arrow back icon Top Answers

Describe a time when you had a problem with using the computer: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

  • When did it happen?
  • Where did it happen?
  • What was the problem?
  • How did you solve the problem in the end?
Show all 118 answers

Cue 1:When did it happen?

  • Mention a specific time frame, such as a particular day or month, to give context to your experience.
  • Explain any relevant circumstances that led to the problem occurring at that time.

Example

It happened about three months ago, during the peak of my final exams. I was preparing for my computer science paper, and I had planned to complete my project that evening.

Cue 2:Where did it happen?

  • Describe the location where you were using the computer, such as your home, a library, or a friend's place.
  • Include details about the environment that might have contributed to the situation.

Example

I was at home, sitting at my study desk in my room. It was a quiet evening, and I had all my study materials spread out around me, creating a focused atmosphere.

Cue 3:What was the problem?

  • Clearly state the issue you faced with the computer, such as a software crash or hardware failure.
  • Explain how this problem affected your ability to complete your tasks.

Example

Suddenly, my computer froze while I was running a crucial software program for my project. I panicked because I hadn’t saved my work in a while, and I was worried about losing everything.

Cue 4:How did you solve the problem in the end?

  • Discuss the steps you took to resolve the issue, including any troubleshooting methods or help you sought.
  • Mention the outcome and what you learned from the experience.

Example

I took a deep breath and decided to restart my computer. Thankfully, when it rebooted, I found that the auto-recovery feature had saved my work. I also learned the importance of saving my work frequently and started using cloud storage for future projects.

Conclusion

    Example

    This experience taught me valuable lessons about technology and the importance of being prepared for unexpected issues. Now, I always make sure to back up my work regularly, which has made my study sessions much less stressful.

    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: Vague Descriptions

    Using vague language can make your response unclear. Avoid general statements that do not provide specific details about the problem or the situation.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Be specific about the time, place, and nature of the problem. Use clear examples to illustrate your experience.

    2: Ignoring the Cues

    Not addressing all the cues can lead to an incomplete answer. Each cue is designed to help structure your response effectively.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Make sure to answer all the cues in order. This will help you stay organized and cover all important aspects of your experience.

    Lack of Problem-Solving Detail

    Failing to explain how you solved the problem can make your response less engaging. It's important to show your thought process and actions.

    bulb icon

    Tip

    Describe the steps you took to resolve the issue. Highlight any challenges you faced and how you overcame them to add depth to your answer.

    calendar icon

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

    location icon

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 8

    location icon

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 6.5

    location icon

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7

    location icon

    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
    anonymous person icon

    Reported by

    Anonymous student Band 7.5

    location icon

    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

    When I was in primary school, I still remember, at that time we were having computer classes, the most exciting part of the day, of the class which I have. Every day I used to go to the computer classes and find it more interesting, but suddenly a problem occurs when we are introduced to Microsoft Excel. At that point of time, I was not able to understand how to run it, how to manage it, how to operate it, and I felt it was quite tricky to me and I felt blank at that time, but my computer teacher taught me and introduced me to the new steps and to the steps which would help me to access to the Microsoft Excel. After that, I started using it and practising it day by day. It was quite tough for me at that point of time, it nearly took about five to six days to make myself used to it. After that, using for a certain period of time, I feel used to it and that's how I solved this problem and completed all of it.

    Band 6-7

    In today's world, nobody can imagine a life without a computer and other technical things. So here I would like to talk about a time when I had a problem with my computer. If my memory serves me well, then it was about two years back when I was in Leh, Mahchal Pradesh at my sister's marriage. I started taking pictures of my sister, Sister Samvanti, which is one of the wedding occasions. That night, when I transferred the pics into my computer, it was not responding well, however I was very tensed because it shows error again and again. I was worried about that, but when one of my friends came to me and asked me about my problem, then I asked him, I told him about the problem, about the issue that was created by the computer, he somehow solved that problem by clicking a button that was

    Band 6-7

    So, we all love to use computers and I usually and I often use computers every day. So, one day while I was attending an interview for my university, I was using webcam and usually they have no problem with webcam or any kind of things. But while attending the interview, my camera gets turned off and the interviewer asked me to turn it on, but I was not able to do that. So, it happened in my home, so as we know, interviews will be conducted on outside our country. So, it happened in my home and I checked it several times what was the problem, but I was not able to understand. At the same time, the audio got cut off and I was not able to reply to the interviewer. So, she instantly asked me what happened, but I had no way to reply to her. So, the thing is, after completing my interview, I immediately called a mechanic and I asked him what was the problem. So, he said, please check your lens of the camera and audio problem will be of something or update or something. Then immediately I checked the camera lens and I tried to clean it with a clean tissue paper and after that I turned it on, but I was not able to turn it on. But something was seen on the screen, but I was not clear on that and the audio problem was still there. So, he asked me to rotate the camera lens and I tried to rotate it and while doing that, I became more clear, but not so clear, but it was more clear than the usual way, but still there was an audio problem. So, he asked me to take the settings and then he asked me to take the audio and Bluetooth devices. So, then immediately I took that and he asked me if there is an update on that. So, I checked it if there is an update and immediately saw an update, which is painting. So then I clicked on that and then I clicked on that.

    Band 6-7

    Right. So when was when was it that I had a problem with using the computer? That's actually a really good question, because this dates back two years ago when I started my first job as an intern in a B2C company where I was asked to write down or jot down the leads that we have acquired, procured in our LinkedIn campaign. Now, the problem is I did not know how to use Excel sheet. I did not have any sort of hands on experience by using these tools either. So I was confused. I was in a very puzzled situation at that point and I did not know how to ask for help. What did I do instead? I went to YouTube and I started learning this by myself. I started to learn about the skill. I started to learn about the different formulas you can use in an Excel sheet to make my work more seamless. It took me a couple of days to crack the code, which I eventually did. And then later on, I got a good response from my leader who leads the team that every lead was jotted down perfectly and it was easier for them to track and call the leads and prospect later on.

    Band 6-7

    Since childhood, I was quite a tech wizard. However, when I was in school, once I did a blunder. I was working on the computer in our school's computer lab and had to make a presentation for my Hindi project. So, as I was always enthusiastic when it came to computer and technology, I was the first one to volunteer and decided to go to the computer lab and work on our project. We were supposed to work in a team, though my classmates were having other assignments, so they decided to ditch me. I was comfortable with the idea since I knew my way around the computer. Although the problem that occurred was that I was doing my presentation very well, it was going very smoothly, though I somehow ended up deleting a file that was saved previously by some other student. I had no idea just how it got deleted and somehow it was also not available in the recycle bin folder. I tried to go through all the computer folders and was surveying through the files. Maybe I had misplaced it or have somehow moved it instead of deleting it. I was just hoping though the luck was not in my favor as I even though after all my persistent effort, I couldn't find the folder. At last, I decided to come clean to my computer teacher and somehow she helped me and find

    Band 6-7

    Well, during my school days, I was very much worried about using a computer. At that time, I was not that great. Really, it was feeling difficult and thinking about what's going to happen. When I was asking my friends or even when I was checking with the teachers, it was so difficult for me to get their support because of a lot of students in the school. It's all about a way back in my school, thinking about using a computer was really a big task at that time. Switching on and switching off the computer, using the word file or a paint was so difficult at that moment. But at the latest state, after attending the coaching classes during my high school and later when I got my laptop in my degree time, slowly I got to know a lot of things about a computer and that made me like more confident in using this computer. It's all about knowing and exploring things and giving time for our own self to understand what all the contents are. And once that happened, it was very successful. Successfully, I could use a computer and it was really way much easier. And this is how I overcome with that problem and I felt like it's very happy and I felt very happy and content.

    Band 6-7

    No audio text available

    Band 6-7

    A time when I had problem with using the computer is recently, that too in the past week. The issue was not with the computer but with my pen drive. So when I was copying the files from my phone to the pen drive, suddenly it showed me that I can't copy the files anymore and that it is write protected. I was kind of taken aback on seeing the popup on my phone and when I managed to connect it on to my computer and view it, again it said the disk is write protected. When I tried to look into the issue and see what happened and where things went wrong, I found that the drive got corrupted, which means there is some kind of damage within the pen drive. I had important files in it, I was kind of scared that I couldn't erase it. So when I tried formatting it, it did not get formatted and again it said it is write protected. So when I tried to copy the contents on to my computer, it did, but still I was not able to edit things on it. Again what I did was I took it to a service center nearby and when they checked it, they told that they can't do anything on this issue and I need to keep the pen drive as such without deleting the contents in it. So still I feel insecure about keeping the contents as such. So sometimes in the future if I might lose it, it would lead to a possible breach of my private data. So I am even trying now to sort out the issue, but still it is kind of doubtful. I am hoping to get the issue resolved with other service center.

    Band 6-7

    This has to be when I was in middle school and those were the initial days of us starting to learn computers in school. We did not own a computer at our place, so none of my parents knew how to use it. As we were learning gradually how to use it in school, once we had to present a project or PowerPoint presentation using a computer. I did not know how to start the computer though, so I was baffled by what to do because that's the first step. However, I was on spot and everybody could see that I am helpless, so the teacher stepped in and they helped me.

    Band 6-7

    Yesterday, while using my computer at home, during an online presentation, my computer was facing some technical difficulties, the screen froze, and I was unable to move or control the computer. Ultimately, I called the technical executive or HP, and they guided me through the process of repairing it. And one of the most infamous techniques of repairing the computer, the switch on and off technique worked in my favor, and I was able to reset my computer and work on my conference and presentation. This was one of the times when my computer experienced a difficulty. But in the past, there has been several issues with my computer, particularly with the battery, as the battery often dies, and the problem has gotten so severe that now, it cannot function without being connected to a charging cable constantly. And even if it's disconnected for a second, it will shut down immediately. So this is one of the major problems that my computer system is facing. In addition to this, there is also a crack near the keyboard. So these are the times when I had a problem using my computer. However, like most of the instances I was able to repair on my own, and in certain instances, the technical executive helped me out. The computer is still functioning, and it has been able to function for the next couple more weeks. So hopefully, my computer will not shut down again.
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
    ielts logo

    Get the IELTS Prep App

    Star rating icon

    4.2

    1M+ Installs

     app download banner image

    Get the app link on your phone

    +91

    Or download app from

    google play storeapp store
    master ielts speaking ad