TOEFL Listen and Repeat

What the Listen and Repeat task is

In January 2026 the TOEFL iBT Speaking section changed to two tasks: Listen and Repeat, then Take an Interview. The old tasks where you read a passage or heard a lecture and then summarised it are gone. Listen and Repeat checks one thing: repeating spoken sentences accurately and intelligibly.

How it works

1. Step 1

   One speaker, one setting

   You hear one person in a campus or everyday place, such as a librarian showing you around. The directions tell you who they are.

2. Step 2

   7 sentences, each heard once

   They say 7 sentences, one at a time. You hear each sentence only once and you do not see it written down.

3. Step 3

   Repeat it exactly

   After each sentence you repeat it, word for word, as soon as it ends. Then the next sentence plays.

4. Step 4

   Sentences get longer

   The first sentences are short, with one simple clause. The last ones are longer and add parts like "if", "who" or "until" clauses.

You get only a short time to repeat each sentence. In our practice test it is 8 to 14 seconds, longer for longer sentences.

How it is scored

Each sentence gets its own score, a whole number from 0 to 5. Your words are compared with the sentence word by word. Accent is never a fault on its own; pronunciation only counts when it makes a word unclear. The examples below are for the sentence “If you need a quiet place to work, the reading room upstairs is open until midnight.”

The score descriptions are our summary of the public ETS scoring guide; the examples are ours.

Tips for Listen and Repeat

• Listen for meaning, not single words

  Picture what the speaker is telling you. It is far easier to repeat "the quiet rooms are on the third floor" as an idea than as nine separate words.

• Start speaking straight away

  The sentence fades from memory in seconds. Begin as soon as the speaker stops, before you start doubting what you heard.

• Keep the small words

  Words like "a", "the", "to" and "is", and endings like -s and -ed, are what separate an exact repeat from a near one. Say them clearly.

• Hold on to the shape of the sentence

  In long sentences, listen for the hinge word (if, who, until, because). Remember the two halves around it and you can rebuild the whole sentence.

• Finish the sentence, even if you lose a word

  A full sentence with one word changed scores higher than a perfect start that stops halfway. Keep going and fill the gap with your best guess.

• Do not worry about your accent

  Accent on its own is not a fault. What matters is that each word is clear enough for a listener to understand.

• Practise out loud, every day

  Repeat short clips from podcasts or lectures, then check yourself against a transcript. A few minutes a day trains the memory this task needs.

Sample set: Campus library

You are new at the university library. Listen to the librarian and repeat what they say. In the test you only hear these, so try it: have a friend read each one aloud once, then repeat it without looking.

1. 1Welcome to the main library.
2. 2Please show your student card at the desk.
3. 3The quiet study rooms are on the third floor.
4. 4You can borrow up to twenty books at one time.
5. 5Laptops and phone chargers can be borrowed for four hours from the front desk.
6. 6If a book is not on the shelf, you can request it from another campus library.
7. 7Students who return books late will not be able to borrow anything else until the fine has been paid.

Questions