Describe a time when your computer broke down.: IELTS Speaking Cue Card

You should say

When & how did it happen?
What did you about it?
How did you feel about it?

27 unique answers with expert feedback

Show all 27 answers

Cue 1:When & how did it happen?

Begin by describing the situation when your computer broke down, including the date and time.
Mention any specific tasks you were doing at that moment that made the breakdown particularly inconvenient.

Example

It was a busy Monday morning, around 10 AM, when my computer suddenly froze while I was working on an important presentation for a client meeting. I had been typing away when the screen went blank, and I couldn't do anything to revive it.

Cue 2:What did you do about it?

Explain the immediate steps you took to try to fix the issue, such as restarting the computer or checking connections.
Mention if you sought help from someone else, like a technician or a friend.

Example

Initially, I tried to restart my computer, hoping it was just a temporary glitch. After several attempts, I realized it wasn’t working, so I called my friend who is good with computers. He suggested I take it to a nearby repair shop.

Cue 3:How did you feel about it?

Share your emotions during the incident, focusing on feelings like frustration or anxiety.
Reflect on how the breakdown impacted your day and your work.

Example

I felt extremely frustrated and anxious because I had a deadline to meet. The thought of losing my work made me panic, and I was worried about how I would explain this to my boss. It was a stressful situation.

Conclusion

Summarize the overall experience and what you learned from it.
Mention how you ensured it wouldn't happen again, like backing up your data.

Example

In conclusion, that experience taught me the importance of regularly backing up my work. Since then, I’ve made it a habit to save my files on cloud storage to avoid such stressful situations 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: Vague Descriptions

Using vague language can make your answer unclear. It's important to provide specific details about the incident to engage the listener and demonstrate your language skills.

Tip

Include specific details such as the date, the type of computer, and what exactly happened to make your story more vivid.

2: Neglecting Emotions

Failing to express your feelings can make your response less relatable. Sharing your emotions helps to connect with the examiner and adds depth to your answer.

Tip

Describe how you felt during the breakdown, whether it was frustration, anxiety, or relief, to make your answer more personal.

Lack of Structure

A disorganized response can confuse the listener. It's essential to structure your answer clearly to ensure it flows logically and covers all the cues.

Tip

Follow the cue card prompts in order: start with when it happened, then explain what you did, and finish with how you felt.

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Reported by Leap students who gave IELTS

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 8

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 6.5

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7

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

Reported by

Anonymous student Band 7.5

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 5-6

and we need to take care of them. And so that we will tell you what is the problem and what we need to do. When I go to the computer with them, they tell me that some of the water has entered into the pump. If I don't do this, it will stop working. It will take some time, but it will be as good as new. So you don't have to worry about it. When I go to my house, I was thinking that I have to buy a new one.

Band 5-6

The fall of 2020, my computer broke down after my online session as I poured water on it by accident. The water filled in so deep it's within the PC particles that it started making weird sounds and it automatically shut off. Now in 2020 I was just 12 years old so I did not have any prior knowledge to fixing this and I knew my dad would get mad. So I quickly started searching up videos on how to get this resolved and I was just too scared to touch any of the PC parts as it was covered with water and it operates on electricity. However my dad has a very fond and good background on PCs. He came home, didn't scold me and started fixing the computer himself. I wish I could help that day. Hence the computer got fixed, it just needed to dry it up and close all the internet connections and basically turn off the electricity so that he wouldn't get electrocuted. Overall, my dad's work had a very profound effect on the computer and I regretted every single moment of me pouring the water as I saw my dad go through very hard work while I was just standing there doing nothing but my intention was good. Now I know my mistake and I would never return to it.

Band 5-6

I strictly remember that I used to have a computer since when I was a child, my dad bought it for me because he told me to score somewhere around 97% in my 3rd or 4th grade, so yeah I've scored the same and for which my dad has gifted me a computer. I remember like we used to play Counter-Strike when we were in the lockdown, in the epidemic, so because of which like

Band 5-6

Genuinely, most of the work I do with my PC, that's why it's really important for my day-to-day life. And since 10 years, when my family, when relatives come into my home, and there was, and there were a child, a 10-year-old child baby, and when I work with a computer, the child baby was come, and they throw, and they throw a ball on my PC, and the Windows laptop is totally broke down. That's why I not completed my work, and so, and so this is a very bad moment for me. And after that, I brought a new screen for my PC, but I have not enough budget to spend for this, and that's why I have to around, I had been one month to wait for this time, and finally, this time is over, and I bought a new PC for me, and I feel that a child is not very knowledgeable to how to use computer, and how it's expensive, that's why I can't behave like.

Band 5-6

Few days ago my computer got damaged because of missing of screw, previously I have searched for the screw to the many stores and HP showrooms but I couldn't able to find it but so because of it the display got damaged because that screw has placed near the display which is why the whole display got damaged and I need to repair and it should be replaced with the new display. It was a toughest time because my whole work depends on the computer and it got damaged for around one week and I don't know what to do and how to solve the problem but after taking to one of the good repair shop he just said that he need to order one new display so that he can be replaced it with it. So finally I said to him that just to change the display so when he purchased the new display he shown to me and it is good specifications and it's full HD display so after he get to change with the new one it's very good and good looking so once the repair got done I felt very happy because just because of it my whole work got paused so once it got repaired I felt happy and this is the issue which I have faced.

Band 5-6

My computer had been broke down several times as it is very old and outdated of the software. The main embarrassing moment when my computer has broke down was when I was with my friends doing a project in my computer in my home. During the time we had planned so many tasks to complete in our project and when we were doing the project it has stuck down abruptly and we cannot go any further so I had to change the OS. So I had bought a new version of operating system software of Windows 7, it was the most emerging OS at that time of time. So I bought the Windows 7 OS and I again do all the reformat of the system then we started again doing the project but it took a lot of time between this changing the OS and all like it has been almost 2 hours and more additionally I felt very embarrassing before my friends all were very eager to do the project and also they were waiting to complete the project as they said to come earlier to their home. So that was the most embarrassing moment I had faced during the breakdown of the computer and also there were several breakdowns after the new update install also as the hardware has been pretty old so I had to replace the hardware system as well with the new RAM and ROM.

Band 5-6

I my computer broke down during my final year college. It also it also went down during my project thesis. It was very frustrating because my project got delayed. Moreover, it also gave me a bad reputation that you that I can that I do not I did not wanted to complete the project in in the deadline. Therefore, I went to the shop to get it repaired and and the technician told me that it can be repaired only in three days. So that was very unpleasant moment for me because I had the deadlines within two days. So I bought my so I took a help from my friend. I bought his laptop. I bought his laptop in second hand in and in second hand I and I use that by installing my software. So it took me one day to install all the software that I was using before I had done my project in time and eventually I got the good marks in my project and after three days I went to the shop and the shopkeeper said that the all the major component of the laptop was broke was broken down. So they had to they have to replace the motherboard of the computer. So eventually I eventually I lost all the all the documents in it. So I have eventually

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