A TOEFL Listen and Repeat Sample

This TOEFL Listen and Repeat sample is one original set of seven campus sentences, with notes on what a usable repeat keeps and what a miss sounds like. The 0–5 marks below are illustrative practice scores for teaching the criteria. They are not an official ETS result, and they are not a score from a recorded learner. Use them to see which sentence failed which job. Then record your own set.

In this guide

1. What the set contains
2. The seven sentences
3. How the illustrative marks were assigned
4. What to steal for your own recording
5. Try this yourself
6. Frequently asked questions

What the set contains

Listen and Repeat on this product is seven sentences, heard once, spoken once after the beep. The response windows lengthen through the set: 8, 8, 10, 10, 10, 12, and 12 seconds. There is no preparation screen and no script on the page. A full Speaking section adds four interview questions and costs 3 credits. This sample is only the seven-sentence task, which costs 1 credit when a real exam starts.

The practice criteria for these items are Repeat Accuracy, Intelligibility, and Fluency. Repeat Accuracy is whether the content and the order survived. Intelligibility is whether a listener can tell the words apart. Fluency is whether you started and finished inside the window without a collapse in the middle. How Speaking is scored defines those bars. This page only shows them on one set.

The seven sentences

Say each sentence once, from memory, after you read it. On the real task you would hear it, not read it. Reading here is so the annotation has a text.

1. “The printer on the second floor is offline.”
2. “Please return the lab key before noon.”
3. “The advising office moved from Room 210 to Room 118.”
4. “If the seminar is full, join the waitlist in the app.”
5. “Bring closed-toe shoes to Thursday’s briefing at 9 a.m.”
6. “Students who already booked a Thursday lane at 5 should keep that time on Friday.”
7. “Don’t rebook the lane, or you will hold two spots and may lose both.”

A strong repeat of sentence 1 keeps “second floor” and “offline.” “The printer upstairs is broken” is intelligible and still inaccurate. A strong repeat of sentence 3 keeps both room numbers in order. Swapping 210 and 118 is a different announcement. Sentence 6 has to keep “Thursday,” “5,” and “Friday.” Dropping Friday turns the instruction into a cancellation the sentence did not make. Sentence 7 is the warning. Dropping “don’t” reverses it.

Sentence	Window	Must survive	Illustrative miss
1	8 sec	place + status	“upstairs” for “second floor”
2	8 sec	object + deadline	noon becomes “today”
3	10 sec	both rooms, in order	rooms swapped
4	10 sec	condition + app	waitlist omitted
5	10 sec	shoes + day + time	time dropped
6	12 sec	old slot and new day	Friday omitted
7	12 sec	the negative	“don’t” dropped

How the illustrative marks were assigned

These marks are a teaching sketch of three imaginary first takes. They are not measurements.

Take A keeps every content word, starts on the beep, and is easy to parse. Illustrative practice scores: Repeat Accuracy 5, Intelligibility 5, Fluency 4. The fluency point slips only because sentence 7 rushed the last clause. The information was still there.

Take B is clear and late. Rooms and times survive, but sentence 1 starts after a long pause and sentence 6 is cut off at “Thursday.” Illustrative scores: Repeat Accuracy 3, Intelligibility 5, Fluency 2. The listener could understand the words that were said. The task still failed where the window closed on the new day. A pretty voice does not restore Friday.

Take C is fast and muddy. All seven sentences finish, and several content words blur: “offline” sounds like “online,” and “closed-toe” loses an ending. Illustrative scores: Repeat Accuracy 2, Intelligibility 2, Fluency 4. Speed did not help. Fluency versus intelligibility is the article for that split. This sample only shows that the two bars can move in opposite directions.

None of these takes is a promise about what a model will assign you. A real report uses your audio’s transcript and timing. Listen and Repeat, explained describes that report. If your pattern matches Take B, the next set’s only goal is the start and the last content word. If it matches Take C, the next set’s only goal is the endings of content words, even if you feel slower.

What to steal for your own recording

Steal the must-survive list, not the sentences. Before you record, decide that names, numbers, rooms, and negatives are the words you will not paraphrase. Paraphrase is a useful interview skill and a Repeat Accuracy miss.

Steal the order of review. After a real set, mark the first sentence where a content word died. Do not average all seven into a mood. Sentence 7 can be perfect while sentence 3 swapped the rooms, and the swapped rooms are the more dangerous miss because they invent a location.

Do not memorize this page and then feel skilled when the product plays different lines. Familiar sentences measure memory. New sentences measure the task. Practice sentences are a bank for variety. This page is one annotated set so the criteria have an example.

Record from Listen and Repeat or Speaking practice. One credit when the exam starts. The full section can wait until a seven-sentence report shows which bar is lowest. Mistakes by criterion is the list to use when the lowest bar is not Repeat Accuracy.

Try this yourself

Cover the table. Read sentence 6 once, look away, and say it. Check whether Friday and 5 both survived. Then record a real seven-sentence set you have not read on this page. Compare your first dead content word with Take B and Take C. Pick one of those patterns, not both, for the next attempt.

Start Listen and Repeat. Leave this sample closed while you record.

Frequently asked questions

Are these official sample sentences?

No. They are original campus lines for teaching. The public task is seven heard sentences of increasing length, spoken once. The wording on test day will be different.

Are the 0–5 marks real scores?

They are illustrative. No learner audio was scored to produce them. A practice report on your own recording is the only 0–5 that describes you, and even that is not an official ETS score.

Can I read the sentence and then speak?

Not if you want the report to describe Listen and Repeat. Reading first removes the listening half. Use the printed lines here only to study the annotation.

What if I paraphrase to stay fluent?

You will often sound smooth and lose Repeat Accuracy. Keep the content words. Smoothness is a different bar, and it does not replace a dropped negative.

Next steps

Record one new set and name the take, B or C, that it resembles. Then use the 14-day Speaking plan for the next sessions. One pattern per day is enough.