What's new in the TOEFL iBT Speaking section

If you learned the old TOEFL iBT Speaking format — read a passage, listen to a lecture, then give a 45-second response — the new version will feel different in a good way: shorter tasks, faster feedback, and a scoring scale that's easier to read.

Two tasks instead of four

The redesigned Speaking section narrows down to two tasks.

• Listen and Repeat. You hear a sentence once and repeat it back as exactly as you can. There are 7 sentences, each a little harder than the last. This task checks whether you can hold a sentence in your head long enough to reproduce it under time pressure — a skill that matters just as much in a real conversation as it does on test day.
• Take an Interview. You answer 4 short, personal questions out loud, one after another, the way an interviewer would ask them in person. There's no essay-style monologue to memorize in advance — the questions are about yourself and topics you already know, so the test is measuring how naturally you can speak, not how well you can recite.

Why the format changed

The old independent speaking task rewarded memorized templates almost as much as it rewarded actual speaking ability. Test-takers who prepared five-sentence "formulas" for generic topics could often say the right shape of an answer without truly producing spontaneous English. Listen and Repeat and Take an Interview are harder to template: you can't pre-write a response to a sentence you haven't heard yet, and interview questions are conversational enough that a memorized script sounds obviously out of place.

The new 1–6 band scale

The old test reported a 0–30 score, which told you roughly where you stood but not much about what to do next. The new scale reports a single band from 1 to 6, where 6 is the top band — fluent, accurate, natural under time pressure. Each band corresponds to a plain description of what a speaker at that level sounds like, so a band 3 and a band 4 aren't just two numbers apart — they're two recognizably different stages of speaking ability.

What to actually practice

Because both tasks are about speaking immediately, without a chance to plan or rehearse the exact words, the most useful practice is the same: say something out loud before you've seen or memorized it, right after you hear or read the prompt. That's the loop BandSix is built around — take a free diagnostic to see your estimated starting band on both tasks before you decide how much more practice you need.

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