How To Stop Running Out of Time on the TOEIC Reading Test

If you feel rushed while taking the TOEIC reading test, you're not alone. Most test-takers find it hard to answer 100 questions in just 75 minutes!

At Engoo, we have a lot of experience helping students prepare for tests. Today, we'll share some tips specifically for finishing the TOEIC reading test in time.

Focus on Part 7 First

The TOEIC reading test has three parts:

• Part 5: Incomplete sentences (30 questions)
• Part 6: Text completion (16 questions)
• Part 7: Reading comprehension (54 questions)

Part 7 is the longest and most difficult, so we recommend starting there since it will require more energy and focus. After that, you can return to Parts 5 and 6. 

For example, you can use your time like this:

• Part 7: 55 minutes (around 1 minute per question)
• Part 5: 10 minutes (maximum 20 seconds per question)
• Part 6: 10 minutes (maximum 30 seconds per question)

Giving Part 7 more time can also make a difference on your test score. A TOEIC guide by Oxford University Press said this:

If students don't know the key words needed to get the answers to questions in Parts 5 and 6, spending extra time isn't going to help. In Part 7, however, having an extra minute on a difficult question could make a huge difference in the search for the correct answer.

Part 7 Strategy

Parts 5 and 6 are all fill-in-the-blank questions, but Part 7 has a lot more variety. There are long passages — sometimes more than one — along with different types of questions.

If this part is challenging for you, we suggest starting with easier questions, specifically ones that can be answered with the least reading. For example, which of the following three questions is the easiest for you to answer?

1. The word "highlight" in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to which of the following words?
2. Which product does the customer want to return?
3. What is most likely true about the product the customer ordered?

Question 1 asks about a vocabulary word, while question 2 asks about a specific detail, which you can find by quickly scanning the text. 

On the other hand, question 3 asks you to make a guess based on your understanding of the whole passage. This question will likely take you a bit more time to answer. So when you work through question sets, it's best to start with questions like 1 and 2.

The Oxford guide explains another benefit of this strategy:

[B]y quickly scanning the passage to answer the specific information questions, they [test-takers] can pick up a general sense of what the passage is about and how it is organized. By the time they have answered the easier questions, they may already have enough information to answer the more challenging ones, or at least they will have a better idea of where to look to find the answer.

Part 5 and Part 6 Strategy

You might be wondering how to answer questions in Parts 5 and 6 in 20-30 seconds. Many test-takers find it useful to go through the questions in two rounds.

1. In the first round, try to answer as many questions as possible, as quickly as possible. Skip questions you find difficult or that take a lot of time.
2. In the second round, return to the questions you skipped the first time and try your best to solve them. If you don't know an answer after more than 20-30 seconds, take your best guess and move on.

In Parts 5 and 6, there are two main types of questions:

1. Vocabulary questions
2. Grammar questions

Vocabulary questions test your knowledge of what a word means and/or how it's used. Here are some examples of vocabulary questions from a previous version of the official TOEIC handbook.

Grammar questions test your knowledge of grammar. Unlike vocabulary questions, you can find the answers without understanding all the key words. This is because many of them feature the same word in different forms, as you can see below:

For question 101, even if you don't understand what "complicated" means, you can guess it's the correct answer because "unnecessarily" is an adverb, which needs to be followed by a verb or an adjective.

This is also true for question 103. "Learning" is a verb, so you know that the word before it probably needs to be an adverb: (D) "regularly."

So if you're stuck on a vocabulary question, just take a guess and move on. But if you're stuck on a grammar-focused question, try to find the answer using the surrounding words.

Practice Speaking English

Our final tip is to get plenty of practice speaking English. Although there's no speaking section on the TOEIC Listening & Reading test, speaking is a natural way to strengthen all of the skills you'll need in order to do well.

If you'd like to make online English lessons a part of your TOEIC study plan, join Engoo and book a lesson with one of our professional tutors. Some of them even have experience preparing students for TOEIC!