Describe Something You Bought That Was Difficult To Use At First

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

Describe something you bought that was difficult to use at first.

You should say:
What is it?
When you bought it?
What does it do?
Explain how difficult was it to be used?

Note: You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.

Model answer 1:

Introduction :
Well, these days we often buy the latest technological gadgets and sometimes it takes a little time to get familiar with how they work.

What is it?
Something similar happened to me when I received my first iPhone.

When you bought it?
Actually, it was my longtime wish or a dream to have a mobile phone of Apple brand, and finally, it got fulfilled when I receive the job offer, So my father gave some money to buy a new phone, but it was not enough, so I added my savings to buy my first iPhone.

About that thing:
I was delighted to buy such a beautiful and expensive mobile device, and I was desperate and eager to use it.

Explain how difficult was it to be used?
Since I have been using Android phones all the time, and when I tried to use the Apple phone, I faced lots of difficulties. I could not even make an ID on this phone because of that I was not able to use it properly.

I was not able to download any application at the same time; this mobile had an additional artificially intelligent camera that was of extremely high quality, but, I was not even able to operate it.

I decided to contact customer care for some help. Also though I had not purchased this mobile from India still, the customer care executive was really polite and helpful, and he patiently guided me and introduced different features of this mobile phone.

He even told me that there is a user manual that I can follow for more details. Now, I was comfortably using this mobile but still, having some problem with the connectivity of different smart devices at my home, for example, my LED and sound system.

Luckily, one of my friends Simran is a tech-savvy so, I contacted him and shared my problem, and he sorted out my issues in a fraction of a minute, and now I regularly use this mobile phone and make use of its different features.

Conclusion :
However, initially, I had great trouble in understanding how it works.


Model answer 2:

Introduction :

  • There have been several occasions when I bought something and then encountered problems while using it.

What is it?

  • One such product which gave me some teething trouble was a pair of rollerskates.

When you bought it?

  • I think I bought them for about ten or twelve years back when I was in high school.

What does it do?

  • I was always very fascinated by rollerskates I dreamt of gliding gracefully on them like some of my neighbourhood friends who owned them.
  • I badly wanted to have my own pair, and I used to keep pestering my parents.
  • Finally, they gave in to my request my mother took me to the large sports store in town, and she bought me my very first pair of rollerskates I was thrilled to pieces.
  • They look very much like normal black shoes, but they had wheels underneath. Two in front and two at the back.
  • And the most attractive feature was that the wheels would light up when the skates moved.

Explain how difficult was it to be used?

  • As soon as we reached home I excitedly put on my roller skates, I laced them.
  • When I stood up, I was unsteady and wobbly my body began swaying back and forth I lost my balance and crashed headlong on the floor.
  • My first experience with my roller skates was a total disaster.
  • My legs and arms hurt, but more than that my ego was bruised seeing my sibling smoking.
  • But I was not to be discouraged clinging onto the rails in my room I tried to stand up again.
  • After much practising over the next few days, I learned to balance myself. And I also began taking a few small steps.
  • Of course, I stumbled and fell many times in the process.
  • By regular practice, I mastered the technique, and my roller skates now give me hours and hours of fun, thrill and adventure.

Conclusion :

  • So, though the product gave me some initial hiccups, I managed to sail through it.

IELTS Speaking Part 3 : Follow up Questions

Here some examples of follow up questions that you may asked during your speaking part 3 by examiner related to cue card “describe something you bought that was difficult to use at first”.

1. What type of products is difficult to use at first?
It’s very important for ease of use and simplicity in products. But there are a lot of complicated products which are very difficult to use such as electronic device, kitchen appliances tools or maybe a software it may be because the instructions are not clearly given in the user’s manual or the design is not user-friendly or maybe there are too many steps involved which makes it confusing and hard to remember.

2. What are the benefits of online shopping?
The primary benefit is a convenience we can sit in the comfort of our home and buy whatever we want within minutes. And we get better deals. Also, we get a much wider variety and choices.

3. What are the disadvantages of online shopping?
There are cases of frauds, online payments may not be much secured, credit card details may get stolen, we may not get the product we ordered for, sometimes there may be too much of a delay, also we cannot touch feel or try the product, and traditional shopping is much more fun because it’s an outing for family and friend. People meet each other, interact but online shopping does not give us that fun element.

4. Why do some people buy only branded items?
Well, they give a sense of status and social acceptance, also maybe because people associate brands with quality. They feel a branded product is much more reliable and dependable.

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