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Describe a piece of technology that you find difficult to use.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • When did you get it?
  • What did you get it for?
  • How often do you use it?
  • How do you feel about it?
Show all 55 answers

Cue 1:When did you get it?

  • Mention the specific time or occasion when you acquired the technology.
  • Provide context about your initial excitement or need for the technology.

Example

I got my first smartphone about three years ago as a birthday gift from my parents. I was really excited because I wanted to stay connected with my friends and family more easily.

Cue 2:What did you get it for?

  • Explain the primary purpose you intended to use the technology for.
  • Share any specific features you were looking forward to using.

Example

I got it mainly for communication, social media, and to access the internet. I was particularly looking forward to using apps like WhatsApp and Instagram to share moments with my friends.

Cue 3:How often do you use it?

  • Discuss the frequency of your usage and any challenges you face.
  • Mention any specific tasks that you find particularly difficult.

Example

I try to use it daily, but I often struggle with navigating the settings and downloading new apps. Sometimes, I feel overwhelmed by the number of features available.

Cue 4:How do you feel about it?

  • Express your feelings about the technology, both positive and negative.
  • Share any frustration or satisfaction you experience while using it.

Example

Overall, I feel frustrated because I can't fully utilize its features. While I appreciate the connectivity it offers, the complexity makes me wish for something simpler.

Conclusion

  • Summarize your overall experience with the technology.
  • Reflect on whether you would recommend it to others or not.

Example

In conclusion, while my smartphone has great potential, my difficulties with it make me hesitant to recommend it to someone who isn't tech-savvy. I hope to learn more about it in the future.

Following this structure will ensure you cover all the essential points while providing a clear and engaging response to the cue card topic.

Tips to answer this Cue Card

1: Avoid Vague Responses

Being vague can lead to unclear answers. Candidates might not provide enough detail about the technology, making it hard for the examiner to understand their experience.

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Tip

Use specific examples and details about the technology, such as its features and your personal experiences with it.

2: Don't Rush Your Answer

Rushing can lead to incomplete thoughts and unclear communication. Candidates may skip important details or fail to express their feelings about the technology.

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Tip

Take a moment to think before speaking. Organize your thoughts and ensure you cover all the cues provided.

Avoid Overly Technical Language

Using too much technical jargon can confuse the examiner and detract from your overall message. It's important to communicate clearly.

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Tip

Explain the technology in simple terms and focus on your personal experience rather than technical specifications.

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IELTS Cue Cards asked last week

Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

Describe your favourite food at a traditional festival or a special event in your country
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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Pitampura Test Centre, New Delhi

Answer

I like to taste different types of cuisine. Here I would like to talk about my favorite dish at my traditional festival of Onam which is Sadya. Sadya is popular in my city. We are experimenting these cuisines on Onam festival day. Onam is a famous festival in my city. All family members get together in my home and we make a delicious Sadya. There are many ingredients includes that Sadya. Moreover, we make a big feast that day as well as we create a lot of memories together and we wear that day the traditional dress called Sari and men wear the Dhotis. That festival is really important to us because the whole day we are conducting different kinds of games at our homes and all the family members came together. It's a memorable day in my life. This is the festival. We are making the Sambar and Aviyal. These all the kinds of foods are making with the vegetables.
Talk about a toy you liked in your childhood
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

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Sector 34 Test Centre, Chandigarh

Answer

The toy which I liked in my childhood was a panda doll, which makes me pleasant and makes me more blush. The pandas are the most beautiful creatures of the world, which looks gigantic and has pooshy cheeks and they are like stars in the clouds and they dream in me. Furthermore, these have been given by my father. My father is a very very beautiful artistic person, who makes me think of that. Every day you will face every difficulties and make you suffer and move forward. Pandas are always seen in Japanese countries. It is my lifelong dream to visit a Japanese country and click a photo with the original pandas, which makes sounds better.
Describe a time you were in a place where you didn't know the local language
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

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Whitefield Test Center, Bengaluru

Answer

As India is a very large country full of diversity, so there are many places which have their own language and speak their native language. The place which I visited and I didn't know about their language was Leladakh, which is about 300 km away from my hometown and it is a very good place as it consists of different kind of trees, animals and have many scenic views and I visited over there last year in summers as it was the best time to visit because it has many, it was cold over there and we had summers in our area so it was the best time to visit over there and I went over there with my whole family.
Describe a time when your friend damaged something you owned
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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Begumpet Test Centre, Hyderabad

Answer

When I was a kid, I had a little pencil box which had these four buttons which gave the pencil box an operative use. When you press the button, the box would open up. When you press the second button, a little part of it would slide out. Basically it was just a little electronical and a fun thing to have and I owned it when I was in 6th. One day after break, I was standing and talking there with one of my friends and another friend of mine was running through the hallway and accidentally she pushed my shoulder and my pencil box hit the ground and it broke into multiple pieces to the point that it was not functional anymore.
Describe a book you recently read
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Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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CBD Belapur Test Centre, Navi Mumbai

Answer

It Ends With Us is a book I read recently. It's by the author Colleen Hoare. It's mainly a story about two teenagers, Atlas and Lily, and how they just handle their life going through high school, adolescence, and just domestic violence at home. Both of them come from very, very different families. However, they have one common determining factor between them, which is domestic violence. The abuse that they've seen their moms go through is just insane, and they connect through that on a different level. They're actually in the same high school, but they never speak to each other until Atlas actually crashes into an empty house next to Lily's villa. When Atlas is homeless and he doesn't have anywhere to go, he just comes and breaks into the house next to Lily's, and Lily helps him with all the daily necessities like clothes and food, medicines and stuff. Furthermore, their friendship blossoms into love, but it doesn't really fructify as Atlas has to leave. This book really gave me a lot of knowledge about domestic abuse and how to deal with it.

All Answers

Here are all the answers by real-users practicing speaking for IELTS Cue Cards on our IELTS Prep App.

Band 6-7

A piece of technology that I find difficult to use, I would say there is not a piece of technology in particular that I find difficult to use, but almost all the technologies in the beginning, when we don't know about it, it is difficult to use, say for a mobile phone. If I don't have any knowledge about it, if I don't know how to operate it, then that is going to be difficult for me in the beginning, likewise for computer or for any other technology gadgets, if I have no proper knowledge about it, then it is going to be difficult for me to use. But when we use it every day, repeatedly using, through a mistake, exploring through the various apps or exploring the various keypads that are present or the various settings or functions that are present within the technology, it ultimately helps us to move forward in a sense that in using that particular technology.

Band 6-7

The piece of technology product which I purchased was Canon, which was really hard to operate as the camera of Canon was having many different types of options and buttons, which made it really hard to operate with. I preferably got that camera for my content creation as I thought to start a YouTube channel and start creating some content about life and the environment. I wanted to film the nature, but then I realized that the main problem I am getting in is editing and getting the clear shots as the time it required is really high as we should probably give near about one to two years dedicated in those things and it was really hard finding the perfect shots in the nature. The Canon camera also had many different things which I didn't knew and with the journey I was learning all those things, but in the starting I felt it really hard to use as there was no manual in the camera box and there was no one who told me about how to use the camera. So, nowadays I use it really less as in a month or in two months, but still I feel it's a good purchase of mine cause it helped me grow as I learned how to take shots, how to make some film, how to click the perfect moments and sceneries, but still I don't have the time to do those things, but I have the path that aside that I can do those things cause I have the extracurricular knowledge about those things. So, I feel it's a really good purchase of mine.

Band 6-7

So I think this is a little weird for someone who works with the laptop a lot but the piece of technology I found used to find the most difficult to use was my MacBook. So earlier when I was working on a web I was I had an HP laptop so it was a Windows system that we used in the HP laptop and I had to change it and replace it with a MacBook because the abilities and the functionalities on this MacBook are much better compared to what you have in a Windows system. So I got it in I think towards the end of 2023 and just led to a lot of confusion in the initial six months. It was so frustrating for all the shortcuts on the keyboard to change it was so frustrating for the entire operating system to change because I had no idea on how to operate a MacBook but ultimately I think through constant practice and through constant constant googling on how exactly a particular shortcut would work on MacBook I find out I found out how exactly to use a MacBook efficiently and now I feel amazing and I'm beyond amazed by the level of functionality that a MacBook has compared to a Windows operating system and I would suggest everyone to get a MacBook because ultimately the level of the level of utility you can draw out of a MacBook is much much more compared to what you can draw out of a Windows operating system. So yeah that was my entire experience on dealing with a technology that I used to find very difficult to use.

Band 6-7

Actually, the thing I find difficult to use is AI, actually it was given by my mother when I was 16, she gave it to me for my study related stuffs and recharges, actually I use it for my study related stuffs, then workout, content creation, videography and sometimes I use it for deep recharge and image creation too, I really love it, it gave me a lot of overviews and various kind of information, from this I am able to score good in exams and do lot of exercise without a trainer, I really like it.

Band 6-7

A piece of technology that I find difficult to use is Python. I have never been a tech guy so I was not interested in using Python, MS Excel or codes. Previous year I decided to learn a computer course however I was unable to do so because of my board exams. This year I started learning MS Excel and I was able to find average, mean, compound interest etc. So it was very fun and a new exposure for me to learn something that I always hated. I expect to learn more things like that. I am looking forward to learn Python as well.

Band 6-7

I would like to say I'm quite a tech-savvy person, but if there's one piece of technology I'm not really good at and I cannot just wrap my head around, it's a smartwatch. I mean, I understand the fuss about it, everyone wants a smartwatch, I understand the features it has, I understand how helpful it can be for health monitoring, how useful it can be for picking calls, sending texts without having to take out your phone, but I just cannot really capitalize on all the benefits it has to offer. I prefer an analog watch and I'm always stuck with that. I've been trying to get into the whole smartwatches, I bought an Apple watch for myself and I've been using it for over a couple of weeks now and I like some of the features. I like the sleep tracker, but it's not really my cup of tea. I still think I prefer regular mechanical analog watches, but I'm trying to use all the benefits, all the features it has to offer. So yeah, that's one piece of tech. Another piece of tech that I'd like to talk about on a similar note is smartglasses. They have recently been launched by Ray-Ban, the meta AI glasses that use augmented reality. Another piece of tech, I cannot wrap my head around, why do I need to see everything when I can just use my phone? So yeah, those two would be.

Band 6-7

I actually got this Fitbit kind of ring recently, it actually works like a smartwatch. So basically what this does is, it calculates your heartbeat, your sleep rate, the blood levels in your oxygen and other various things. So I actually find it a bit difficult to use because I don't know how accurate this actually works. You know, I just put it to my finger and I have to track all the details in my app, but I don't find it that accurate because the average, the most sophisticated machine, which I usually use to check my, the number of times I'm breathing in a minute, it actually shows that I'm breathing around 98 to 97, it varies between it, whereas this machine actually shows 89 or 90. I doubt the accuracy which it's showing. So I actually got it because my smartwatch stopped working and it was very hard for me to use this device, whereas a good sophisticated monitor is more better to be used. However, this comes in handy because it's very tiny and you don't have to carry it wherever you go. You just have to put it on your finger and you can just go anywhere and just track the details in your watch. Well, the thing which I like the most about this is, it tracks your sleep and very precise, it tracks your sleep very precisely. So that's the thing which I like the most. And coming to the design, it has a very spectacular design. It comes in different colors and doesn't actually look like you're wearing a device on your finger. It just looks like a real watch.

Band 6-7

Once, it was a time when I completed my college and started doing my, started entering my job. The time when I started using the computer newly, it was very unique for me. There were many updated versions, I struggled with that particular version to learn how to use the computers. One of my senior helped me, how should I operate it and how to utilize the software, he explained me everything. After, it was one of the toughest situation to use the technology and once day by day I started learning by little by little. One day, I started using it very frequently in very good manner, so it was a very happiest moment for me. I took little bit effort and I started learning many new things from the day, when I started struggling, so in this particular period and for my future purpose, started always keeping myself updated in technologies and softwares, which are introduced in computers, not only in computers, using in mobiles and everything, once after that incident, I started keeping myself updated in all the things, which are involved in software and technologies.

Band 6-7

A piece of technology that felt very difficult was Revit. It is a software used for building up the architectural technology. So I felt very difficult in using that because it showcases many software skills needed. So in that we usually have layers like layer 1, layer 2, layer 3 and layer 4. It comes from the foundation to the top of the building. So when we use it we have a lot of layers, we get very confused in that. So I feel very difficult in using the Revit software and with that it's BIM where it is Building Information Modeling. It is usually used for civil engineers where it is very much interesting but also very difficult to use because we need to know more about the proportions, ratios of the cement and how much kind of steel is being used. So these kind of informations are very tough to remember. So it is very difficult for me to use BIM and Revit in architectural softwares and also coming to the Enscape and also the SketchUp it is very easy for me but finding difficulty in use is only these and also the Photoshop because it has layers in it and we need to have a lot of things that has come under like it starts from layer 0 to each and every image, each and every color, whatever we add it feels very difficult to use it. So whenever my friends use it, it feels very easy for them but when I use it I feel very difficulty in the usage of this kind of technology. I felt that Canvas was very easy but then this is so hard and Artifact is also easy but I feel difficulty in using of Photoshop, Adobe Illustrations and these kind of Revit and Rhino also. So these are kind of technologies I feel that I have difficulty to use.

Band 6-7

A piece of technology that I find difficult to use is the Apple Watch. I purchased the Apple Watch in August 2022. I purchased it because I had just recently got an iPhone 13 from my company. The company had leased phones to all the employees to carry the business and also make phone calls whenever necessary. So naturally, I was excited about the iPhone and thought that the Apple Watch would be very compatible with it and I would also have an easier time accessing my phone through my watch. However, I barely use the watch now. I did use it frequently when I had purchased it for the first year. However, after that, the battery issues and the small screen really did not make it easier for me to use. I do not really feel good about this purchase in hindsight because of my infrequent use and also the fact that I no longer have an iPhone. It leads me to believe that I did not think the purchase thoroughly. I made a wrong decision and now this piece of technology is not something that I use often. The Apple Watch is touted by many as a big breakthrough in technology as it helps people control their phones from a distance. On the contrary, I feel the small screen makes it really inaccessible and makes it difficult to use and its sophistication exceeds the need of the users. Thank you.
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