Compilation of TOEIC test tips
Overview of Test
- Listening (45 minutes, 100 questions)
- 1 Photographs
- 2 Question-Response
- 3 Conversations
- 4 Talks
- Reading (75 minutes, 100 questions)
- 5 Incomplete Sentences
- 6 Text Completion
- 7 Reading Comprehension
General Tips
- Old practice materials OK for practice, but note that pre-2017 materials have
- Too many questions in section 5(Incomplete Sentences)
- Too few questions in sections 3(Conversations), 6 (Text Completion), and 7(Passages)
- Missing images in section 4.
- Missing triple passages in Section 7
- Before the test
- Make you sure you have the right pens, etc.
- Make sure you know where you are going
- Get a good night’s sleep
- Before the test starts, warm up your english listening brain with some movie/lecture/TOEIC audio/podcast (not just reading or vocab).
- Answering order and speed
- Answer as quickly as you can, then if you can, look at the next question. Try to guess what is coming.
- Answer every question - wrong answer do not get minus points
- For section 3/4, answer the easy questions first.
- Vocab
- Learn general business roles and department equivalents of Japanese terms you know
- (e.g HR, CEO, marketing, sales, supervisor, HR, etc)
- https://kimi.wiki/japanese/japanese-office-vocab
- Learn business vocab - see vocab list for TWL and BWL sections.
Listening Tips
- General -
- Having problems with accents (e.g. Australian)?
- You just need to tune in your brain
- Find some news, TV, TED Talks, to listen to.
- Use subtitles at first, then turn them off
- FOcus
- If you get something wrong, or can’t answer
- Shake it off and get ready for next question.
- Unlike other sections you can’t look at the answers and guess later.
- Listening 1 - Photos: While waiting, quickly
- Name the things you see (e.g. laptop)
- Name the people you see (e.g. receptionist, presenter)
- Name the situation (e.g. office, hotel)
- Name the ING verbs (e.g. showing, explaining, giving)
- Listening 2 - Question-Response
- If you have to guess:
- Rhyming words (“away”, “weigh”) are a very bad sign
- Repeat words with different meaning (“at the park” vs “park the car”) are very bad
- Repeated words are bad, but not as bad as part 3.
- Synonyms (同義語) are good
- Think “When is it happening”. Common trick is wrong tense:
- When would you do it …. I did it yesterday
- What will you do … I haven’t done it
- Think “WHO is doing it?”. Common trick is wrong pronoun:
- Did he do it? Yes I did.
- WHat did she do? They did something.
- Listening 3 - Conversations
- Skim the questions and guess
- the situation (hotel, office, etc)
- the people speaking
- the function (apologising, instructing, complaining, etc)
- If you have to guess, words aren’t as good a clue in this section
- Repeated words (in listening and in reading) are maybe bad.
- Synonyms (同義語) are probably good
- Learn question types
- e.g. “Can you” “Could you” is often request. Answer = “Sure”, not “Yes, I can”
- e.g. “I was wondering if”
- Careful of negatives
- e.g. “You don’t X, do you”
- e.g. “Why can’t you come on time”
- Careful of Tense
- e.g. present question with past answer
- e.g. “What will the woman say” - you have to guess, she hasn’t said it in audio.
- Listening 4 - Talks
- Questions are USUALLY in order (Q1 is usually at beginning of listening)
- Answer quickly and then read the next question. Especially read the diagrams.
- As always, synonyms (“from the top” = CEO) are good
- Pay attention to WHO does things
- Pay attention to WHEN things are done
- Answer as you listen, but don’t get distracted by Q2 answer and forget to listen to Q3.
Reading tips
- Questions are in order (answer to first question is at beginning of text)
- Plan your time for each section.
- 30s max per question for section 5/6
- 60s max per question for section 7
- Answer every question - wrong answer do not get minus points
- Skip difficult ones and come back at the end.
- For part 7, read the questions first.