Listen and Repeat on the New TOEFL iBT® Test (2026): How It's Scored and How to Practice

In short

• Listen and Repeat is the first Speaking task on the 2026 TOEFL iBT® test. You hear seven sentences, one at a time, and say each one back exactly as you heard it.
• The sentences belong to one situation, such as being trained for a job at a gym or a library, and they get longer and more complex as you go. You have at most 8 to 12 seconds to answer each one, with no preparation time.
• Each sentence is scored from 0 to 5. With seven of them, Listen and Repeat carries 35 of the section's 55 raw points; the four interview answers carry the other 20.
• A 5 is an exact, fully clear repetition. Dropping small words such as "a", "the", or "to", or an ending like -s or -ed, is the usual difference between a 4 and a 5.

What the task looks like

From ETS's Speaking section page, Test Overview, and Technical Manual. ETS's own practice situations include a zoo, a campus gym, a library, a hotel front desk, and a nature reserve.

ETS says the task measures how well you process spoken English and how accurately and clearly you reproduce it. Its scoring engine looks at three things: fluency (speed, pauses, hesitations), intelligibility (pronunciation, rhythm, stress), and how accurately you repeat the words.

What each score means

Two lessons follow from the guide. Small words count: they're the gap between 4 and 5. And finishing matters: a complete sentence with a slip scores higher than a perfect start that stops halfway.

A sample set

Our own situation and sentences, getting longer the way ETS's do.

Three ways to answer sentence 4, and where ETS's scoring guide would most likely place them:

• "If a book is overdue, the system sends the student a reminder." Exact and clear: a 5.
• "If book is overdue, the system send the student reminder." Same meaning, but two small words and an ending are gone: a 4.
• "If a book is overdue, the… um…" A correct start that stops: a 2.

How to answer

1. Read the situation first. A library, a gym, or a hotel tells you which words to expect, which makes them easier to catch.
2. Listen for meaning in chunks. Hold "If a book is overdue" and "the system sends the student a reminder" as two ideas, not twelve separate words.
3. Start speaking as soon as the sentence ends. There's no preparation time and only 8 to 12 seconds, and the sentence fades from memory fast.
4. Keep the small words and endings. Articles, prepositions, -s, and -ed are exactly what the scoring guide checks between a 4 and a 5.
5. Always finish the sentence. If you lose a word, say the rest with the meaning you remember rather than stopping.
6. Speak at a natural pace. Rushing blurs the words; long pauses hurt fluency. Copy the rhythm you heard.

A 15-minute daily routine

• 5 minutes of shadowing. Play a short clip and speak along with it a moment behind the speaker, copying the rhythm and stress. ETS's Speaking lesson plans suggest the same.
• 5 minutes of record and check. Play one sentence, repeat it into your phone, then compare with the script and count the words you missed. ETS recommends exactly this self-check.
• 5 minutes of longer sentences. Start at 6–8 words and move up to 15 or more, adding a clause each week: "who…", "if…", "because…".

ETS's practice tests on the Preparing Students page come with audio and scripts for Listen and Repeat, so you can check every word. To hear how you sound to a scorer, take the section itself: MockPrep's Speaking section runs Listen and Repeat and Take an Interview like the real test, then shows every answer with its recording, a transcript, a score, and feedback, so you can see exactly which words you dropped.

The other Speaking task is in Take an Interview, and the whole test is in what changed in 2026.