IELTS Speaking for Success - ⚖️ Describe an important decision made with the help of other people (Part 2) + Transcript

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

Get our premium episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs You should say: what the decision was, why you made the decision, who helped you make the decision, and how you felt about it Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/rory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our archive to get access to the transcript⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, lovely and welcome into our IEL speaking part two. Describe an important decision made with the help of other people. Hmm, you should say what the decision was, why you made the decision, who helped you make the decision and how you felt about it. Okay. Rory, give us your story. Rory's story. Oh god, I had to decide what sort of laptop to get recently and that was a total nightmare for me and everyone else I had to get input from.

My old one started to fall to pieces and malfunctional a lot, you see, and I'm not very good with information technology or that sort of stuff. So I had to ask almost all my friends to get help with finding a new one. When it comes to why I made the final decision, well, it was a pretty time sensitive matter. I need a computer for work, so it was important to get things done and dusted as soon as possible. Eventually, I settled on the one I have now, which is a little bit bigger than my old computer, but it seems reasonably higher spec by comparison and works well with all the other bits and pieces I have to use. And it wasn't that expensive, actually. It was somewhere in the region of 400 pounds, which apparently is quite reasonable.

To be honest, I was just happy to have a functioning laptop again. In terms of who I asked for help, I think I talked to just about everyone, I know, but for my best friend. Not because he isn't knowledgeable. It's just that he's an Apple fanatic, so it would have been a Mac or something else along those lines, and frankly, I don't want to have to get to grips with the new operating system. I didn't want to have to get to grips, and I still don't, not with all the other things I need to do in my life. But I spoke to just about everyone else, my tenant, my other friends, my parents, my partner, obviously. I think I even sent a question to a vendor on Amazon

where I ultimately weren't up buying the thing from. To tell you more about how I felt about the whole thing, I think I made the right choice, though I'm still getting used to the new computer layout and its functions. If I hadn't made the decision when I did, well, I'd still be faffing around with something that was falling to bits, and that's not very great, is it? I think most people want to have something fixed

or something new and functioning as soon as possible. And how did the people who helped you feel? I don't know, I didn't ask, but hopefully they feel good about helping me. As you know, we now release all of our premium content for free, and it's available for one month. After one month, it goes into our super secret archive. To sign up for the archive, click the link in the description below. See you soon. radio listener so what can you talk about here yeah yeah buying something buying a laptop buying a car a house a flat

even like a dress a bag shoes anything right or entering a university choosing a course traveling right choosing a country to go to like buying a ticket going to a concert to the theater, gallery, like any decision, right? Even like where to go out. It was an important decision to make. Where should I go out tonight? And you can start off with I had to decide, or last week I had to decide what to buy or where to go. Or I had to make a decision about. Yeah, to make a decision about. And for me, it was a total nightmare. Like buying a new laptop or buying a new Phoneia for me also, it's a total nightmare. It's like horrible, oh no, I have to get a new computer. What? Yeah, it's crazy. So I need help. And when you get help, you get input

from people. So you get input from other people about your situation. Or you can get input from people on a topic as well. No, I had to ask people for advice. I had to get their input. So my My old computer or my old phone started to fall to pieces. So it started disappearing on me. And it started to malfunction. Melfunction, it doesn't work properly. And I'm not very good with technology. I'm not very good with, I know, choosing tickets.

I'm not very good with cars. So I had to ask around. Ask around? Like, ask people for help. Ask different people. Yeah. I had to ask around to get help with buying a new laptop, to get help with doing something. When you change the topic, you start with, when it comes to why I made this decision,

it was because, blah, blah, blah. So when it comes to, it was because. It was important to get things done and dusted. Yeah, that's an idiom. So if you get things done and dusted, you kind of, you have them ready. to complete something or to finish something, like that deal was done and dusted. And you make a decision to do something and I wanted to get it done and dust it as soon as possible. Get it finished. Oh, it's a binomial. Done and dusted. We don't say dusted and done.

And I was choosing between different laptops or phones and I settled on the one I have now. So I settled on something. I decided that I'm going to buy this one. And again, again, we changed the topic. In terms of who I asked for help, it was my best friend. I asked my parents or my friends, my colleagues. Or in this case it was everyone but my best friend, which means I asked everyone, but I didn't ask this one person. Yeah, I asked my knowledgeable friends, like who know a lot of things about this. I spoke to many people about this, my tenant, like a tenant, a tenant is a person who pays rent.

I even sent a question to a vendor on Amazon. So a vendor means a shop assistant, someone who sells something, a vendor. Usually like a street vendors, people who sell vegetables, fruit on the street. So you can also talk about some written requests. Maybe you wrote somebody to ask for help. I never did get a reply. Oh no, they didn't reply? No, I just took a guess. I took a chance.

And it seems to have worked out so far. The laptop is functioning two weeks after I bought it, so that's a good sign. Yeah, you can use two phrasal verbs, so it worked out fine, and I wound up buying a laptop on Amazon. So I ended up buying it on Amazon. I bought it on Amazon, I wound up. end result, warmed up. And again, we are changing the topic with, to tell you more about how I felt about the whole thing,

well, I was pretty glad. I was ecstatic, like super happy. I was pleased. I was delighted, okay, that I made the right choice. I was over the moon. Over the moon, I was so happy, yeah. I made the right choice, I made the right decision. Yeah, because, well, the topic is.

about the decision. So it turned out to be the right decision to make or I made the right choice. And Rory used my favorite phrase of verb. Rory, what's my favorite phrase of verb? Yeah, I love it. What is your favorite face of verb? Feverand, of course. Oh, I thought you liked Windup. Yeah, wind up is, it's you like wind up. I like faff around. Fife about. That's my nature. Yes, dear listener, it's a UK informal. And it means to spend your time doing a lot of things that are not important. And you should not be doing this, but you do them. Anyway, instead of studying, you kind of watch television, for example.

Or you just run around the house doing nothing. So stop fuffing about and do something useful. So you can say that without my friend's help, I'd still be faffing around with a broken computer. Or without my friend's help, I'll be faffing about doing nothing or staying at home. Rory, which linking phrases did you use here? Well, it was the usual ones, really, when it comes to and in terms of and to tell you more about, however, I am quite a decisive person.

So it was difficult for me to think about the specifics of the specifics of the arrangement and talk for a long time about it so I had to be a little bit vague about things so some of the vague language that I used to help with this is that involves things like that sort of stuff just meaning things related to this what else did I use oh yes all the other bits and pieces I have to use so that was just instead of saying all the other things and it was bits and pieces and that's important because it's once again it's another binomial we say bits and pieces for things we don't say

pieces and bits. Oh, what else? Oh yes, I don't, I forgot how much I actually paid for it as well. And I said it was somewhere in the region of 400 pounds. So it wasn't exactly 400 pounds, but something like that. But were there any more linking phrases or vague language that you noticed? Just the phrases that we used to start a new topic when it comes to, it was ta-tata, in terms of who I ask for help, blah, blah, blah, and to tell you more about how I felt. And then we just use the usual ones like end eventually but yeah these are all good de lestna though like although though love them what will you talk about delisnum all right any important decision to study ios to take taking irel is an important decision and you can just lie that you asked

worry you asked me you asked everyone about irets you asked everyone about irets you asked everyone but to one person. That would be a good phrase to use. Feel free to steal Rory's story completely and just tell the examiner about your new laptop. Well, how would the story look? If it was about IELTS, we'd say, oh God, I had to decide to take IELTS and that was a total nightmare. So you could basically replace the information about computers with that about IELTS. Yeah, I had to ask around and surely I asked Rory, Fergus, something, something. I don't remember his surname. You know, from I'll speaking for success podcast, dear examiner, you know? No, you don't.

Okay, all right. And then you just talk about Rory. Or me. Well, I have zero knowledge or about laptops, but anyway. Well, you carry one around with you. You should know more than I do. Thank you very much for listening. Sending hugs and love.

Bye. Describe an important decision made with the help of other people. Hmm, you should say what the decision was why you made the decision, who helped you make the decision, and how you felt about it. Okay? Oh, God. I had to decide what sort of laptop to get recently, and that was a total nightmare for me, and everyone else I had to get input from.

My old one started to fall to pieces and malfunction a lot, you see, and I'm not very good with information technology or that sort of stuff, so I had to ask almost all my friends to get help with finding a new one. When it comes to why I made the final decision, well, it was a pretty time-sensitive matter. I need a computer for work, so it was important to get things done and dusted as soon as possible. Eventually, I settled on the one I have now, which is a little bit bigger than my old computer, but it seems reasonably higher spec by comparison and works well with all the other bits and pieces I have to use.

And it wasn't that expensive, actually. it was somewhere in the region of £400, which apparently is quite reasonable. To be honest, I was just happy to have a functioning laptop again. In terms of who I asked for help, I think I'd talk to just about everyone, I know, but for my best friend. Not because he isn't knowledgeable. It's just that he's an Apple fanatic, so it would have been a Mac or something else along those lines, and frankly, I don't want to have to get to grips with the new operating system. I didn't want to have to get to grips, and I still don't.

not with all the other things I need to do in my life. But I spoke to just about everyone else, my tenant, my other friends, my parents, my partner, obviously. I think I even sent a question to a vendor on Amazon, where I ultimately weren't up buying the thing from. To tell you more about how I felt about the whole thing, I think I made the right choice, though I'm still getting used to the new computer layout and its functions. If I hadn't made the decision when I did, well, I'd still be faffing around with something that was falling to bits, and that's not very great, is it? I think most people want to have something fixed

or something new and functioning as soon as possible. And how did the people who helped you feel? I don't know, I didn't ask, but hopefully they feel good about helping me.