How many sentences are in TOEFL Listen and Repeat?

7. They are set on a campus or in an academic situation, each with a picture, and they get longer from the first to the last.

How long do I have to repeat each sentence?

ETS says 8 to 12 seconds per sentence and doesn’t list the time for each one. Our mock test uses 8, 8, 10, 10, 10, 12, 12 seconds.

Is each sentence played more than once?

ETS’s public descriptions don’t say. It’s safer to practise hearing each sentence once.

Does my accent lower the score?

The rubric has no separate line for accent. It asks whether you repeated the words accurately and whether you can be understood, so an accent matters when it makes a word hard to recognise.

Can I say it in my own words if I forget part of it?

A paraphrase scores lower than word for word. Changes to small words usually make it a 4, and a change in meaning makes it a 3 or lower. Say what you remember exactly.

How much of the Speaking score is Listen and Repeat?

It is 7 of the 11 questions, and each question is scored 0–5. ETS hasn’t published how the 11 scores are combined into the 1–6 band.

TOEFL Speaking task 1

TOEFL® Listen and Repeat: how it works and how to practise

The first 7 questions of the TOEFL Speaking section. You hear a sentence from a campus or class setting and say it back as exactly as you can. Each sentence is scored 0–5.

Try one sentence Take the full mock test

The task

What Listen and Repeat looks like

Questions	7 sentences, one at a time. They are the first 7 of the 11 Speaking questions.
Setting	Campus or academic situations, each shown with a picture of the scene.
Difficulty	Short to long. The first sentences are a single clause; later ones add subordinate clauses, relative clauses and long noun phrases.
Time to answer	ETS gives 8 to 12 seconds per sentence and doesn’t list the time for each one.
Score	0–5 for each sentence.
Not stated by ETS	How many times each sentence plays, and whether there is time to prepare. Practise as if you hear it once and start right away.

Short to long

How the sentences grow

Four sentences we wrote to show the steps. The real test uses its own sentences, but the pattern is the same: more words, and more structure to hold in your head.

1 · One clauseThe library opens at eight.5 words
2 · Adds a time clausePlease return the laptops before the help desk closes.9 words
3 · Adds a relative clauseStudents who borrowed books last term should check their accounts.10 words
4 · Long noun phraseThe new printing station on the second floor only accepts student ID cards.13 words

Scoring

How each sentence is scored

Each sentence is compared with what you heard. This is ETS’s description of each score, in our own words. The gap between 4 and 5 is small: one dropped “the” can cost a point.

Score	What it means
5	Repeated word for word and fully intelligible.
4	The meaning is right, with small changes to function words, tense or word order, or one or two words unclear.
3	Mostly complete, but the original meaning is not kept accurately.
2	A large part is missing; it no longer works as a sentence.
1	Only a few words, or mostly hard to understand.
0	No response, not in English, or unrelated to the task.

Where points go

The four places most answers lose points

The first three are exactly what the 4 description lists: function words, tense and word order. The fourth changes the meaning, which can bring a sentence down to 3.

word in the sentence, not in your answerword what you said instead

1Small words

Articles, prepositions and helping verbs are short and unstressed, so they are the first to go.

Your books will be ready at the front desk on Monday.

2Tense

A past tense heard quickly often comes back as present, especially when the -ed is quiet.

Students who sign signed up last week will get an email tomorrow.

3Word order

Indirect questions keep statement order. Saying “where is the printer” turns it into a direct question.

Could you tell me where is the printer is?

4Long noun phrases

Words in front of a noun, like “two new”, get dropped when the sentence is long. Without them, the meaning changes.

The two new study rooms on the third floor can be booked online.

Practice

How to practise

1
Split it into meaning groups
“The two new study rooms | on the third floor | can be booked online.” Three groups are easier to hold than thirteen separate words.
2
Slow first, then normal speed
Say it slowly with every small word, then at normal pace. The score rewards getting every word, not speed.
3
Add length step by step
Start with sentences of 6 to 8 words. When you can repeat five in a row word for word, move to sentences with a clause.
4
Record and check word by word
Record yourself and compare it with the written sentence one word at a time. Most people don’t notice a dropped “the” until they see it.

Try it

Try one sentence now

A sentence from our practice set. You have 10 seconds to repeat it, then you get a 0–5 score and a word-by-word check. No sign-up needed, 3 tries a day.