IELTS Speaking · Part 2 Cue Card
A complete preparation guide: the cue card itself, a 60-second prep framework, a band 7.5 sample answer, topic vocabulary, and likely Part 3 follow-up questions.
Cue card
Describe a phone app you use often.
You should say:
Specific to this cue card — not generic advice.
Read it once for shape, then aloud for rhythm. Don't memorise it — examiners can tell.
The app I use most often, outside of the obvious messaging ones, is a habit-tracking app called Streaks. I started using it about two years ago after reading 'Atomic Habits', because I wanted a way to actually see whether I was sticking to small commitments. The app lets you set up to twelve daily habits, and you tap a coloured circle when you complete one — drink two litres of water, do twenty pushups, read for fifteen minutes, that sort of thing. It tracks your streak, in days, and resets if you miss. I open it three or four times a day. Before bed I check what I haven't ticked off yet, and that often pushes me to do the last one. The reason I use it so much isn't that I love productivity tools — actually I'm a bit suspicious of them. It's that the visual feedback works on me in a way that pure willpower doesn't. Seeing a 184-day streak on something I once thought I couldn't do is genuinely motivating. I'll add: I think apps like this can become a small obsession, and I take a deliberate break from it twice a year because relying on it too much feels like the wrong kind of discipline.
Phrases used in the sample answer that lift fluency naturally.
sticking to commitments
keeping promises to oneself
tick off
mark as completed
visual feedback
information given through images
small obsession
minor compulsive interest
deliberate break
intentional pause
the wrong kind of discipline
rigour driven by the wrong motivation
The examiner will move from your story (Part 2) to broader, abstract questions (Part 3). Prepare answers for these.