Speaking & Writing
TOEIC Speaking & Writing Is a Separate Exam, Booked and Sat on Its Own
The point almost every guide buries: it is not a section of the TOEIC Listening and Reading test. It is a different sitting, reported on its own scales, 0 to 200 for Speaking and 0 to 200 for Writing. If somebody handed you a single number like 785 or 800, they meant Listening and Reading.
Speaking
Eleven tasks into a microphone, scored by ETS on a 0–200 scale in ten-point steps.
- Questions 11
- Time ~20 min
- Score range 0–200
- Proficiency levels 1–8
- Multiple choice None
Writing
Eight written tasks at a keyboard, on the same 0–200 scale and the same ten-point steps.
- Questions 8
- Time ~60 min
- Score range 0–200
- Proficiency levels 1–9
- Multiple choice None
Both are delivered on a computer. Neither one appears anywhere on a Listening & Reading score report.
You Can Practice Speaking & Writing on TOEIC.ai
- Mock tests, timed and marked. A complete S&W paper of 19 tasks across both sections, and a mini mock of 11 tasks in about 19 minutes. Both are marked by an AI examiner against the rubric and come back with a band score and per-criterion feedback.
- Task practice in the Study Center. Record spoken answers and type written ones, task type by task type, with the model answer and the official rubric revealed after each attempt. Your S&W study plan is available from the moment you sign up, the same as the Listening & Reading one.
- Two of the four free marked papers are S&W. The mini first, then the complete paper. After those, marking is what a subscription buys, and everything that teaches stays free.
- Recordings are kept for 7 days. Long enough to listen back and compare, short enough that we are not sitting on your voice indefinitely.
- ETS is still the source of truth on the test itself. Official sample questions and scoring guides live on the ETS TOEIC test-taker pages, and our questions are written in that style rather than taken from real forms.
The TOEIC Speaking Test: 11 Questions, About 20 Minutes
Delivered on a computer with a headset. You record spoken answers against a timer, and there is no interviewer and no second chance at a question. Six task types, in this order.
| Task | What you do | Where marks go missing | Prep / speak |
|---|---|---|---|
| Questions 1–2 Read a text aloud | Read a short announcement or advert out loud | Pronunciation, stress and phrasing are the whole score; hurrying flattens intonation | 45s / 45s |
| Question 3 Describe a picture | Describe a photograph of a workplace or street scene | Running dry after two sentences instead of covering setting, people and actions | 45s / 30s |
| Questions 4–6 Respond to questions | Answer three spoken questions on a familiar everyday topic | No preparation time at all, so hesitation costs more than a simple answer would | 0s / 15–30s |
| Questions 7–9 Respond using information provided | Read a schedule, agenda or itinerary, then answer questions about it as if on the phone | Finding the right line under time pressure, and inventing detail that is not in the document | 45s read / 15–30s |
| Question 10 Propose a solution | Listen to a recorded problem, a complaint or a voicemail, and reply with a workable solution | Failing to show you understood the problem before solving it; no notes are shown on screen | 45s / 60s |
| Question 11 Express an opinion | State and support a position on a work-related question | Opinion with no reasons, or two reasons with no examples; 60 seconds is longer than it feels | 45s / 60s |
✓ Reviewed July 26, 2026 Task order and counts as published for the current format. Confirm the exact preparation and response times against ETS's current specification before test day.
The TOEIC Writing Test: 8 Questions, About 60 Minutes
Everything is typed. Three task types, and the balance is unusual: five of the eight questions are one-sentence answers, and one question is worth roughly half the time.
| Task | What you do | Where marks go missing | Items / time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Questions 1–5 Write a sentence based on a picture | Write one sentence about a photo, using two given words or phrases | Both given words must appear, in any order; a grammatically perfect sentence that drops one scores badly | 5 items · ~8 min |
| Questions 6–7 Respond to a written request | Read an email, a customer query, a colleague's request, and reply, meeting the instructions given | Missing one of the required actions in the prompt, or writing a reply that ignores the register of the original | 2 items · ~10 min each |
| Question 8 Write an opinion essay | State a position on a general or workplace question and support it with reasons and examples | Length and structure: around 300 words with a clear position, reasons and examples is what the task expects | 1 item · ~30 min |
✓ Reviewed July 26, 2026 Item counts are fixed at 5, 2 and 1. Times are the standard allocation and total roughly 60 minutes.
How the TOEIC Speaking Score and Writing Score Work
Speaking is reported from 0 to 200 and Writing from 0 to 200, both in 10-point increments. They are never added into a single figure the way Listening and Reading are added into a total out of 990. Each skill stands alone, and an employer asking for both will name two numbers.
Alongside the number, each skill carries a proficiency level: Speaking across levels 1 to 8, Writing across levels 1 to 9. The levels are descriptive rather than arithmetic. They summarize what a test-taker at that band can typically do, such as sustaining an opinion with supporting reasons, or producing writing whose errors do not obscure meaning. That is usually more useful to a hiring manager than the scaled number.
Because there are no multiple-choice items anywhere in the TOEIC S&W format, scoring is judgmental rather than a count of correct answers. That is why the two tests cannot be compared point for point: 160 on Speaking and 785 on Listening and Reading are not the same claim about your English. Our TOEIC score guide has the CEFR alignment for all four skills, which is the only sensible bridge between the scales.
TOEIC Speaking & Writing vs Listening & Reading
People conflate the two constantly, and it costs money, a booking for the wrong exam, or four weeks of preparation aimed at the wrong skills. The differences are structural.
The Two TOEIC Tests, Side by Side
TOEIC Listening & Reading
200 questions · 120 minutes · 10–990
Seven parts, entirely multiple choice, machine scored, one point per correct answer with no penalty for a wrong one. Two scaled scores of 5–495 are added for a total. It measures whether you understand workplace English coming at you: voicemails, notices, invoices, email chains.
This is the test almost every requirement refers to, and the one most people on this site are preparing for.
TOEIC Speaking & Writing
19 tasks · ~80 minutes · 0–200 each
Two skills, 11 spoken tasks and 8 written ones. No multiple choice anywhere. Scored by judgment against criteria rather than by counting right answers, and reported as two numbers with proficiency levels attached. It measures what you can produce under time pressure.
Booked separately and sat separately at ETS — but practised, mocked and AI-marked here, on its own track in the product.
One consequence worth noting: guessing works on Listening and Reading and does nothing at all on Speaking and Writing. There a blank is strictly worse than a guess. Here, silence is silence.
Who Actually Needs TOEIC Speaking & Writing
Fewer people than the phrase "TOEIC 4 skills" suggests. Work out which group you are in before booking anything.
You Probably Do Need It
- Your employer wants evidence of productive skills. Client-facing roles, sales, account management, anything involving calls in English. Some multinationals in Japan and Korea now ask for a Speaking score because a high Listening and Reading total told them nothing about meetings.
- You are on a promotion track with a stated speaking requirement. Where a company publishes an English grid, the upper grades sometimes attach a Speaking level rather than only a total.
- A graduate program or professional course names it. A minority do, usually where the teaching involves presentations or written case work.
- You are up for an overseas posting. Productive skills decide whether the posting works, and some employers screen for them explicitly.
You Probably Do Not Need It
- Your requirement is a single number. 600, 700, 785, 800, a lone figure on a form or job advert virtually always means Listening and Reading. S&W would be quoted as two numbers, or named explicitly.
- You are graduating from a French engineering school or grande école. The 785 requirement that drives these searches is a Listening and Reading one.
- You are clearing a university graduation rule in Thailand, Vietnam or Indonesia. Those thresholds, usually 550 to 600, are Listening and Reading too.
- Nobody has asked for it. Sitting S&W speculatively is a poor use of a fee. Confirm the requirement in writing, then book.
If you are unsure, the deciding question is not about your English but about what document the person asking wants to see. Ask whether the number they need is out of 990 or out of 200.
How to Prepare for TOEIC Speaking & Writing
Two things matter more than volume. First, the criteria: sample questions with model answers and the scoring criteria for each task type come from ETS, and for a judgment-scored test the criteria decide the mark. Second, record yourself against a clock. The commonest failure on TOEIC Speaking is not vocabulary. It is stopping at 20 seconds when the task gave you 60, or filling 60 seconds without ever stating a position. That is a timing habit, and a stopwatch fixes it.
Both are what the S&W track here is built around: every task runs on the real prep-and-response clock, and every marked answer comes back scored per criterion rather than as a single opaque number, next to the model answer and the rubric it was judged against. If part of your requirement is a Listening and Reading score, that side is here too: 6,787 exam-style questions across all seven parts, and full-length timed tests with a projected 990-scale score.
What the Speaking & Writing Track Does and Doesn't Do
Sites that cover a test they do not support tend to blur the line. We would rather set out exactly where the marking is a machine's judgment and where it is ETS's.
Maintained by the TOEIC.ai team. Tell us if anything here is out of date →
The Limits, Stated Plainly
- The marking is an AI examiner, not an ETS rater. It scores against the published criteria and returns a band per criterion, but no score produced here is an official one, and only a real sitting gives you a number to show anybody.
- Speaking recordings are kept for 7 days, then deleted. Save anything you want to keep before then.
- Marking is the paid part. Four mock tests are marked free, two of them S&W. Everything that teaches — practice, model answers, the rubric, the study plan — stays free on every tier.
- Our questions are written in ETS style by our team. On the Listening & Reading side that is 6,787 items, 3,099 Listening and 3,688 Reading. Retired official papers come from ETS alone.
- Facts about the test here are ETS's. TOEIC.ai is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to ETS.
TOEIC Speaking and Writing: Common Questions
Is TOEIC Speaking & Writing part of the TOEIC test I already booked?
No. It is a separate test with its own registration, sitting and score report. Booking the TOEIC Listening and Reading test does not include Speaking or Writing, and a single required number such as 785 or 800 almost always refers to Listening and Reading.
How is TOEIC Speaking & Writing scored?
Speaking is reported from 0 to 200 and Writing from 0 to 200, both in 10-point increments. The two are never combined into one total. Each score also carries a proficiency level: Speaking uses levels 1 to 8 and Writing uses levels 1 to 9, describing what a test-taker at that band can typically do.
How long is the TOEIC Speaking test and how many questions are there?
Eleven questions in about 20 minutes, on a computer with a headset. The task types are reading a text aloud, describing a picture, responding to questions, responding to questions using information provided, proposing a solution, and expressing an opinion.
What is in the TOEIC Writing test?
Eight questions in about 60 minutes, all typed. Five ask for one sentence based on a picture using two given words, two ask you to respond to a written request such as an email, and the last is an opinion essay of around 300 words taking roughly half the time.
Can I practice Speaking & Writing on TOEIC.ai?
Yes. There is a full Speaking & Writing track: complete and mini mock tests, task practice in the Study Center with model answers and the official rubric, and an S&W study plan available from the day you sign up. Answers on a mock are marked by an AI examiner and come back with a band score and per-criterion feedback; recordings are kept for 7 days. Two of the four mock tests a free account gets marked are S&W ones.
Do employers ask for TOEIC Speaking & Writing?
Some do, usually where the role involves calls, presentations or written client contact, and often for promotion tracks or overseas postings. Most requirements are still a single Listening and Reading number. Given one figure rather than two, assume Listening and Reading.
How does a TOEIC Speaking score compare to a Listening and Reading score?
They are not comparable point for point, because one counts correct multiple-choice answers and the other is judged against criteria. The only sensible bridge is the CEFR alignment ETS publishes for each skill.
Is there a penalty for saying nothing on TOEIC Speaking?
There is no deduction, but silence earns nothing. That is the opposite of the Listening and Reading test, where a blank is strictly worse than a guess. On Speaking and Writing, an incomplete attempt still scores more than no attempt.
Practice Both TOEIC Exams Free
Listening and Reading, all seven parts, properly timed, with a projected score and a per-part breakdown. Speaking and Writing, every task type on the real clock, with AI marking against the rubric. Start with the 19-minute S&W mini mock if you are not sure the test is for you.
Free account, no credit card. Four mock tests marked free, two of them Speaking & Writing.