Which TOEIC test should you take?

"The TOEIC" names a family of tests, not a single exam. Four products coexist, on four incompatible score scales. Booking the wrong one costs the price of a session, and is usually discovered when the application is due.

If your hesitation is about the TOEIC versus another exam — TOEFL, IELTS, Linguaskill — that is a different question, covered in which English test to choose. Here we assume a TOEIC is what you have been asked for.

The four tests, side by side

TOEIC Listening and Reading: the default

This is the one job adverts and school regulations mean. If a document mentions a score "out of 990" or quotes a three-digit figure, this is it.

200 multiple-choice questions in two hours: 100 listening questions in roughly 45 minutes, then 100 reading questions in 75 minutes. Seven parts, the first four of them audio. It is the cheapest test in the family, and the only one whose format you can drill for free in depth — part by part, here.

TOEIC Speaking and Writing: when you have to produce

A separate, computer-delivered test of about an hour and a half. Eleven speaking tasks in around twenty minutes, eight writing tasks in an hour. Each section is scored 0 to 200.

The thing to remember: these scores do not convert into points out of 990. A "160 in Speaking" and an "850 in Listening and Reading" live on two scales with no bridge between them.

TOEIC 4-Skills: both, in one sitting

The 4-Skills covers all four skills in a single session, keeping each test's own scale: 5 to 495 for listening and reading, 0 to 200 for speaking and writing.

In France it is the test CPF funding points at: ETS Global states that the certification registered in the Répertoire spécifique covers all four skills. The detail is in funding the TOEIC with the CPF.

TOEIC Bridge: for lower levels

A test in its own right, built for beginner to intermediate learners. One hundred multiple-choice questions in about an hour: fifty listening across four parts, fifty reading across three. Each section is scored 15 to 50, for a total of 30 to 100, covering CEFR A1 to B1.

It does not convert to a score out of 990 and does not replace TOEIC Listening and Reading in an application. Its value is measuring progress without the result disappearing into the bottom of a scale designed to reach 990.

And TOEIC Link?

This is ETS's newer online assessment, more modular than its predecessors. It covers the four skills, runs in under 90 minutes, is taken remotely with AI or hybrid proctoring, and reports 0 to 25 per skill aligned to CEFR A1–C1. Listening and reading results are immediate; speaking and writing arrive within 48 hours.

The point to hold on to: its scale has nothing to do with 10–990. A TOEIC Link "21" does not compare to a TOEIC Listening and Reading "850", and a recruiter used to the latter will not read the former without explanation.

Deciding in thirty seconds

• You are asked for a score out of 990 → TOEIC Listening and Reading.
• You are asked for a CEFR level with no test named → Listening and Reading covers most cases; check whether production is expected.
• You are asked for all four skills, or you are funding through the CPF → the 4-Skills.
• You are below A2 and want to track progress → Bridge.
• Your employer or school is organising it → they choose the test; ask which one before you start revising.