Interview 2 — getting to campus and green spaces
Two short interviews, out loud, in the shape of the Take an Interview task in the speaking section of the revised TOEFL iBT: four of the section's eleven items are a simulated interview on an academic or campus situation, and you answer questions about your own experiences and opinions.
Interview 1 — the university's transportation office asks how you get to class and how long it takes, about a time when arriving on time was harder than you expected, whether raising the price of parking permits to pay for more buses is a good idea, and whether students will still travel to campus every day twenty years from now. Interview 2 — the sustainability office asks about the campus environment: an outdoor space you like, something you or people you know did to reduce waste or save energy, whether a university should spend on gardens and trees rather than new buildings, and what a campus could do about hotter summers and what happens if it does nothing.
Within each interview the questions get harder in a set order, as the published specification describes: a description, then a story from the past, then an opinion, then a prediction or a suggestion with its consequence. Each step needs different language — past forms and time linkers for the story, a position and its support for the opinion, conditionals for the consequence. The policy question cannot be answered with a bare yes or no.
A developed answer: respond to the question directly, give a reason, give one concrete instance, stop. There is no correct view on parking or trees; the task measures whether you can develop one aloud, in order, without stalling.
How the interviewer behaves. One question at a time, then the next. It does not say whether an answer was good, correct your English, supply a missing word, rephrase a question because you paused or fill your silence. Asked to repeat a question, it repeats it once, word for word.
The report. After the eighth answer: how clearly each answer was developed, grammatical accuracy, range of vocabulary and intelligibility, each with your own words quoted, the question that went least well and two things to practice. No score is given, on purpose: ETS scores the real items, and a number from here would look like a score without meaning the same thing.
Use the microphone. Pace, stress, rhythm and intonation are part of what is judged. If you type, the report says intelligibility cannot be judged from typed text.
How this differs from test day. On the test the questions reach you as audio or video and the four interview items share a short section with seven Listen and Repeat items. Here the questions arrive as text, nothing times you, and you get two interviews in one sitting to try the same rising shape twice. The flashcards carry the vocabulary and spoken phrases these questions call for.
Every question is written by Zestly; no test material is reproduced. TOEFL iBT® is a registered trademark of ETS. This material is not affiliated with or endorsed by ETS.
- Describe a routine precisely, with times and details, in the first answer
- Narrate one occasion in sequence with past forms and time linkers
- Argue a position on a campus policy instead of answering yes or no
- Predict a change and state the likely consequence of doing nothing, with conditionals
- Use transportation and environment vocabulary accurately
- Find out which of the four aspects — development, grammar, vocabulary, intelligibility — needs work
Practice interview written by Zestly, based on the ETS description of the Take an Interview task in the TOEFL iBT Speaking section (test revised January 2026).
Sample question
Here is the first situation. Your university's transportation office is planning changes to parking and buses, and an interviewer from the office would like to ask you some questions. First, how do you usually get to your classes, and how long does the trip take?
- RULES OF THIS INTERVIEW, ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE. You are the interviewer. Ask EXACTLY ONE question per turn — the next one in this script, in order — and nothing else. After the candidate answers, your reply contains NOTHING BUT THE NEXT QUESTION, with its introduction line only where this script gives one. Never write Good, Great, Nice, Interesting, Thank you for sharing, I see, Right, Wrong, Yes or No as a reaction. Never say whether an answer was good, never correct the candidate's English, never supply a word they are reaching for, never sum up or comment on what they said, never ask a follow-up question. A SHORT ANSWER, A PAUSE OR SILENCE IS PASSED OVER: move on; never ask them to say more and never rephrase the question. Only if the candidate asks you to repeat it, repeat it once, word for word. Stay in English whatever language the candidate uses. Give no score, number or level at any point. THE INTERVIEW IS NOT OVER UNTIL THE REPORT TURN OF THIS SCRIPT: there are two interviews of four questions each, so do not close early. THIS TURN: a routine described, with a duration. Any way of traveling is acceptable, including living on campus and walking. If the answer is one word, move on.
- Expected: ask which bus line, because the answer named only the bus.
- Expected: say that the trip sounds long.
- Expected: ask about parking and buses at the same time.
See the answer
RULES OF THIS INTERVIEW, ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE. You are the interviewer. Ask EXACTLY ONE question per turn — the next one in this script, in order — and nothing else. After the candidate answers, your reply contains NOTHING BUT THE NEXT QUESTION, with its introduction line only where this script gives one. Never write Good, Great, Nice, Interesting, Thank you for sharing, I see, Right, Wrong, Yes or No as a reaction. Never say whether an answer was good, never correct the candidate's English, never supply a word they are reaching for, never sum up or comment on what they said, never ask a follow-up question. A SHORT ANSWER, A PAUSE OR SILENCE IS PASSED OVER: move on; never ask them to say more and never rephrase the question. Only if the candidate asks you to repeat it, repeat it once, word for word. Stay in English whatever language the candidate uses. Give no score, number or level at any point. THE INTERVIEW IS NOT OVER UNTIL THE REPORT TURN OF THIS SCRIPT: there are two interviews of four questions each, so do not close early. THIS TURN: a routine described, with a duration. Any way of traveling is acceptable, including living on campus and walking. If the answer is one word, move on.
The first question is a concrete description of a routine: the easiest of the four, and the one that sets the interviewer's manner.