Would you rather work from home or in an office? Give reasons.
A strong Task 1 answer states the choice immediately, gives two supports or one support with an example, and lands its last word around forty seconds. Fifteen seconds of preparation is enough for the plan, not for the wording.
The prompt and the clock
Would you rather work from home or in an office? Give reasons.
15 seconds to prepare, up to 45 seconds to speak
A model answer at the right length
105 words — what 45 seconds actually holds.
Answer it yourself first
Record yours first. A memorised TOEFL answer is audible in the rhythm, and raters mark delivery, which is exactly what memorisation damages. Read this afterwards for the shape and the vocabulary.Home for three days and the office for two, which is not a dodge but the arrangement I have and would defend. Working at home gives me two uninterrupted hours in the morning that simply do not exist in an office, and that is where anything difficult gets done. What the office gives me is everything unscheduled. I hear about a problem before it becomes mine, and a five-minute conversation replaces a chain of eleven messages. If forced to choose one, I would take the office, mainly because I watched a colleague work fully remotely for two years and become invisible to everybody making decisions.
The words that carry it
Each one links to how it is pronounced.
- arrangement
three syllables with the stress on the second
- uninterrupted
five syllables with the stress on the fourth
- unscheduled
the precise adjective for what an office adds
- remotely
the modern sense of working at a distance
- invisible
four syllables with the stress on the second
- defend
the verb that commits you to the position
How to build the 45 seconds
- 1Give a specific split and defend it as a real answer.
- 2Say what home provides.
- 3Say what the office provides.
- 4Answer the forced choice with evidence.
Sounds to watch
Straight answers
How long should this answer be?
Forty-five seconds, which is roughly 110 to 130 words at a natural pace. The model below is 105. If your version runs past fifty seconds the recording cuts off, and raters hear an answer that stops mid-sentence.
Does it matter which side I take?
No. Raters mark delivery, language use and topic development, never which opinion you chose. Pick one in the first second and spend the preparation time on two supports rather than on deciding.
What does sayit score here?
An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar. The transcript is shown in full, so you can judge your own wording and development yourself.
What the score on your result means
An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.Drill it until the clock stops mattering
A free account keeps every take, so you can watch your pace settle and your filler count fall across a fortnight.