ScoreFluentTake an Interview is brand new terminology — it didn't exist before TOEFL's 2026 redesign, and there's essentially no established content covering it yet. Here's what the task actually asks of you, how it's scored, and how to prepare.
What the task is
Take an Interview is one of the two Speaking task types on the redesigned TOEFL (the other is Listen and Repeat). You respond to four questions inside a simulated video-interviewer conversation, and the questions get harder as the task goes on — the first question is the easiest entry point, the fourth is the most demanding.
The "simulated interview" framing is the distinctive part. Rather than a static prompt on screen, you're responding within something built to feel like a conversation with an interviewer, which is a genuinely different feel from a legacy TOEFL speaking prompt. It's still a recorded, unscripted-for-you response — there's no back-and-forth adjustment based on what you say — but the framing itself is conversational.
Where it sits in the Speaking section
Take an Interview is one part of TOEFL's Speaking section, which has 11 scored items in total across both Speaking task types (Take an Interview's 4 questions, plus 7 Listen and Repeat items), all inside an 8-minute section total. ETS hasn't published a per-question breakdown of prep or response time within that 8 minutes — treat any page that states a specific per-question time as unsourced, and pace yourself against the section total instead.
How it's scored
Speaking responses on the redesigned TOEFL, including Take an Interview, are scored by ETS's own proprietary AI engines, with human raters stepping in on low-confidence responses and a quality-assurance sample. This is worth being precise about in both directions: it isn't primarily human-graded the way some legacy prep material implies, but it also isn't scoring you with zero human oversight — both of those framings overstate the picture. ETS publishes its Speaking rubrics and the scoring design as part of the redesign itself, not as a fallback measure.
How to practise it
Because the task rewards a conversational register and increasing complexity across four questions, a few things matter more here than in a single static prompt:
- Practise responding to a genuine question, not a memorised script. A simulated-interview format is built to surface answers that sound reactive rather than rehearsed — over-scripted responses tend to read as stiff against this task shape.
- Expect the fourth question to demand more than the first. Don't burn your best structure and vocabulary on question one and coast into the harder questions with less left to say.
- Keep your answer organised even under time pressure. A clear point, a reason, and a specific detail beats a longer answer that wanders — this holds for interview-style speaking generally, not just TOEFL.
- Record yourself and listen back for pace and filler words, since fluency and delivery are scored alongside content in an AI-scored speaking task, not as an afterthought to what you said.
On ScoreFluent, Take an Interview is practicable with per-response AI scoring plus a paid Verified report, in the same spirit as the per-trait speaking feedback ScoreFluent already gives PTE candidates — see what to look for in a PTE speaking app for that pattern — rather than a bare pass/fail number.
For the mechanics of the other Speaking task on the new exam, and how the Speaking section fits into the redesign overall, see our Speaking breakdown and what changed in the new TOEFL (2026).
Sources
Task structure and scoring facts come from the TOEFL iBT 2026 Update Test Blueprint and Specifications Document (ETS) and the TOEFL iBT Technical Manual, ETS Research Report RR-25-12 (Manna, Li, Papageorgiou & Gu, 2025), which describes its 2026 figures as field-test estimates subject to revision with operational data. Per-question timing for Take an Interview is not published in either source, and this piece does not invent one. ScoreFluent is not affiliated with or endorsed by ETS.
ScoreFluent's scored PTE Academic practice is live, and LanguageCert Academic and TOEFL iBT (2026 redesign) practice are live too, in beta — including AI scoring and a paid Verified report on Take an Interview. Start practising TOEFL free.