Listen to a Conversation: practice recordings, transcripts and answers
Two speakers, one problem, and a solution that arrives late. The conversation task rewards tracking who wants what — so every recording below is published with the whole transcript, the questions, the keyed answers and why each distractor was written.
641
Listening questions
232
Listening recordings
Counted in our own database, servable items only. How each figure is counted
Listen to a Conversation practice recordings, with transcripts and answers
Each recording below is published in full: play it, answer, then read the transcript and the explanation for every option. Nothing is hidden behind a signup.
Recording 1
A Double-Booked Study Room
Library Services · Hard · 1 min 3 sec · 2 questions
Transcript
1. How does the student respond to the situation?
- A.Angrily, demanding the other group leave
- B.Indifferently, deciding not to study at all
- C.Anxiously, insisting on canceling her booking
- D.Accommodatingly, agreeing to take the other roomAnswer
Why D (Accommodatingly, agreeing to take the other room) is the answer: The student says she doesn't want to be difficult and takes the quieter upstairs room, which the librarian calls kind.
- A. She avoids conflict rather than demanding anything.
- B. She still wants to study, just in another room.
- C. She keeps a room; she doesn't cancel.
2. What problem are they resolving?
- A.The student forgot to make a reservation
- B.Two groups were booked into the same study room at onceAnswer
- C.The study room was closed for renovation
- D.The library is out of study rooms entirely
Why B (Two groups were booked into the same study room at once) is the answer: The librarian finds two overlapping reservations for the same room and works to resolve it.
- A. The student did reserve the room; the system double-booked it.
- C. The renovation is over; the glitch appeared when the room reopened.
- D. An identical room is available upstairs, so rooms remain.
Recording 2
A Missing Scholarship Document
Financial Aid · Hard · 1 min 2 sec · 2 questions
Transcript
1. Why does the coordinator recommend using the portal instead of email?
- A.Because email costs a processing fee
- B.Because the portal waives the deadline
- C.Because emailed attachments sometimes fail to attach to the fileAnswer
- D.Because the email system is being shut down
Why C (Because emailed attachments sometimes fail to attach to the file) is the answer: The coordinator explains emailed attachments sometimes don't attach correctly, so uploading directly is safer.
- A. No fee is associated with email.
- B. The Friday deadline still applies.
- D. No shutdown of email is mentioned.
2. Which document is missing from the student's file?
- A.Her transcript
- B.A letter of recommendation
- C.The financial verification formAnswer
- D.Her scholarship application
Why C (The financial verification form) is the answer: The coordinator says the application and transcript are in, but the financial verification form hasn't come through.
- A. The transcript is already received.
- B. No recommendation letter is mentioned.
- D. The application is on file.
These are Reach120 practice recordings written for the 2026 task format. None of them is a real TOEFL test item, and nothing on this page is published, licensed, endorsed or reviewed by ETS. Difficulty labels and durations are our own bank’s values.
What Listen to a Conversation asks you to do
- A recorded exchange between two speakers in a campus setting — a student and a member of staff, or two students — usually built around a problem and its resolution.
- Questions follow the recording and ask about the gist, a detail, a speaker’s attitude, or what someone will do next.
- The whole recording plays before the questions. You cannot scrub back to a moment.
What ETS states
The 2026 specification lists the Listening section at 47 items and 35 raw points, with task types Listen and Choose a Response, Listen to a Conversation, Listen to an Announcement, and Listen to an Academic Talk.
These are published blueprint values, which the specification states are subject to minor revisions until the official launch. The item count includes non-scored items, so items do not equal raw points — the specification lists a maximum of 1 point per scored item.
The specification lists an estimated Listening time of an 18 minute router plus a second-stage module of 7 minutes (lower) or 11 minutes (upper).
The times are estimated, and the two module lengths are discrete listed values — not a sliding 7-to-11-minute range.
Listening items are machine-scored selected responses, evaluated by rule-based algorithms per the specification’s item-type notes.
Machine-scored is not exclusive to Reading and Listening — Build a Sentence is machine-scored too. This says nothing about how Reach120 scores your practice.
Sourced from the ETS 2026 test specifications, read (link confirmed ). Everything outside this box is Reach120’s own reading of it.
What the task actually measures
- Whether you held the shape of the conversation, not only its sentences.
- Whether you can tell what a speaker said from what they implied.
- Whether you noticed the turn where the problem changed.
How this task type is scored
Every item on this task type is a selected response with one keyed answer, so a practice attempt is either right or wrong and there is no rubric to argue with. What the practice is worth is the reason a distractor pulled you — which is why every question below publishes why the key is right and why each wrong option looks right.
How to practice it without wasting the material
- 1Take notes on the problem and the proposed fixes while the audio plays, then answer before reading the transcript.
- 2After answering, read the transcript and mark the exact line the key depends on. Most missed items turn on one sentence.
- 3Treat the attitude questions separately — they fail for a different reason than the detail questions, and mixing them hides which one you are actually losing.
Listen to a Conversation: common questions
- How long is a TOEFL conversation recording?
- ETS does not publish a per-recording length. The Reach120 practice recordings on this page print their own duration beside each transcript, so you are pacing against a real number rather than a remembered one.
- Should I take notes?
- Notes help most on this task type because the questions reward the arc of the exchange. Practice the note style you intend to use on test day rather than a different one.
- Are these real TOEFL conversations?
- No. These are Reach120 practice recordings written and produced for the 2026 task format. Nothing on this page is published, licensed, endorsed or reviewed by ETS.
Built against the TOEFL 2026 test specification, re-read on a 30-day cycle.
Read the Trust Center — how scoring, figures and independence are handled.