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TOEFL campus situation speaking task: 40 practice items

B2Speaking & Writing40 questionsUpdated

The campus situation task gives you a short university announcement, a conversation between two students about it, and about a minute to report one speaker’s opinion and the reasons behind it. Your own view is irrelevant here. These 40 items drill the structure that fits the time: the plan in one sentence, the position in one, and the rest for the two reasons.

What this task tests

  • Reducing a campus notice to one accurate sentence.
  • Identifying which of the two students holds an opinion.
  • Reporting reasons in the speaker’s order, without adding your own.
  • Turning a rhetorical question in speech into a reported statement.
  • Third-person reporting language: she argues, he points out, she objects that.
  • Resisting the urge to retell the announcement in detail.
  • Campus vocabulary: notice, proposal, facility, renovation, deadline.
  • Filling about a minute with content rather than repetition.

How to do it

  1. Step 1:

    Read for the plan and its reason

    Notices have two parts: what will change and why. Five words on each is all you need from the reading.

  2. Step 2:

    Decide who has the opinion

    One student usually asks the questions and the other answers with a view. Report the one with the view.

  3. Step 3:

    Note two reasons, not the wording

    Reason one with its detail, reason two with its detail. Four scribbles cover the whole conversation.

  4. Step 4:

    Open with the change

    One sentence naming what the university plans. If you are still describing the notice at twenty seconds, you have overspent.

  5. Step 5:

    State the position next

    ‘The woman disagrees with the plan, for two reasons.’ The rater now knows exactly what is coming.

  6. Step 6:

    Give each reason with its detail

    Distance, timing, cost, availability. The detail is what separates a reported reason from a listed one.

  7. Step 7:

    Convert questions into statements

    ‘Who’s going to walk across campus at two in the morning?’ becomes ‘she doubts students would make the walk that late’.

  8. Step 8:

    Close by tying the reasons to the position

    One short sentence. If you are out of time, drop it: the reasons matter more than the ending.

Mistakes that cost marks

  • Not thisSpending forty seconds retelling the announcement.

    ThisSpending about ten.

    The speaker’s reasons are the content being scored, and they arrive rushed if the notice is retold in full.

  • Not thisAdding “personally I agree with her”.

    ThisLeaving your own view out.

    The task asks for the speaker’s opinion; your own is not part of the rubric and costs seconds.

  • Not thisInventing a second reason when you only caught one.

    ThisDeveloping the one you caught.

    An invented reason contradicts the recording, which is a content error rather than a language one.

  • Not thisReporting the speaker’s tone: “she sounds annoyed”.

    ThisReporting what she says.

    Tone is not content, and raters are listening for the argument, not the mood.

  • Not thisQuoting the student word for word.

    ThisReporting in your own words.

    Long quotations show recall rather than comprehension, and spoken quotation is hard to follow.

  • Not thisReporting the student who only asks questions.

    ThisReporting the one with the opinion.

    Questions are prompts; the task asks for a position and the reasons that support it.

Language this task keeps reusing

announcement
an official notice about a change
proposal
a plan that has been suggested
facility
a building or service provided for students
renovation
repair and improvement work on a building
objection
a reason for opposing something
she argues that
a reporting phrase for an opinion
he points out that
a reporting phrase for a factual reason
object to
to say you are against something
inconvenient
causing difficulty or extra effort
group study room
a bookable room for students working together
student center
a campus building for student services and activities
late-night
happening very late in the evening

Practice: campus situation speaking

40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.

In the campus situation task you must

2Complete with one noun beginning with c.

Start by naming the the university has announced, in one short sentence.
True or false about this task?
  • You report the speaker’s reasons, not your own.
  • The announcement usually gives a reason for the change.
  • The two students always agree with each other.
3 to go
The notice says the library’s 24-hour study room will close and late-night study will move to the student center. Which is the best opening?

5Complete with one verb (third person) beginning with a.

Next, say whether the speaker or disagrees with the plan.

6Write the sentence that states the speaker’s position.

7Complete with one plural noun beginning with r.

Then give the speaker’s in the order she gave them.
The woman says the student center is a twenty-minute walk from the dormitories. In your answer this is

9Complete with one verb beginning with g.

Do not add reasons the speaker did not .
True or false about the material?
  • The reading is a campus announcement, notice or letter.
  • You must state your own view at the end.
2 to go

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Frequently asked questions

What if both students give opinions?

The question names the one you must report, usually the man or the woman. Listen to the stem before you plan, and report only that speaker.

How much of the notice should I include?

One sentence for the change and, if it fits, a clause for the university’s reason. Anything more eats the time your reasons need.

Do I need to use the exact words from the conversation?

No, and you should not. Report in your own words with reporting verbs; a rater hears comprehension in a paraphrase and recall in a quotation.

What if the speaker gives three reasons?

Give the two you noted most clearly, with detail, and mention the third briefly if time allows. Two complete reasons beat three half-finished ones.

Is the opinion always negative?

No. Roughly as often the student welcomes the change and explains why it solves a problem. Do not assume opposition before you hear the conversation.