What is the TOEIC?
The TOEIC Listening & Reading is a workplace English listening and reading test published by ETS, the Educational Testing Service. It measures English as used at work; workplace situations provide context, and ETS says no business experience or specialized vocabulary is expected. ETS also says the test does not result in a pass or fail: scores use a continuous scale, and employers—not the publisher—set their own thresholds.
Two sections, 200 multiple-choice questions, scored separately. Listening has 100 questions in four parts and takes about 45 minutes, at the pace of the recordings. Reading has 100 questions in three parts and takes 75 minutes, which you manage as you choose. The test itself takes nearly two hours; ETS’s FAQ recommends allowing 2.5 to 3 hours on site for check-in, instructions, and administrative steps, including the biographical questionnaire.
Know two things before registering. First, wrong answers are not penalized: ETS says scores are based on the number of correct answers and that no penalty applies, so leaving an answer blank does not protect your score. Second, ETS offers another version, the multi-stage adaptive (MSA) format: about one hour, 90 questions, and two stages per section, with the second block determined by your answers in the first. The question types are the same. Unless noted otherwise, figures on this page describe the standard format, so check which version your session uses.
What are the two sections?
For each one: its format, method, and a worked example.
How is the TOEIC scored?
ETS publishes the score scales, the structure of each part, and measurement precision, but not the function that converts correct answers into a score. Here is what is established, and nothing more.
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Listening
Photographs 6 · Question-Response 25 · Conversations 39 · Talks 30
100 questions · about 45 minutes · scored from 5 to 495
-
Reading
Incomplete Sentences 30 · Text Completion 16 · Single Passages 29 · Multiple Passages 25
100 questions · 75 minutes · scored from 5 to 495
Each section is scored from 5 to 495. The total score ranges from 10 to 990 and is the sum of the two section scores, with no weighting.
ETS does not publish the tables that convert correct answers into section scores. Each test version has its own table, produced through a statistical process that makes scores comparable across sessions. A generic table therefore cannot guarantee your official score based only on the number of correct answers.
How scores are calculated
ETS also reports measurement precision: the standard error is about 25 points per section, and the standard error for the difference between two attempts is about 35 points per section. To compare two Listening scores or two Reading scores, ETS uses a band of plus or minus 35 points around the first score; an increase beyond that band indicates improvement with 68% confidence. This band does not apply to the total score out of 990.
Which CEFR level does a score correspond to?
ETS publishes a CEFR mapping based on a 2006 study by a panel of 22 experts from 10 European countries. It gives minimum scores by section. Here are the study’s B1 and B2 benchmarks; this table does not show every published level.
| Level | Listening, at least | Reading, at least |
|---|---|---|
| B1 | 275 | 275 |
| B2 | 400 | 385 |
ETS says these are guidelines, not absolute cutoffs, and neither section is mapped to C2 because the panel did not consider the test demanding enough. Read your score report by section: the same total can reflect different Listening and Reading results. Adding the two minimum scores in the table does not show whether each minimum was met.
How do you take the TOEIC?
- Choose the format
- Check whether your session uses the standard or adaptive MSA format. The question types are the same, but timing, question count, and structure differ. Choose timed practice that matches the format you booked. Score User Guide, formats standard and MSA (ETS Global) (opens in a new tab)
- Register
- In France, register online through ETS Global, ETS’s network for the country. S’inscrire (ETS) (opens in a new tab)
- Where
- At a test center; for public test sessions, ETS Global offers only computer or tablet testing at registration. Find a session (ETS Global) (opens in a new tab)
- Price
- Price checked on October 5, 2026: €189 including tax at the ETS France test center in Paris. Check your session’s price and options before paying. The test in France (ETS Global) (opens in a new tab)
- Sessions
- Year-round at test centers across France. The test in France (ETS Global) (opens in a new tab)
- Passages
- As often as you like outside an institution; an institution sets its own session dates and frequency. Candidate handbook (ETS Global) (opens in a new tab)
- Results
- For public test sessions, ETS Global says scores are available within three hours on a computer or tablet, subject to its terms and conditions. Find a session (ETS Global) (opens in a new tab)
- Validity
- Two years from the test date. Test-taker FAQ (ETS) (opens in a new tab)
- Sending scores to schools
- You send your digital score report yourself; it can be verified with a QR code. The test in France (ETS Global) (opens in a new tab)
- Cancel a score
- The sources reviewed do not establish how to cancel a score at your request. ETS’s guide does describe cancellations by the publisher when it finds an irregularity or questions a score’s validity. Score User Guide (ETS Global) (opens in a new tab)
Policies checked against ETS and ETS Global pages on October 15, 2026. The reference price of €189 at the Paris test center comes from a session summary dated October 5, 2026; check your session’s current price before paying.