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2017 Report on Test Takers Worldwide
Report on Test Takers Worldwide for the TOEIC Listening and Reading test.
When candidates take the TOEIC® Listening and Reading test, they are asked to answer a Background Questionnaire. This questionnaire is a self-survey that gathers information about TOEIC test-takers’ educational background, work experience, English language study and uses, as well as the TOEIC test-taking experience. Based on the responses ETS does an analysis and creates every year a ‘Test Takers Worldwide’ report.
Some things we can learn from the 2017 Report on Test Takers Worldwide published by ETS:
Typically, TOEIC test-takers in 2017 were between 21 and 25 years old (almost 40%) while about 22% was under 20-year-old. In addition, we can observe some variation across countries, for instance, test-takers under 20-year-old were the largest cohort in Hong Kong, Greece, Indonesia and India; while test-takers aged between 21 and 25 years old were the largest cohort in Italy, Morocco, Belgium, Macao and Vietnam.
We can also see that, globally in 2017, a large proportion of TOEIC® test takers were male. We can see this reflected in countries like Turkey, Japan, Lebanon, Italy and Ivory Coast; while in Albania, Thailand, India and Costa Rica, females were more likely to take the test. Regarding gender, the 2017 Report also shows that, on average, women tend to have a better score than men for both the Reading and the Listening sections.
Other findings from the report include that more than 40% of test-takers took the TOEIC® test three times or more; while about 29% of them took it for the first time. Moreover, 31% of candidates use this test for learning purposes, 24% for job applications and 23% to graduate. Indeed, many schools and universities, like French engineering schools, require their students to take a TOEIC® test to augment their diplomas.
To conclude, the 2017 Report on Test Takers shows that the TOEIC® test is used for a variety of reasons and supports the claim that the TOEIC test is indeed used worldwide. More information about the TOEIC test and its uses can be found in the full report which helps to get a better understanding of the background of the test takers and why they take the test.
Note: When using the data presented in the report care should be taken in making inferences, because the response rates vary across different background questions.