TOEIC Overview

The TOEIC exam last 2 1/2 hours and it is composed of two sections: listening comprehension and reading

A. Listening comprehension: 45 minutes

Part	Section	Component
1	Photographs	10 questions
2	Question-Response	30 questions
3	Short Conversations	30 questions (10 conv with 3 questions each)
4	Short Talks	30 questions (10 talks with 3 questions each)

PHOTOGRAPHS

In this part, you see a photograph and hear four statements about it. The photo itself may portray people, things, actions and locations. You must select the sentence which best describes what you see in the picture. You hear the sentences only ONCE, and must make your choice immediately after that, or else you'll miss hearing information related to the next picture.

QUESTION-RESPONSE

In this part, you may be asked a question about almost any subject related to people, events, location, time, emotions, reasons, opinions or activities. You need to choose the most appropriate answer.

SHORT CONVERSATION

In this part, you hear a short dialogue, followed by a brief general question about the conversation. You then must choose from 4 possible answers, which may be related to an activity, location, relationship, or emotion of the speakers.

SHORT TALKS

In this part, you hear a short monologue such as a weather forecast, announcement or bulletin. You then need to choose an answer related to the speaker, location, time, reason, or  event discussed during the talk.

B. Reading: 75 minutes

Part	Section	Component
1	Incomplete Sentences	40 questions
2	Text Completion	12 questions
3	Reading Comprehension	48 questions

INCOMPLETE SENTENCES

In this multiple-choice section, you need to choose the best answer to complete a sentence. Your knowledge of grammar and vocabulary are both important in helping you understand the correct context of the sentence and in choosing the right answer. For example, you must be familiar with word forms such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc. to know which one fits the sentence correctly and its correct placement.

TEXT COMPLETION

Here, you will be asked to fill in the blanks, as in the incomplete sentences section above. The difference is that the blanks are part of longer pieces of writing such as a letter.

READING COMPREHENSION

The reading comprehension section presents texts taken from a wide variety of contexts such as bulletins, advertisements, reports, tables, announcements, memos, etc. A number of questions follow. 

C. Scoring

The score is determined by the number of correct answers in each module and the maximum score is 990 (495 each section). Your TOEIC score is valid for up to 2 years.

Here is a link to a document done by ETS about scoring: http://www.ets.org/Media/Tests/TOEIC/pdf/TOEIC_LR_Score_Desc.pdf