How to manage time in the TOEIC test

Hi all!

Last time, we talked about what you should do on the test day and what happens in the test room. Now, you are ready to take the actual test. The level of difficulty is one of the major concerns for test takers, but I would say that the complexity of language used in the TOEIC is not too high to understand as it is a test of communicative English proficiency. If you work in an international environment, or communicate in English regularly, I’m quite certain that just a bit more practice will help you to get a satisfactory score.

The real major problem for most of the test takers is ‘time’. Finishing 200 questions within 120 minutes is not a piece of cake unless your reading skills are near perfect. Why do I mention ‘reading skills’ specifically, but not the ‘listening skills’? Well, it’s because of the fact that the first 45 minutes dedicated to the Listening Part is beyond your control. In other words, you have to listen and mark the answer right away since the audio will be played only one time. There is no time you can save or waste during this part.

However, the next 75 minutes are completely yours to manage. Whether you will finish 100 questions of the Reading Part in time or not totally depends on your time management skills. These are my suggestions:

1.    In Part 5 and 6, read the choices first. By looking at the given choices, you will know what points of grammar you should focus on.

2.    In Part 7, read the questions first. Underline keywords in the questions and scan the passage for them. When you see the keywords, stop there and read the statement to find the answer. In case of main idea questions, you should skim through some parts of the passage such as the title, headings, and the first sentences of the first paragraph.

3.    Remember that the 75 minutes is under your control. Don’t spend more than 45 seconds on each question. If you’re not sure of the answer, skip that question and get back to it when you finish the last one. 

4.    Check your watch regularly and compare with the number of question you have finished. Increase your speed if there are too many questions left unanswered while the time is nearly up.

5.    The last thing I would recommend is that you should mark each answer on the answer sheet right after you decide on it. Don’t mark all 200 answers in the test booklet and transfer them to the answer sheet altogether at the end. Though it depends on individual technique, most of the test takers fail to make it in time. So, just do it one by one.

These are all of my suggestions on time management. I hope you find them helpful for your preparation. Remember that the more you practice, the higher score you get. Next time, I’ll come up with suggested practice resources.

See you then!