Describe an app you use every day.
A strong long turn names the subject in the first sentence, spends most of the two minutes on the last bullet — the why — and arrives at a prepared final line rather than trailing off.
The question, as the examiner gives it
Describe an app you use every day.
You should say
- what the app is
- what you use it for
- how often you open it
- and explain what you would miss without it
60 seconds to prepare, up to 2 minutes to speak
A band 7 to 8 answer
About 188 words at a natural pace — roughly what 120 seconds holds.
Answer it yourself first
Record your own answer first. A model you have read three times comes out with a flattened rhythm, and examiners are trained to hear exactly that. Read it afterwards for the vocabulary and the shape, not to memorise the sentences.The app I open most is a plain notes application with no features at all, which is precisely why I use it. I have tried perhaps six of the elaborate ones, the sort with tags and folders and links between things, and I spent more time arranging the system than writing in it. This one has a single long list. I use it for everything, which is the point. Shopping lists, the name of a book somebody mentions, three sentences I want to remember from something I read, the number of the plumber. I probably open it fifteen or twenty times a day, and I write in it perhaps eight. What I would miss without it is not really the notes, because I look back at almost none of them. It is that writing something down closes the loop in my head. Until it is recorded I keep checking that I still remember it, and that low background hum is surprisingly expensive over a week. The list is now about eleven thousand lines long and I have never once deleted anything, which is probably a different problem altogether.
The words that earn marks
Each one links to how it is pronounced.
- elaborate
four syllables with the stress on the second
- folders
concrete software noun, plural handled cleanly
- arranging
gerund naming the wasted effort
- plumber
a silent b worth practising
- recorded
past participle with an audible ending
- background
compound noun used figuratively
- expensive
used of attention rather than money, which lifts it
How a strong answer is built
- 1Name the app and the reason it is the right one.
- 2Say what you tried and rejected.
- 3Give real examples of what goes in it.
- 4Answer the last bullet with the underlying mechanism.
Sounds to watch
The ones this answer leans on most.
Straight answers
How long should my answer to “Describe an app you use every day.” be?
You get 60 seconds to make notes and then speak for up to two minutes without interruption. Aim to still be talking at ninety seconds: finishing at forty is the commonest way to lose marks on this part.
Should I memorise the model answer?
No. Record your own version first, then read the model for the shape and the vocabulary. A memorised answer changes rhythm and pace noticeably, and examiners are trained to hear it — it usually costs more than the better wording gains.
Does sayit score this answer?
It scores what a microphone can observe: an estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.
What the band on your result means
An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.One question a day until your test
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