IELTS Speaking Part 2 Topic:

Describe something you did which was a waste of time.

You should say:

• what the thing was
• when you did it
• how you did it
• and explain why it was a waste of time.

SAMPLE ANSWER

As the Internet is becoming more and more popular these days, it has taken up a significant amount of everyone’s daytime. To be honest, sometimes, it can easily make us distracted, especially from work and study. There come so many occasions that I waste hours digging in social networks in working time. Maybe today I can share with you one among those moments.

Last Tuesday, I went to office earlier than usual. That meant I had 30 minutes for my personal things before starting a new working day. After turning on the computer, I thought it was okay if I checked my friend’s updates on Facebook for a while, then I would do some healthy exercise. However, as I went through my newsfeed, I saw a post from a Wagashi page shared by my friend. For your information, Wagashi is among the most impressive traditional art from Japan. Admittedly, I had been in love with this kind of art for so long that when I saw that post, I was so attracted. Then, I watched that video of Wagashi making, and clicked into the page to watch more and more videos, not only about the making process but about the art itself, such as the origin, the symbolic meaning behind this art and so on. It’s not until my colleague called me to ask for the documents that I realized that I had wasted too much time in Facebook.

To be honest, though surfing Internet or joining in social networks can bring me a lot of benefits or knowledge, in such a mentioned situation, it was really a waste of time as I had other tasks to finish. If I had continued to watch, I couldn’t have met the deadlines for my task, and that can lead to a serious consequence, not only for me but also for the company on the whole.

VOCABULARY

• Take up: account for certain amount of time/ space

Ex: Doing households takes up a large part of my daytime.

• significant: great or important to be worthy of attention, noteworthy

Ex: In the last 2 months, there is a significant increase in sales.

• Distract someone from doing something: prevent (someone) from giving full attention to something.

Ex: I tried to distract myself from concentrating on a new movie on TV.

• For a while: for a short time

Ex: We were quiet for a while when hearing the teacher say that we had an important test next week.

• For your information: a phrase that introduces or follows a piece of information 
• symbolic: involving the use of symbols or symbolism

Ex: the symbolic meaning of motifs and designs.

• meet the deadline: be able to fulfill the task before deadlines.

Ex: I managed to meet the deadline for the plan.