This TOEFL conversation listening sample is one original exchange and the two questions a solo practice item asks: what the problem is, and what one speaker tells the other to do. The official Listening section is about 47 items in about 29 minutes and includes many more conversations than this drill. Do not treat two questions as the whole section. Audio plays for the scored task. The script is here so the annotation has a text. A solo conversation costs 1 credit when the exam starts.
In this guide
What this TOEFL conversation listening sample asks
Campus conversations in this task are short. Someone has a problem. The other person may offer a fix and then replace it. The first offer is the trap. The last instruction is the key to the second question. If you stop listening when the problem feels clear, you will miss the replacement.
The explainer teaches that shape. This page writes one exchange out. How Listening is scored marks each question 0 or 1. A report shows your option, the key, and a rationale. It does not give credit for remembering the problem while missing the instruction.
Practice the task
Try TOEFL Listening practice free
Start with Listen and Choose a Response, then review each item on an indicative Listening report.
Start Choose a Response freeThe exchange
Student: The scanner in the periodicals room is rejecting my card, and my article is due at 5.
Staff: I can lend you the backup scanner at this desk.
Student: Is that the one that only saves to a USB stick? I don’t have one with me.
Staff: Then skip the backup. Go to the north lab, second floor, and use station 4. Tell them I sent you, and be there before 4:30. The lab locks the sign-up sheet at 4:30 even if the room is still open.
The problem is a rejected card and a 5 p.m. deadline. The first offer is the backup scanner. The instruction that survives is station 4 in the north lab before 4:30, because the USB problem killed the backup.
The two questions
1. What problem is the student trying to solve?
A. The periodicals room is closed.
B. The scanner will not take the student’s card, and an article is due at 5.
C. The student lost a USB stick in the lab.
D. Station 4 is broken.
Key: B. The opening turn states the card and the deadline. A invents a closure. C uses the USB detail, which appears later as a reason to refuse the backup, not as the original problem. D uses the station that is the solution.
2. What does the staff member finally tell the student to do?
A. Borrow the backup scanner at the desk.
B. Buy a USB stick and come back.
C. Use station 4 in the north lab before 4:30 and say who sent them.
D. Wait in the periodicals room until 5.
Key: C. “Then skip the backup” cancels A. Nobody says to buy a stick. D keeps the student in the room the scanner already refused. The 4:30 lock is the detail that makes “sometime this afternoon” wrong even if the lab door is open.
| What you might write down | Whether it answers question 2 |
|---|---|
| card rejected, due 5 | answers question 1 only |
| backup scanner | first offer, then cancelled |
| north lab, station 4, before 4:30, say who sent you | the instruction that stands |
Practice the task
Try TOEFL Listening practice free
Start with Listen and Choose a Response, then review each item on an indicative Listening report.
Start Choose a Response freeThe note that would have been enough
A transcript of the whole exchange is how you miss the lock time. The useful note is two lines:
card no, due 5not backup → N lab st4 <4:30, say staff
The arrow is the skill. Without it, the backup scanner looks like the answer because it was offered in a helpful voice. Conversation notes is the longer version of that arrow. This sample is one place the arrow matters.
If your real report misses question 2 and gets question 1, the next credit is another conversation, not an academic talk you enjoy. The talk will not repair a habit of stopping at the first offer. Common Listening mistakes calls the cousin of this miss the instruction miss.
The full section costs 3 credits. Module 1 is about 11 minutes. Module 2 is about 7 minutes on the easier path and about 11 on the harder path. Those are practice clocks, not the official 29-minute section. Use a 1-credit conversation until the last instruction is the line you can repeat.
After you answer, point at the turn that cancelled the backup scanner and read only that turn again. If your choice still says “borrow the backup,” the word “skip” did not land. That is a listening miss, not a memory miss, because the word is short and early in the staff member’s last speech. Train yourself to flinch at “skip,” “instead,” and “don’t” the way you flinch at a number. The number 4:30 matters. The cancellation matters as much, because without it the number is attached to the wrong plan and the item is still wrong. Hear the retirement word before you trust the number beside it. A time attached to a cancelled plan is still the wrong plan.
Try this yourself
Cover the keys. Read the exchange once, without going back, and answer both questions from memory. If you chose the backup scanner, you stopped at the first offer. Write the cancelling phrase “skip the backup” at the top of the note before you try a heard item.
Start a conversation so the audio is new. TOEFL Listening practice starts on Choose a Response if short replies are still the miss. Use the conversation URL when the miss is the last instruction.
Frequently asked questions
How many questions follow a practice conversation?
This solo item asks two: the problem, and what to do. Public materials describe a full Listening section of about 47 items. Two questions are a drill, not that section.
Can I replay the clip while I answer?
Scored practice plays the audio for the attempt. Do not build a habit of replaying until the answer is obvious. That rehearses a different test. After the report, a replay is study. It is not part of the score.
Is the first offer ever the key?
Only if nobody cancels it. In this exchange the staff member cancels it. Listen for “instead,” “skip,” “actually,” and “then.” Those words retire the earlier plan.
Next steps
Hear a new conversation and write only the problem and the final instruction. Then read the announcement sample if your misses are one-speaker notices rather than two-speaker plans.
Try TOEFL Listening practice free
Start with Listen and Choose a Response, then review each item on an indicative Listening report.
Start Choose a Response free
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