Seeing several scored examples side by side makes the Listen and Repeat rubric click faster than reading the rules alone. This page walks through four more practice sentences at increasing difficulty, each with what a strong response looks like and where test-takers typically lose points. For the full task breakdown and scoring rubric, see the main Listen and Repeat guide.
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Prompt: "The library closes at nine tonight."
Short sentences like this one are the easiest to score a 5 on, since there's little to drop — but they're also where a distracted first-half listen shows up. A response like "The library closes at nine" (dropping "tonight") loses the time-frame detail and typically scores a 3 or 4 depending on how the omission is judged; a response that changes "closes" to "opens" is a content-word swap that changes meaning and scores lower still, even though it's a one-word change.
Prompt: "Please remember to bring your student ID to the exam."
Instructional sentences like this test whether you can hold onto a full command structure. A strong response repeats it exactly. A common slip is dropping "please," which is a minor function word and usually keeps the response near a 4 rather than dragging it down further — but dropping "to the exam" removes the actual instruction's context and is a more serious content loss.
Prompt: "Due to construction, the north entrance will be closed until further notice."
This length is where most test-takers start losing points, because there are now two pieces of information to hold onto: the reason ("due to construction") and the actual instruction ("north entrance... closed until further notice"). A response that captures the instruction but drops the reason clause entirely is a common, and costly, pattern — the reason clause is exactly the kind of front-loaded detail that gets lost when a listener focuses too hard on catching the ending.
Take the free TOEFL Benchmark Test and get your estimated band score in about 45 minutes.
Prompt: "All students planning to graduate this spring must submit their final forms by the fifteenth of May."
Sentences with a specific date or number are disproportionately hard, because a listener can reconstruct most of a sentence's general meaning from memory but can't easily guess a specific date if it's missed. Getting every other word right while saying "by mid-May" instead of "by the fifteenth of May" is a content-word-level error, not a minor slip, and scores accordingly. If dates and numbers are a specific weak point for you, build extra practice around sentences that include them rather than assuming general practice will cover it.
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