Apps for IELTS cue card practice in 2026, and what Part 2 really needs

Part 2 is the section candidates ask about most, and the one general speaking practice prepares you for least. It has a fixed shape that nothing else in the test shares, and rehearsing that shape is a specific job: get a card you have not seen, plan it in sixty seconds, then talk for two minutes without running dry. This page covers which products describe that job in their own listings, what to check before trusting any of them with it, and where each one runs — because several of the most recommended ones do not exist on iPhone.

We make IELTS Mentor AI, one of the apps discussed here. We’ve tried to be fair; check each product’s current listing before you decide.

What proper Part 2 practice has to include

A card you have not seen. A cue card — officially a task card — names a topic, lists the points to include and asks you to explain one aspect of it. The skill being tested is handling an unfamiliar one, so practice that reuses the same three cards trains the wrong thing.

One minute, with somewhere to write. Official guidance is to check you understand the topic first, then write short phrases rather than sentences, in the order you plan to say them. A tool that skips straight to recording removes the part of the task that most decides how the two minutes go.

Two minutes that actually run. Part 2’s timing is up to two minutes, and the examiner stops you at the mark. Being stopped is not a fault; stopping yourself at seventy seconds is the problem worth finding, and you only find it against a real clock.

The follow-up. The examiner may ask one or two short questions on the same topic afterwards. It is brief, and it is part of the section.

One attempt. No restarts. Our post on cue-card strategy goes through what to do with the prep minute so that a single attempt is enough.

The products that describe cue-card or Part 2 practice

The order groups products by how directly their own listings describe Part 2 practice — first those that offer it as something you can do on its own, then those where it exists inside a full mock — and lists them alphabetically inside each group, ours included, sitting where its own name falls. It is not a quality ranking; we have not tested these against each other.

Part 2 or cue cards named as their own practice mode

Engnovate. Its Speaking evaluation is split into separate Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 tools, so a Part 2 answer can be submitted on its own; its results breakdown is labelled with the official criteria plus Task Response, which is normally a Writing criterion. Web only.

FixoLang. Its description covers a library of cue-card and speaking topics with instant AI assessment of grammar, sentence structure, coherence and vocabulary use, plus access to human mentors for pronunciation work. iOS and Android; its AI feedback does not name the four official criteria.

IELTSpeaking. Its listing says you can “practice Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 separately” as well as sitting full mocks, with a score report covering grammar, fluency, vocabulary and pronunciation. iOS.

Stimuler. Its site describes covering Part 1 as the introduction, Part 2 as the cue card and Part 3 as the discussion, with topic-specific sessions and AI scoring. iOS and Android; its real site is stimuler.tech.

TalkDrill. Its IELTS page describes practising Parts 1, 2 and 3 out loud with a timed cue card and an estimated band against the four official criteria. Android and web only; no iOS listing found.

Part 2 inside a full mock

Cathoven IELTS. Its listing describes Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 practice with exam-style questions and full mock tests scored on the four official criteria, with a colour-coded transcript. Android and web only.

Our app. Ours runs Part 2 as part of the full mock on the exam’s timings, and scores the turn on the four public criteria as a strict-to-lenient range, naming recurring mistakes and their band impact. iOS and Android.

SmallTalk2Me. Its own text describes an AI simulator covering Speaking Parts 1, 2 and 3 with instant grading. Web only; no store listing found.

SpeakPrac. Its listing describes a full mock across Parts 1, 2 and 3 with real exam timing, an estimated band and improved versions of your own answers. Android and web only.

Speechful. Its pages describe Parts 1, 2 and 3 under timed, exam-like conditions with an AI examiner and a report afterwards. Web only; no store listing found.

Sprechify. Its site describes two-way spoken conversation across Parts 1, 2 and 3, with one mock covering all three under real IELTS timing. Web only; no store listing found.

IELTS Prep - TalkFace. Its listing describes realistic Speaking and Writing mock tests with instant scoring, but does not break the Speaking mock into parts, so what it does with the long turn specifically is not stated. iOS.

How they compare

The cards themselves

None of the above answers the first practical question, which is where the cards come from. This site keeps an open cue-card library grouped into topic families, each card with its printed points and an explain line, and the same cards feed the browser Speaking mock test — which gives you a card, a notes box, one minute to plan and up to two minutes to talk, followed by one rounding-off question, exactly as the section runs. It does not score you; it records your timing and your answer so you can hear where the two minutes went.

How we put this list together

Every claim about another product comes from that product’s own App Store or Google Play listing or its own website, fetched on 18 September 2026 — not from review sites or “best apps” articles. We have not tested any of these, so the order reflects only how directly each listing describes Part 2 practice, not quality. We make one of the products here and have described it as cautiously as the rest. Where a listing does not state something, the page says “not stated” rather than filling the gap.

What to actually do this week

Take five cards you have never seen, one a day. Read each one, plan for exactly sixty seconds on paper, then talk for two minutes against a timer without stopping, and record it. At the end of the week listen back to all five and count two things: how many times you finished early, and which printed point you skipped. It is almost always the last one — and knowing that about yourself is worth more than another list of topics.