Details

Written by IELTS Mentor

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

Describe a time when you had a strong disagreement with a friend.

You should say:

• what it was about
• who you had this disagreement with
• how you resolved it

and explain what happened after the disagreement.

Model Answer 1:
I am one of those rather passive people who don’t really live to have any kind of arguments with anybody except on some very rare occasions. Today, I would like to talk about one of those rare occasions when I had a strong disagreement with a good friend of mine.

Anyway, this good friend of mine, I am talking about, is an otherwise decent person, but, he had a habit of talking negatively about other peoples’ religious beliefs. Of course, I have tried to indirectly ask him not to do so on many occasions before, but he didn’t really seem to care too much about what I had to say or how I felt about this rather awkward aspect of his personality.

But, the other day, when we are enjoying some fresh coffee at a coffee shop, I just couldn’t keep my cool anymore as I found him to be doing the same thing amid a number of other people. I politely tried to alert him about how our conversation was making other people around us uncomfortable, but, as usual, he didn’t really seem to care. And, it was at that time that I told him very strongly that his religion bashing was totally wrong and unacceptable. Of course, he tried to argue that he was only trying to point out the inconsistencies within the religions of other people, but I told him that what he was doing was actually hurting the feeling of other people. He still wasn’t convinced that he was wrong. Finally, I told him that if he didn’t give up his religion bashing habit, I would have to terminate our friendship, and it was at that time that he stopped.

Anyway, after the disagreement and finishing our coffee, I asked him in a very friendly manner about what he would do if someone else was bashing or questioning his religious belief. I think that he perfectly understood my point and as a result, never talked negatively about the religious beliefs of other people again, thereafter.

Sample Answer 2:
I usually go well with all of my friends and I have a tendency to listen first and then react. However, this is always not the case and I can recall some events when I had to strongly disagree with my close friends. I will talk about such an event when I had a strong disagreement with Paula, who is one of my very best friends, how it happened, how we solved this dispute and then the result of this disagreement.

I was in my early university days when this disagreement took place. Our course teacher gave us an assignment and it was about writing a review on a foreign movie. That was the part of our mid-semester assignment and the teacher could absolutely pick any topic as an assignment for the students. I was placed on a team of 4 members and Paula was also on our team. She was one of the top-performing students in our class and well-known for her enviable results.

We had only 4 days to submit our assignment and after the class, we agreed that we will watch this movie at Richard’s place (another team member for the assignment). Strangely Paula did not show up in the evening and her cell phone was turned off. We were worried about her and rescheduled to watch the movie on a later date. Next day I met Paula at the university campus and asked her if everything was okay. She looked surprised and said ‘oh, yes’, everything is absolutely fine.’ She also asked how was the movie and that shocked me. I then realised she did not come last evening intentionally. I told her that we had rescheduled the movie watching and this time she must appear at Richard’s place.  She laughed mockingly and told me to cancel it and write the review from the movie review websites. She also suggested that she is going to write the review for us and we could focus on something else.  That’s something I could not agree with and had to strongly disagree with her.

I tried to convince her that the whole concept of the assignment was not to copy-paste contents from any website and that’s something I am not going to accept anyway. We had a hot debate for about 20 minutes and at the end of our loud conversation, we both became annoyed with each other. I finally told him that I will not be with her for this assignment and would report the teacher to assign me to a different team.

Umm, after two days two other team members interfered and they proposed a solution that both of us (Paula and I) will write our own assignment and review while they will decide which one is better and that one would be submitted as the team assignment.

However strong the disagreement was, our friendship was stronger and Paula yield to follow my lead to finish this assignment. That’s how the dispute, (or our disagreement) was resolved and we were all happy about that. Honestly speaking, the disagreement was so strong and at a time I thought that’s going to harm our friendship. But in reality, Paula was a smart and understanding woman and she accepted my proposal to resolve this issue. After we got A+ for our assignment, we were all happy and contented.

Sample Answer 3:
Currently, smartphones offer different features while manufacturers try honing devices than before. Despite improved features, some of the brands have a poor power backup and I had a strong disagreement with a friend on this topic.

I am an Apple product user and satisfied with the power backup of Apple smartphones. On the contrary, my friend was a Samsung user, and he was having troubles with power issues. His battery drained too fast which was unusual for a smartphone brand like Samsung. In fact, Samsung smartphones are unable to provide a steady level of power backup for users. After using the phone for a few moments, the power runs out strangely. He asked for a solution to the problem if I had any. I suggested him to change the handset as most of the smartphones from Samsung suffer the same issue. The disagreement begins.

Rid Cohen is one of my closest buddies in College. He lives adjacent to my residence and in fact, it is just a few minutes’ walks from my home. He feels comfortable with Samsung devices but equally, he alleges the disadvantages of using Samsung products. However, I am not blind to a relationship and bold enough to avoid double standards. So, I tried making Cohen believe that there are really some troubles with the batteries of Samsung smartphones. But he denied the allegation and placed poor logics favouring his phone. He said that the battery drains when a user uses many applications, but I believe using applications are what is smartphones are meant to. But the similar thing happens to me as well but I am not worried about the power issue of my iPhone 7. I use WiFi, play games, chat on social sites, make voice calls and much more. But the phone runs quite well and I plug it for charge thrice in a week.    

It was really difficult for me to resolve the disagreement. Actually, the disagreement went on for about 20 minutes. Both of us developed logics favouring our respective smartphones. But at a point, Cohen had to admit that his device really had some troubles. I pointed out each of the matters that I experienced when I was a Samsung mobile phone user. I told him that the phone heats up when it is used for making voice calls and playing games. He agreed. But he tried defending the facts saying that the battery heats up when it runs. I showed him my iPhone and asked to use it for the next 20 minutes. He did and there were no such issues like heating up or battery drain. Finally, Cohen acknowledged my reasons.

Breaking a relationship is easier than building it. In some points, both of us went extreme. In fact, Cohen started shouting at me with the issues I criticised. Actually, Cohen wanted to be right for the wrong reason. But I let not that happen as there were several pieces of evidence to prove him wrong. I tried best to uphold his honour but at some points, he dishonoured himself placing some lame explanations. I had to be rude then. When the disagreement was over, he apologized to me for his unwanted interactions. But it was okay for both of us. We hugged and shook hands. Finally, Cohen was convinced to replace his smartphone and I am glad that he would have a nice smartphone using experience.

More Ideas to talk about this Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card topic:

Topic: Talk about a strong disagreement that you had with a friend.

1. Recently, I had a severe disagreement with a friend of mine and it was about buying a mobile phone. I had this battle with Jones! Resolving the disagreement was hard. In fact, I wanted to get an iPhone while Jones strongly opposed the matter. He suggested me to get one from the Samsung brand. He placed some logic to support his view. Finally, I lost the battle. In fact, I had to give up and get a Samsung S8.

2. I often argue with my best friend Sara and last Sunday we had a big one. It was about continuing an affair through Facebook. Later, I gave up the affair. Sara told me that falling in love through Facebook is not the right way. Rather she suggested finding a nice guy from our university campus, here in New Zealand. I disagreed with her at the beginning and later when I realized the matters, I apologized to her for the disputes I had with her.

3. Suddenly Julia attacked me with some unwanted issues. She said she came to know that I was calling her names on her back. I think she was influenced by someone else. And I was calm during the event though I was protesting the allegations. Finally, I resolved it by saying to bring strong evidence supporting her allegations. It was only then when she realized that I was not to be blamed. But already we had an argument for over half an hour.

4. When someone argues about changing any universal truth, obviously the issue becomes irritating. And I had such a disagreement with a friend of mine named Julee. She was saying that she came to know that the planet March is not round rather it is in a different shape. I disagreed with the matter and asked her to place enough evidence against her claim. She was dissatisfied. Later, I came to know that she went through a science fiction where the aliens saw the planet earth in a different shape. I made the matter clear to her.

5. Disagreement with the best friend is the worst event in life and I had to experience so in last month. The dispute was about making a derogatory remark about a teacher. But as far as I knew, the teacher was a wise man and never did so as he was alleged. So, I used some logic and arguments favouring the teacher while my friend Akira got angry. Finally, everything was brought under control. She eventually realized that the allegations were baseless. But I had to undergo some unwanted disagreements with her about the matter.

If you prepare for this cue card you should be able to answer the following cue cards as well:

1. Talk about a time when you had a disagreement with someone.
2. Describe a situation when you had to disagree with a friend.

• IELTS Cue Card
• Candidate Task Card

• Prev
• Next