PREPARING FOR ENGLISH PROFICIENCY TESTS

Redux: How business and academic English-proficiency tests differ

This Forum first presents a set of three practice tests for the TOEIC, namely for Sentence Completion, Error Recognition, and Reading Comprehension (Part VII). These are the paper-and-pencil tests of the TOEIC that you can self-administer and self-score, but they are not all about the TOEIC test. It administers several other tests to measure picture identification skills, listening comprehension, writing ability, and speaking competence. However, these testing instruments require sophisticated technical equipment and scoring by actual human raters, so the Forum is not equipped to provide practice tests for them. For these other tests, you need to get the practice tests in CD-ROM offered by the testing company itself or by independent test-review companies.

The TOEIC, which is the acronym for Test of English for International Communication, is primarily designed to measure English proficiency for hiring and promotion purposes in companies, government offices, and educational institutions. It is meant to find out if your English language skills are good enough for business and the civil service, and to see how those skills of yours compare with those of others applying for the same job. This means that if you score high in the TOEIC, you would—all other things being equal—have a much better chance of landing that job.

If you are applying to study in a good college or university abroad, however, the most likely test you’d be required to take is the TOEFL, which is the acronym for Test of English as a Foreign Language. In contrast to the TOEIC, the TOEFL is designed to measure your ability to use and understand English as it is read, written, and spoken in the university classroom. For this reason, the kind of tests, the language, the content, the material, and the test situations you will encounter in the TOEIC will mostly be oriented along academic, classroom-study, and campus-oriented lines. This is because the TOEFL won’t be measuring your fitness for employment but your fitness for college or higher studies with English as language of instruction.

To give you some idea and a feel of what the TOEFL is and how it compares with the TOEIC, the Forum had posted a TOEFL practice test in English Sentence Structure and Written Expression. It consists of 15 tests in Sentence Structure and 25 in Written Expression. Why don’t you take this practice test sometime soon—better still, now—to see how academically ready you are for college or graduate school?  

When you do, however, keep in mind that the TOEFL English Structure and Written Expression practice tests posted here are just the tip of the TOEFL iceberg, so to speak. The actual TOEFL has several more of this paper-and-pencil type of reading tests—including tests using extended Reading Comprehension passages. Of course, as in the TOEIC, the TOEFL will test you for Listening Comprehension as well. And if you intend to take the new TOEFL iBT—that’s the acronym for “Internet-based test”—you would also be tested online for your Speaking Skills and Writing Skills.

But never fear! As with any test in life, you can pass the TOEFL and even score high in it if you take it very well-prepared. And of course, if you need to take the TOEFL sometime soon, the best time to start preparing for it is now!

The Practice Tests Posted in the Forum:
1. TOEIC Incomplete Sentences Test No. 1   Click to take it now!
2. TOEIC Error Recognition Test No. 1         Click to take it now!
3. TOEIC Reading Comprehension Test (Part VII) No. 1      Click to take it now!
4. TOEFL English Structure and Written Expression Test No. 1 (Combined)  Click to take it now!

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