Prepare for {IELTS}

Describe something you bought that was difficult to

use at first
You should say:
• What it was
• When you bought it
• What it does
• And explain why it was difficult to use

It was quite tricky to decide what to talk about because I can’t

remember the last time I found something particularly complicated to
use because I haven’t bought anything in a while and nothing
immediately came to mind then I suddenly remembered getting my first
smartphone so I’ve decided to talk about that particular experience.

I can’t remember precisely which year it was because I have a terrible

memory for dates, but it was a few years back and I was changing from
an old fashioned phone which could only be used for texts and phone
calls to this thing that could do everything. When you buy a printer or
a washing machine, they come with a set of instructions and you follow
these and generally they are easy to follow. With a phone though, a lot
of it is done through onscreen instructions and despite the fact that
this should be relatively straightforward*, half the time I didn’t have a
clue** what I was doing.

*relatively straightforward = simple and easy to understand

**to not have a clue = to have no idea; to not know

As for what it does, well, as you know, phones have just about everything
nowadays from a navigation system to pretty sophisticated cameras.
There is an app for virtually everything so they have become
indispensable* devices that we cannot live without.

However, that is the problem, there are so many features and I just don’t
have the patience to learn how to use them so half the time I am utterly
confused. When I first got the phone I couldn’t even work out how to do
simple things such as adding contacts to my phone. I was totally baffled.
The problem is that there are no specific instructions for doing such things
so you need to go online and find out and most of the time I can’t be
bothered** so it’s a lot of trial and error*** until I figure out how to use
it. I’m pretty good at using a smartphone now but there’s probably still
tons of stuff**** I don’t know.

*indispensable = you cannot live without it

**I can’t be bothered = used for saying that someone will not do something because
they feel lazy or because it is too much effort

***trial and error = a way

of achieving an aim or solving a problem by trying a number of different methods and
learning from the mistakes that you make

****tons of stuff = lots of things