TOEFL iBT® Listen and Repeat: how it works, with examples

• What you hear: seven sentences from one situation on campus or in academic life, such as a manager showing a new assistant around. A picture of the place is on the screen, and it moves through the parts of the place as the sentences go on.
• What you do: after a short pause, repeat exactly what you heard. There is no separate preparation time.
• Time: up to 8 to 12 seconds to record each sentence.
• How the set grows: each sentence is longer or more complex than the one before.
• Scoring: each sentence is scored from 0 to 5, with ETS’s scoring guide.

ETS describes how the sentences grow: from one short clause to longer sentences with two verbs, extra clauses and long noun phrases. Each step adds something to hold in your memory:

1. Listen for meaning, not single words. Picture what the sentence says: a door, a group, a room.
2. Hold it as chunks. Two to four chunks of meaning are much easier to remember than fifteen separate words.
3. Keep the speaker’s rhythm. Stress the same important words; natural rhythm helps the listener understand you.
4. Start right after the pause. Speak at a calm, natural pace; the clock is already running.
5. Finish the sentence. If you lose a word, say a close one and keep going.

The situation (new, written for this page): You are a new student assistant at the university greenhouse. Listen to the manager and repeat what she says.

Square brackets mark the chunks; the words in bold carry the main stress.

ETS’s scoring guide gives each sentence a score from 0 to 5. In plain words:

• 5: an exact repetition that is fully intelligible.
• 4: the meaning is kept, but with small changes: one or two small words missing or changed, a word replaced by a related one, a wrong ending such as a missing plural, or two words swapped. Saying “touch plants” instead of “touch the plants” is this kind of change.
• 3: the sentence is complete, but the meaning is no longer accurate. Saying “Visitors can take photos and touch the plants” changes the rule.
• 2 and below: a large part is missing, or the speech is hard to understand.

ETS scores Speaking with its AI scoring engine, which is trained on human ratings; human raters help check its accuracy.

• Shadow for five minutes: play a short recording and repeat it a few words behind the speaker.
• Record yourself repeating single sentences, then compare with the original, word by word.
• Grow the length: start with sentences of five or six words and add a few words each week.
• Train your listening too: the Listening practice page has recordings with scripts.

• Starting too slowly and running out of time on the long sentences.
• Dropping “not” or a time phrase, which changes the meaning.
• Stopping after a missed word instead of finishing the sentence.
• Repeating twice. ETS’s directions say to repeat only once.

Practice Exam 01, Prepiva’s free full practice test, ends with a full Speaking section in the 2026 format, and its score report includes a Speaking rating after a free sign-up. Prepiva Pro adds Speaking practice sets with AI evaluation, for $19.99 a month or $39.99 for 3 months. Next, learn the second Speaking task, Take an Interview, or take the full practice test.