Describe an app or website you use almost every day.
A card about a routine digital tool — maps, messaging, a payment app, a language app. It rewards specific, honest detail over impressive claims.
The task card
Describe an app or website you use almost every day.
You should say:
- what it is and what it does
- when you started using it
- how you use it in a typical day
and explain why it has become part of your routine.
Now say it yourself
Record your own two minutes on this card and have it transcribed and marked against the Speaking criteria. Practising is free; the band estimate is part of Pro.
Record my answerHow long you have
- 1 minute
Preparation
The examiner hands you the card, paper and a pencil. Make notes — a few words per cue point, never sentences.
- 1–2 minutes
Your long turn
Speak until the examiner stops you at two minutes. Finishing early is the most common self-inflicted problem in Part 2.
- 1–2 questions
Rounding off
The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions, then moves straight into the Part 3 discussion on the same theme.
Part 2 takes three to four minutes in total. The whole Speaking test runs 11 to 14 minutes across three parts, and Part 3 that follows lasts four to five minutes.
How to approach this card
Choose the app you genuinely open most, not the most sophisticated one. A bus-times app you check every morning gives you more true detail than an AI tool you used twice.
Structure the middle around one typical day: when you first open it, what you actually do, one small feature you rely on. Concrete micro-detail — 'I check the delay forecast before choosing a platform' — is what separates a real answer from a memorised one.
For the final point, name the mechanism: it removes a daily worry, it replaced something slower, it connects you to someone specific. Avoid ending with 'it is very convenient', which says nothing.
Ideas you can actually use
Three angles on this card. Pick the one closest to something real in your own life — invented material is what makes candidates hesitate at ninety seconds.
Honest daily apps
- Maps and transport, which most people genuinely open more than anything else
- A messaging app, a payment or banking app, a notes app, a camera
- Something dull you rely on entirely — a calendar, a password manager, a weather app
How you actually use it in a day
- Walk through one real day: morning, commute, lunch, evening
- The feature you use constantly and the ninety per cent you have never touched
- The small workaround or habit you have developed that the designers did not intend
Balanced evaluation
- What you did before it existed, which quantifies the change
- One genuine irritation — notifications, ads, a change you disliked
- Whether it saves you time or simply moves the time somewhere else
What your one minute of notes should look like
Not sentences — a few words per cue point. This is the level of detail sixty seconds actually buys you, and it is enough to speak from for two minutes.
- WHAT — transport/maps app, live times + walking routes
- STARTED — when I moved cities, ~4 yrs ago
- DAY — 7:20 check bus / lunch walk / eve check last train
- WHY — removed the planning; but I no longer know the city
Model answer
Speak your own answer first. Examiners are trained to spot memorised speeches and mark them down — use this to study structure, pacing and naturalness, never to recite.
Show the model answer
The app I use more than any other is a transport and maps app — live bus and train times, walking directions, and a feature that tells you which exit of the station to use, which sounds trivial and isn't. I started using it properly about four years ago when I moved cities. Before that I had lived in the same place my whole life and genuinely didn't need directions to anywhere, so I had this slightly smug view that maps apps were for tourists. Then I moved somewhere with a bus network I didn't understand and that opinion collapsed within about a week. In a normal day I open it three or four times. At about twenty past seven I check whether the bus is running, because it tells you where the bus physically is rather than where the timetable claims it should be, and that determines whether I leave now or finish my coffee. Around lunchtime I sometimes use it to find a walking route somewhere new, and it will offer a slightly longer route through a park, which I usually take. And in the evening, if I'm out, I check the last train, which has saved me an expensive taxi more than once. Why has it become part of my routine? Because it removed a whole category of low-level planning that used to sit in the back of my head all day. I don't think about journeys any more. I just leave and it tells me. That said, it's a double-edged sword. I have now lived here four years and I couldn't draw you a map of the centre, because I've never once had to build the picture myself. My father can describe the town he grew up in street by street. I have outsourced that entirely, and I'm not completely sure it was a good trade.
Why this works: The typical-day section is the one most candidates fumble, and here it is walked through hour by hour with a real decision attached to each use. The 'when you started' bullet carries a small attitude change, which adds narrative to what could be a flat description. Crucially, the answer evaluates rather than praises: the closing paragraph concedes a genuine cost and compares it to his father, which is precisely the reflective move that Part 3 will go on to reward.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- I reach for it without thinking
Natural way to describe a habit that has become automatic.
- it has quietly replaced
Good for describing what the app displaced — 'it has quietly replaced my paper tickets'.
- a small but genuine time-saver
Measured praise; stronger than calling everything amazing.
- I would feel slightly lost without it
Honest dependence without exaggeration.
The same phrases in a full sentence
A phrase list is only useful if you know how the words sit around it. Say each of these aloud once before you attempt the card.
- it has become second nature
- “Opening it has become completely second nature — I do it before I have decided to.”
- in real time
- “It shows you where the bus actually is in real time rather than where it should be.”
- I would be lost without it
- “I would be lost without it, quite literally, in a city I still do not really know.”
- a double-edged sword
- “It is a bit of a double-edged sword, because I have stopped learning the routes myself.”
Part 3 discussion
After your long turn the examiner moves into a four to five minute discussion on the same theme, working from two related discussion topics with about three questions each. The first stays close to your own experience; the second widens out. Answer with reasons and examples, not one-line replies.
Technology in daily life
Example questions
- 1What kinds of apps do most people use every day?
- 2How much time do people in your country spend on their phones?
- 3Do you think people rely on technology too much?
Skills and technology
Example questions
- 1Can you suggest which everyday skills people are losing because of technology?
- 2Should children be taught to do things without digital help?
- 3How might everyday technology change in the next ten years?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: Media, technology and culture. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.