TOEFL Academic Discussion: Health & Psychology Topics (2026)

Sample response (124 words)

I think Olivia and Kenji are describing two different ways of using the same platforms, and the harm depends mainly on which one dominates. When teenagers use social media to stay in touch with people they already know, as Kenji does, it can reduce loneliness. The problem arises when use shifts toward passively scrolling through strangers' carefully edited lives. Constantly comparing an ordinary day with other people's highlights can make young people feel inadequate, and over time that feeling can turn into anxiety or low self-esteem. Since platforms are designed to encourage exactly this kind of endless scrolling, I believe the overall effect on teenagers is more harmful than positive, unless they deliberately limit their feeds to friends and communities they genuinely care about.

Sample response (128 words)

I support the later start, mainly for the reason Amara gives, although Lucas raises a practical concern. Sleep directly affects how well students learn: a tired student in an early class may be physically present but struggles to concentrate and remember new material. An extra hour in the morning means that the time spent in class is actually productive. Lucas worries that students would simply go to bed later, and some probably would. However, teenagers' natural sleep patterns shift later during adolescence, so an early start fights their biology rather than their habits. Schools could combine the change with guidance for families on evening routines. Given that the goal of school is learning, I think arranging the day so that students are alert enough to learn makes sense.

Sample response (131 words)

I believe physical education should remain required, although Henry's point about embarrassment suggests how classes should change. The strongest argument is habit. Many teenagers have no other regular exercise, and the routines people form at that age often last into adulthood; a student who learns to enjoy some form of activity is far more likely to stay active later. PE also builds skills beyond fitness, such as cooperating in a team and persisting when something is difficult. Henry is right that traditional competitive games can humiliate less athletic students. However, the answer is to offer more choice within PE — yoga, hiking, dance or strength training — rather than to let students drop it entirely. That way, every student keeps exercising, and each can find an activity they are comfortable with.

Sample response (135 words)

In my view, a sugar tax can be effective, although Fatima's fairness concern is important. Price is one of the few tools that changes everyday behavior across a whole population. Even a small increase makes some people choose water or a smaller bottle, and because habits compound, a slight reduction every day adds up to a meaningful difference in health over years. The tax also encourages companies to reduce the sugar in their products to keep prices down, which helps even consumers who never change their choices. Fatima is right that such taxes fall more heavily on low-income families. That problem can be reduced if the revenue is spent on things those families benefit from, such as free drinking water in schools or subsidized fruit. Designed that way, the tax is both effective and fair.

Sample response (132 words)

Isaac and Leila both raise valid concerns, but I think the most serious one is fairness. An AI system learns from the data it is trained on, and if that data mostly comes from certain groups of patients, the system may be less accurate for everyone else. For example, a tool that detects skin conditions but was trained mainly on images of lighter skin may miss the same condition on darker skin. Unlike a data leak, this kind of error is invisible: patients receive a confident but wrong answer and have no reason to question it. Leila's point about over-reliance makes the problem worse, because a doctor who trusts the tool will not catch its mistakes. That is why I believe testing these systems on diverse patients should come before anything else.

Sample response (130 words)

I agree more with Musa, although wellness programs are not useless. Chloe is right that easy access to a gym or relaxation tools can help employees build healthy habits, and those habits do lower stress over time. However, most workplace stress comes from its causes — unrealistic deadlines, long hours or unclear expectations — and a meditation app cannot change any of those. An employee who is expected to answer emails at midnight may use the app for ten minutes, but will still be exhausted the next morning. In some cases, these programs can even shift responsibility onto the worker, as if stress were a personal failure to relax. I think companies should keep such programs but treat them as a supplement, while focusing first on workloads and working hours.