TOEIC Exam to Introduce New Format Next Year

The new format of the TOEIC test, which is scheduled to be introduced next May, is expected to make the test more difficult for many test takers. Changes include longer dialogues and passages in both listening and reading sections.

Educational Testing Services (ETS) announced on July 13 that Korea and Japan will be the first countries to experience the new format in a regular test next May.

Listening Section to Have “Longer Passages and Fewer Photo Questions”-

The listening part of the test will have fewer but longer dialogues.

To reflect English spoken in a variety of countries, passages will be read with various accents not only of the U.S., but also of Britain, Canada and Australia.

The photo description part of the test (PartⅠ) that has been regarded as relatively easy will have 10 questions, fewer than the current 20.

The number of dialogues in the Short Dialogue section (PartⅢ) will be reduced from 30 to 10. In the meantime, the number of questions for each dialogue will increase from one to three, requiring more improved listening and comprehension skills.

The number of questions for the Long Passage section (Part Ⅳ) will increase from 20 to 30. A total of 10 dialogues will be read and test takers should answer three questions for each dialogue.

In addition, the ETS decided to include questions for short dialogue and long passage parts in the test paper.

Reading Section to Have Longer Passages, Test Takers Should Read Two Passages before Answering Questions-

Some passages in the reading section will be longer and each passage will have two to five more questions.

In the Reading Comprehension Section (Part Ⅶ), there will be 20 new types of questions which require a test taker to read two related passages to answer questions.

For example, you may have to read one passage regarding a conference and another passage consisting of an e-mail message regarding the conference before answering five questions.

“Error correction” questions (Part Ⅵ) which ask you to choose a grammatical error in a sentence will be replaced with a new type of question which asks you to fill in the blank in each sentence with a grammatically correct word.

In other words, the new test will focus on measuring grammar proficiency in different sentence contexts rather than the ability to just memorize grammar rules.

Score Structure and Test Duration to Remain the Same-

Christa Mathews, head of the international team of ETS, said, “There will be no changes in the score structure, the number of questions in the listening and reading parts (100 questions each) and test duration (two hours)”, adding, “We will conduct various preliminary surveys to maintain the same difficulty level of the test.”

For more detailed information and sample questions from the new test, visit www.toeic.co.kr.

syroh@donga.com