TOEFL Speaking 3 - Free Mock TOEFL Test

Test Mode Study Mode

In this question of the TOEFL Speaking Task 3, you'll first read a short academic article. Next, you will hear a short lecture about the same topic. You will then be asked a question about what you have read and heard. You'll have 30 seconds to prepare your answer and 60 seconds to speak.

Start

Create an account to save your progress

Read the following passage

The peak-end rule describes a theory that humans judge past experiences based upon a single high moment and the end of that event rather than judging by a sum of the event in its entirety. Whether that peak moment is good or bad, coupled with their feelings at the end of the event, determine their overall perception of an experience being pleasant or unpleasant.

Today's Topic:

topic:

Peak-End rule

Explain Peak-End rule and how the example used by the professor illustrates the concept.

You have 30 seconds to prepare your answer.

Explain Peak-End rule and how the example used by the professor illustrates the concept.

You have 60 seconds to record your answer. Click the record button to begin.

Submit Answer

Test Mode Study Mode

Step 1: Read a passage

00:50

Step 2: Listen to part of a lecture

Audio Transcript

Okay! As you can see from the textbook, the Peak-End rule is a theory that describes how humans hedonically evaluate a past experience by its most intense point and its end. In other words, when we remember a particular event or experience, we don’t look at the whole picture, but instead look at its very best, worst or most intense moments. It's from those things that we evaluate the entire experience. It's like reading a story and judging it by its most exciting point and by its ending. Everything else is just white noise. That's what we do with our past experiences, whether they're good or bad.

And I know this from experience! When I think about high school I recall when my friends and I were skipping school one afternoon, got caught in a gunfight between rival gangs. I remember the security guard who patrolled the hallways and left us in stitches with his jokes. I remember a new teacher we scared off in short order. And these and other high points are what I judge years of high school by. I don't factor in the average or ordinary middle part, though they made up the bulk of the entire experience. In fact, I barely remember those! But the peaks and highlights, good and bad, and the end? Now those I remember vividly!

Step 3: Prepare your answer

Question: Explain Peak-End rule and how the example used by the professor illustrates the concept.

You have 30 seconds to prepare you answer

00:30

Step 4: Record your answer

Sample Answer

Question: Explain Peak-End rule and how the example used by the professor illustrates the concept.

You have 60 seconds to speak

Submit Answer

Sample Response 4/4

The peak-end rule is referred to in the reading passage and lecture as the way in which humans remember past experiences not by the sum total of emotions from a time, but by the peak moments, either of joy, sadness, or intensity. The professor explains the peak-end rule using her personal experience of remembering high school. Her memories of high school are associated with a time when she ditched school and was caught between a gunfight of rival gangs, the funny interactions with her school security guard, and a new teacher they were mean to. She judged and remembered high school based on those high points rather than taking into account the sum of all moments, most of which were simple non-memorable moments. The ability to judge based on the peak moments within a situation is the peak-end rule.

Key Words Found in this practice

Get your speaking response scored with audio feedback and a detailed score report.
Take a closer look at the sample speaking review below.

Get a Speaking Review

SAMPLE TOEFL Speaking Report

SAMPLE Score Summary

2.1 / 4

Task Fulfillment

2/4

Pronunciation & Intonation

3/4

Flow & Speech

3/4

Correct Grammar Usage

1/4

Vocabulary Usage (Appropriacy and Range)

4/4

Support & Development

2/4

SAMPLE Audio Feedback

Listen carefully to your audio feedback. The reviewer will correct your pronunciation, intonation, and flow of speech. We recommend you listen to it several times to fully understand each point and correction made by the reviewer.

SAMPLE Criteria Score Reports

Task Fulfillment 2/4

The response is mostly connected to the given task/question, but has limited ideas and explanation or some ideas that are not directly related to the task/question

Task Fulfillment is about how well you respond to the question you are given. TOEFL raters are looking for...

How to Improve

To do well on Task Fulfillment for Speaking Task 1, you first need to understand...

Pronunciation & Intonation 3/4

The response may require effort by listener at times, though speech is generally clear, with: some sound and cluster pronunciation mistakes occasional unnatural word and sentence stress occasional unnatural intonation

Pronunciation and intonation is about how you form English sounds and how you use natural English intonation. Your pronunciation and intonation can damage your score if...

How to Improve

Watch the following pronunciation video lessons to improve your pronunciation.

Vowel	Video Lesson
Vowel ɪ and i	...
Vowel ɛ and æ	...
Vowel ə and ʌ	...
Vowel ɔ and ɑ	...
Vowel ʊ and u	...

Consonants	Video Lesson
Consonant b and p	...
Consonant d and t	...
Consonant g and k	...
Consonant dʒ and tʃ	...
Consonant v and f	...
Consonant ð and θ	...
Consonant s and z	...
Consonant ʃ and ʒ	...
Consonant m, n and ŋ	...
Consonant l and r	...
Consonant h, w and y	... ... ...

Flow & Speech 3/4

Sustains mostly natural rhythm, though at times breaks it with unnatural linking or stress has some unnatural pausing and hesitation

Flow and speech is about how quickly you can speak and how much pausing and hesitation you use. You don’t have to speak quickly, but...

How to Improve

To improve your speech flow...

Unnatural Pauses and Hesitations Reduction Exercise

Practice any TOEFL question and record your answer. Then listen to your recording and...

Speech Pacing Exercise

An important key to earning a high score on Speech delivery is pacing in your speech. A good pacing means using proper pauses and word stresses. Here is a step-by-step exercise that can help you improve the pacing in your speech:

Correct Grammar Usage 1/4

Meaning is often difficult to understand because of significant and frequent errors with:nouns verb tenses adverbs and adjectives, including some phrases word order articles, pronouns, quantifiers, prepositions gerunds, infinitives

Correct grammar usage is about how you use English grammar and sentence structure. Raters want to see...

How to Improve

Using right tenses is important in TOEFL speaking. Every time you are not sure about what tense you should use, refer to our sample answer and...

Grammar topic	Lesson
All past tenses	...
Present perfect tense	...
How to talk about future using right tenses	...
Mixed Verb Tenses in English: Conditionals and IF clauses	...

Vocabulary Usage (Appropriacy and Range) 4/4

Uses generally correct word forms with only minimal errors effectively uses a wide range of words and phrases, which may include phrasal verbs and idioms includes generally accurate word choice and at times demonstrates sophistication in vocabulary

Vocabulary usage is about how you use English words. Raters are looking for responses that use...

How to Improve

To improve your vocabulary usage for task 1, practice...

We suggest you complete the following speaking tasks 1 and 2 lessons...

Support & Development 2/4

Has some relevant main ideas but not enough to be fully developed has some but not enough explanation of reasons to support the main ideas, or the explanation does not always relate directly to main ideas has some but not enough details and examples to help the listener understand the main ideas

Support and development is about...

How to Improve

To improve your support and development you have to...

A great exercise to improve note-taking is...

Speech Training
Grammar

Lessons
Videos
Templates
Tips

TOEFL speaking LessonsCompleted: 0 / 77

TOEFL speaking 3 Strategy

For TOEFL Integrated Speaking 3 and 4 questions, it is important to learn how to give examples in your speaking responses. Here are some useful phrases you can use in your speaking responses

Phrases for giving examples	Example sentence
give an example of ...	The professor gives an example of how his son learned to wash hands
provides an example of ...	The lecture provides an example of an important Romantic composer
cites...as an example of ...	The student cites Miller Hall as an example of the problem
use the example to show ...	The professor uses the example to show that sedimentary rocks have layers
illustrate...by VERBing	The professor illustrates co-evolution by explaining the relationship between Acacia ants and Acacia trees.
compare..to.., illustrating	The professor compares Baroque music to music in Renaissance period, illustrating how the music evolved.
demonstrate.., with	The professor demonstrates how founder effect happens with the example of small seeds of Chrysanthemum species drifting to neighbouring isolated islands

While rating your responses on the Speaking questions, ETS test scorers evaluate how well you develop your topic and deliver your message. To get a high score (26-30) on the Speaking Section, you should know how to use conjunctions to connect sentences and create complex relationships between ideas.

ADDITION

CONTRAST

CAUSE

EFFECT

EXAMPLE

SUMMARY

TIME SEQUENCE

And

Also

Moreover

Furthermore

In addition

Additionally

Besides

But

However

Although

Even though

Though

Despite that

In spite of

Despite of

Nevertheless

Nonetheless

In contrast

On the contrary

Conversely

On the other hand

Whereas

While

As opposed to

Contray to

Because

For

Since

Now that

Consequently

As a result

Therefore

Hence

Thus

For example

For instance

To illustrate

As an illustration

In conclusion

To sum up

To conclude

For these reasons

in conclusion

in short

to summarize

on the whole

in simpler terms

First of all

Firstly

Secondly

Last but not least

Learn Synonyms and Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is an important skill for the iBT TOEFL Integrated Speaking 4 and 6 questions. When you paraphrase, you express an idea that you have heard from the lecture or reading passage, but you say it in your own words. Below are some phrasal verbs and words that can be replaced with each other. Pay attention to these words and phrasal verbs and practice paraphrasing in your speaking response.

Word	Synonym	Example sentence
oppose	be opposed to, be in opposition to, object to	Parents generally oppose children's talking with strangers. The Catholic Church is traditionally opposed to birth control and abortion. Students protested to show their opposition to the tuition increase. I do not enjoy this movie. I am in opposition to watching any movies about war.
precede	come before	The baroque era followed the Renaissance period between 1400 and 1600 and preceded the Classical era between 1750 and 1820. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
follow	come after	Impressionism came after Realism which was preceded by Romanticism. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
a result of, as a result	leads to	Fluctuations in the air pressure are a result of changes in temperature The changes in temperature lead to the fluctuations in the air pressure.
be susceptible to	be vulnerable to, be prone to	The smaller population leads to decreased genetic variations. As a result, species of the smaller population becomes more susceptible to climate and geological changes. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
occur	take place	Meteor showers occur when dust or particles from asteroids or comets enter Earth's atmosphere at very high speed. When they hit the atmosphere, meteors rub against air particles and create friction, heating the meteors. The heat vaporizes most meteors, creating what we call shooting stars. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
protrude	stick out	The evolution of fish feeding systems is a history of change in multiple mechanical systems that raise the head, drop the lower jaw, expand the hyoid, and protrude the upper jaw. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
resemble	looks like	Although bonobos resemble chimpanzees in appearance, Bonobos differ from chimpanzees behaviorally. While chimpanzee society is competitive and male-dominated, bonobos live harmoniously in matriarchal groups of up to 100 members. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
constitute	consist of, be comprised of, make up, comprise	(1)Sedimentary rocks, which constitute about 75% of all rocks exposed at the surface of the Earth, form when the particles are cemented together or when crystals precipitate from the solutions. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________ (2)The crust of the Earth is composed of a great variety of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
cause	bring about	(1)The industrial and economic developments of the Industrial Revolution brought about significant social changes. First of all, It resulted in an increase in population and the phenomenon of urbanization, as a growing number of people moved to urban centers in search of employment. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________ (2)Global warming may cause as many as 1 in 6 species to go extinct. The faster the climate changes as a result of manmade emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, the greater the extinction risks to species large and small. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
emit	give off	It is generally believed that the increase in greenhouse gases all over the world is due to excessive human intervention in the environments by overdoing activities like industrialization, deforestation, excessive use of vehicles, burning of fuels etc. In fact, it is agriculture that is responsible for emitting an estimated 14 percent of the world's greenhouse gases Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
indicate	point out	Census figures released Friday indicate Indiana County's population has stayed virtually static at 89,605 residents. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
eliminate	rule out	If an economy is growing too fast or unemployment is too low, an inflationary gap will form. In order to eliminate this inflationary gap a government may reduce government spending and increase taxes. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
encompass	cover	Sports medicine encompasses four areas: preparation of the athlete, prevention of injury or illness, diagnosis and treatment of injury, and rehabilitation Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
transform	turn into	Butterflies are wonderful insects. They begin as caterpillars and then they transform into butterflies. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
reduce	cut down on	Climate change is caused by increasing levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. The government must focus on reducing those levels to avoid more rapid and severe changes in the climate in the future. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
absence	lack	Deciduous plants lose their leaves to conserve water or to better survive winter weather conditions. The absence of leaves improve wind transmission of pollen for wind-pollinated plants, and increase the visibility of flowers to insects in insect-pollinated plants Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
stimulate	spur	Supply-side economics is an economic theory that states that a reduction in taxes will stimulate the economy through increased consumer spending. Over time, the boost to economic growth will generate a larger tax base, which will make up for the revenue lost from the tax cut. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________
predominantly	primarily	The trade winds blow predominantly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere. Paraphrase the above paragraph _____________________________________________________________

Master TOEFL Speaking Task 3

This question requires you to integrate all three skills: reading, listening and speaking at once. Unlike question 2 about a campus issue, this third question of the Speaking section focuses on an academic topic. You will have 50 seconds to read a short section of an academic article. After reading the announcement, you will listen to an excerpt of a lecture. The lecture often explains more thoroughly the topic mentioned in the short reading. The question often asks you to combine the information from both the reading and the conversation to provide a summary of the two.

Answer Template

Here is the answer template you can use:

Note that the X stands for the concept.

From the reading passage, X is described as ______
The professor illustrates/demonstrates X by giving one/two examples.
In the first example, _____
In the second example, ______
(Optional) In summary/So/Therefore, these examples demonstrate/show X

Note-taking tips

When listening and taking notes, you should concentrate on the following three things: the academic topic, transition words, and examples.

There are certain keywords or sentence patterns that professors use to introduce new academic concepts:

1. X is a/an ______ that/who/which/where _________________________
2. X occurs when/where ________________________________
3. A concept/idea/situation________ that/who/which ___________ is referred to as/known as/called X
4. X refers to the idea/concept that ____ or X___ refers to the situation/circumstance where ____

Examples:
Verbal communication is a type of communication that uses words and language.
VC occurs when we use language and speak to each other
The style of communication that uses words and language is referred to as VC.
VC refers to a style of communication where language and words are used

Pay attention to the following transition words that help you capture the main ideas and examples:

Type of connection	Transition words
These words show the order of ideas.	First/Second/Third Firstly (or “First of all”)/Secondly/Thirdly (or “Lastly”) For one thing/For another thing/Finally (or “Lastly”) In the first place/in the second place/Finally (or “Lastly”)
These words show the addition of information	In addition, furthermore, additionally, also, next, moreover, what’s more, on top of that
These words shows conclusions.	To sum up, in summary, in conclusion, to conclude, all in all, all things considered ,overall, taking everything into consideration, in a nutshell
These words demonstrate contrast	Conversely, on the contrary, by contrast, by way of contrast, on one hand/on the other hand
These words compare or demonstrate similarity	Similarly, likewise, by the same token, along similar lines
These words show result.	As a result, as a consequence, consequently, therefore
These words state a generalization.	Generally, on the whole, in most cases, in general
These words clarify a point.	That is, in other words, to put it simply, That is to say, just to reiterate
These words give examples.	For example, for instance, take something, for example, to give a clear example
These words state an alternative.	Alternatively, as another possibility

Examples:

Good morning! Class! Today I want to talk about an interesting psychological phenomenon: word framing. Basically, a concept that people make choices to describe a situation in a positive or negative way is referred to as word framing. For example, if the weather today is forecast to be cloudy and there is a 50% possibility of rain, according to the forecast many people may take umbrellas with them, but if the weather forecast was delivered as there is a 50% possibility of sunshine then very few people would prepare for a rainy day. Naturally, as you can imagine, word framing can produce significant effects on buyers’ decisions, so many advertisements are carefully worded to render the best outcome. For example, we often hear or read that a certain medicine works for 90% of the patients. That sounds pretty cool right. Let’s say there is another medicine claiming it does not work for 10% of the patients. Which would you choose the first one or the second one? So. Of course, customers would find the first one more attractive and buy it, but both medicines have the same percentage of workability.

Alright! For those of you who don’t know what a self-fulfilling prophecy is. Today’s lecture I am going to talk about self-fulfilling prophecy! So.. a self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when a person acts based on a false presupposition, forcing their thoughts to become the reality. I'll give you an example. A bank is run properly for many years, there are no problems whatsoever, and everybody's money is safe. One day, a large group of people came to the bank, the reason is unknown, and many of the customers falsely perceive this to mean the bank is in financial trouble, so they decide to withdraw their money so they do not incur any losses. Unfortunately for the bank, the rumor continued and more people began withdrawing their money and finally the bank did go into financial trouble and ended up going bankrupt. Therefore, the false rumor indirectly became true as a result of their actions.

Here are symbols you can use in your notes.

Symbol	Meaning	Examples
=	refer to, occur, ..etc	A concept that people make choices to describe a situation in a positive or negative way is referred to as word framing Word framing = ppl describe a situation in ✓ or X way.
∵	Because, as a result of, due to, because, owing to	Due to the increasing popularity of e-books, there has been a fall in paper book sales. ∵↑e-books, paper books $↓
∴	Therefore	Element 43 has radioactive decay, therefore element 43 doesn't last very long, which means if that ever had been present on earth, it would have decayed ages ago. Elem43 has radioa. decay ∴ it ≠ last long
=>	result in, lead to, contribute to, give rise to, cause	Carbon dioxide significantly contributes to global warming. CO => global warming
≠	isn't, doesn't, don't, can't etc.	Element 43 has radioactive decay, therefore element 43 doesn't last very long, which means if that ever had been present on earth, it would decayed ages ago. Elem43 has radioa. decay ∴ it ≠ last long
+	many, lots of, a great deal of, etc.	Because potatoes have the ability to provide abundant and extremely nutritious food crop, no other crop grew in Northern Europe. As a result, the nutrition of the general population improved tremendously and population soared in the early 1800s. ∵ potatoes /nutri crop/+vitamins => popul↑ in Europe 1800s
++	Comparatives	Older and more experienced birds who nest in the high density shrub areas have significantly more offspring than those in low density areas, which suggests the choice of where to nest does have an impact on the number of chicks they have. older birds /nest in high shrub ++offsprings birds/nest in low shrub
+++	Superlatives	What was even more surprising were all the large organisms that lived down there. The most distinctive of these was something called the tube worm. Here, let me show you a picture. The tube of the tube worm is really, really long. They can be up to one and half meters long, and these tubes are attached to the ocean floor, pretty weird looking, huh? ! +++special = tube warm /long/tubes attached to ocean floor
-	Little, few, lack ,in short of/ be in shortage of, etc.	As I said the monsoon migrated itself, so there was less rain in the Sahara. The land started to get drier, which in turn caused huge decreases in the amount of vegetation, because vegetation doesn't grow as well in dry soil, right? And then, less vegetation means the soil can't hold water and the soil loses its ability to retain water when it does rain. So then you have less moisture to help clouds form, nothing to evaporate for cloud formation. - rain in Sahara land ++dry => vegetation↓ --vegetation => soil ≠ hold water => -water to form cloud
!	Important, interesting	But what's particularly interesting about these volcanoes is that most of the volcanoes here on Earth are not shield volcanoes. Instead, they are other volcano types, like strata volcanoes, for example, which are a result of tectonic plate movement. ! volcanoes on earth ≠ shield volcanoes = strata volcanoes tectonic plate => volcanoes on earth

Other symbols:

Symbol	Meaning
&	And, also, in addition, etc.
~	about/around, approximately, etc.
...	And so on
$	Sales, money, cost
e.g.	For example
i.e.	That is
x	Wrong, incorrect, bad, detrimental, negative, etc.
✓	Right, good, positive, etc.

TOEFL® Speaking 3 Practice 1

settings App Settings

Read the following passage

Sample Response 4/4

Key Words Found in this practice

Related Words

SAMPLE TOEFL Speaking Report

SAMPLE Score Summary

SAMPLE Audio Feedback

SAMPLE Criteria Score Reports

Task Fulfillment 2/4

How to Improve

Pronunciation & Intonation 3/4

How to Improve

Flow & Speech 3/4

How to Improve

Unnatural Pauses and Hesitations Reduction Exercise

Speech Pacing Exercise

Correct Grammar Usage 1/4

How to Improve

Vocabulary Usage (Appropriacy and Range) 4/4

How to Improve

Support & Development 2/4

How to Improve

This feature is only available to our premium members.

TOEFL speaking LessonsCompleted: 0 / 77

Master TOEFL Speaking Task 3

Answer Template

Note-taking tips

Sign Up Free

App Settings