Interview 3 — student jobs and shopping
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 career center asks about work: a job you have, have had or would like to have, something useful you learned from a job, an internship or a volunteer project, whether students should work during the school year, and how hiring through short internships will change the way students plan their time at college. Interview 2 — a business-school professor asks about spending: where you buy everyday things and why, a purchase that turned out to be a mistake or a very good decision, whether you prefer small local stores, big chains or shopping online, and what advice you would give a new campus café and how well it will do.
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 advice or a prediction. Each step needs different language — past forms for the story, a clear position for agree-or-disagree, comparatives for a preference among options, future forms and cause and effect for the prediction.
A developed answer: respond directly, give a reason, give one concrete instance, stop. There is no correct view on student jobs or shopping; 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 job, a past job or a wished-for job clearly in the opening answer
- Tell what a work or volunteer experience taught you, in the past and in order
- Take and support a clear position on an agree-or-disagree question
- Compare options and explain a preference with comparatives and a concrete instance
- Give advice and a reasoned prediction about a new business
- 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 career center is studying how students combine work and study, and an interviewer from the center would like to ask you some questions. Could you describe a job you have now, or one you've had? If you've never had one, describe a job you'd like to have.
- 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 description. Any job is acceptable, including babysitting, family work or a job the candidate would like to have. If the answer is one word, move on.
- Expected: ask how much the job pays.
- Expected: say that the job sounds interesting.
- Expected: ask about the job and about studying in the same turn.
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 description. Any job is acceptable, including babysitting, family work or a job the candidate would like to have. If the answer is one word, move on.
The first question is a concrete description and the easiest of the four; it has a way in for someone who has never worked, so nobody is left without an answer.