards in imbibing the good virtues in life and time management is one of them.

• 4. Do you think relaxing is a waste of time?

Well, that is a subjective case. The moment of respite after getting completely knackered is fine. However, relaxing solely without working and being a sleazy-soul is not going to take anyone anywhere on the path of success and hence, in that case, it is a waste of time.

Vocabulary

• Invaluable

Meaning: Precious
Eg.: I drew some invaluable insights from yesterday’s session.

• Eluding

Meaning: To find a way to escape a problem
Eg.: He tried to elude the questions upon being riled up by the media.

• Enlist

Meaning: To write down things on a list
Eg.: I have enlisted the tasks for today.

• Prioritise

Meaning: To arrange the essentiality of the things as per the requirement.
Eg.: The first thing I do is to prioritise my tasks when I have hordes of them to do.

• Knackered

Meaning: Exhausted
Eg.: I am so knackered now that I want to sleep right away.