Lesson 37 of 41 in the Test Ninjas TOEFL course: Take an Interview, Speaking. In Take an Interview, you hear four questions, one at a time, with no preparation time; this course practices with 45 seconds to answer each (on test day, follow the timer on the screen).
Test Ninjas Research · Updated October 1, 2026
Lesson at a glance
Detail
This lesson
Module
Take an Interview (Speaking)
English focus
Answer-first structure; past simple and present perfect for experiences (with present simple and used to for routines)
Task skill
Answering the question directly: a first sentence that answers, then detail that covers every part of the question in 45 seconds
Time
About 50 minutes
Access
Free to take now, no account needed
This lesson is free. Take the whole lesson now, with every teaching page, drill and the walk-through: start Answer first.
What this lesson teaches
In Take an Interview, you hear four questions, one at a time, with no preparation time; this course practices with 45 seconds to answer each (on test day, follow the timer on the screen).
This lesson teaches the English that puts your answer where the listener looks for it: in your first sentence, and in the right tense.
You’ll learn when to use present perfect (Yes, I have) and when to switch to past simple (Last spring I…), plus present simple and used to for routines and I’d for imagined plans.
Then you’ll learn answer frames that reuse the question’s words, how to add one concrete detail, and how to count the jobs in a question so you answer every part within 45 seconds.
By the end of the lesson, you can
Describe experiences in the right time frame: present perfect for your life up to now (I’ve…; Have you ever…? – Yes, I have), past simple once you name a time or tell the story (Last spring I…), and present simple or used to for routines now and before.
Open with an answer sentence that reuses the question’s key words (What I remember most is…; Usually I…; I’d go with…; No, not always…), then add one concrete detail or reason.
Hear every job in a two-part interview question, answer the first job in sentence one, and reach the second job before the 45 seconds run out.
What’s inside
Around the 3 teaching cycles below, the lesson opens with a quick check and closes with applied practice, a Check and a debrief. How every course lesson is built.
Teaching cycles in lesson 37
Cycle
Focus
What it teaches
Drills
Cycle 1
English
Past simple and present perfect for experiences
7
Cycle 2
English
Answer first, then add
7
Cycle 3
Task skill
Every part of the question in 45 seconds
7
Word bank
The 10 words and phrases this lesson teaches. They come from the real course questions you practice on in the Apply step, so you meet each one again in context.
act on phrasal verb
to do something because of advice or information you got
My coach told me to rest for a week, and I acted on her advice this time.
Goes with:
act on advice; act on a suggestion; act on a warning
Word family:
acts on, acted on, acting on (verb forms)
clarity noun
the quality of being clear and easy to understand
Her talk had real clarity: three points, one example each.
Goes with:
for clarity; a lack of clarity; with great clarity
The takeaway: Say the answer in your first sentence, in the right tense, then use the rest of the 45 seconds to prove it and finish every part of the question.