If you want to start working legally in Thailand, you will need to have your Non-B visa and Work Permit. Before acquiring these, one of the requirements being asked, especially if you’ll be working in schools, will be your TOIEC Test result.
TOIEC or Test of English for International Communication is an English language test designed specifically to measure the everyday English skills of people working in an international environment.
There are different forms of the exam: The TOEIC Listening & Reading Test and TOEIC Speaking & Writing Test. What you will be taking for employment purposes in Thailand is the TOEIC Listening & Reading Test with a possible total score of 990.
Below are the steps to follow in Taking the TOIEC Test in Bangkok:
- Contact the Center for Professional Assessment (Thailand)
It is the language organization for TOIEC Test in Thailand. The first step is for you to get in touch with their staff. Sometimes, when you call, you’ll only hear the busy tone. In my case, I called all the possible numbers I can find online to reach a staff. You will need to be patient calling them.
Here is the contact number: 02 260 7061 (Monday through Saturday between 08:00 – 16:30)
- Confirm and reserve your schedule
Once you have the staff on the line, inform them of your purpose which is to take the TOIEC test. Be ready with your information such as your passport number, date of birth, contact number, email and if you have a work permit or not. This is actually very important because if you have a valid work permit, you can book the test between Mondays- Saturdays, 9 AM or 1 PM schedule. But, if you can only present your passport, you are only allowed to take the test every Wednesday at 9:00 AM.
You can also call to book for a friend as long as you have their details.
Cancellation: If you need to cancel your reservation, you must call 1 day before your scheduled day or you will pay 500 baht the next time you book for the test again.
- Be ready on the day of the test.
During your exam day, come to the Center earlier than your confirmed time. If your test is at 9 AM, you have to come at 8 AM because you need to register and sometimes there is a long queue outside the office. You have to present your passport and work permit if you have. They will take your picture and will ask you to pay the fee which is 1,500 Baht. They will tell you which room you will need to go and what things you can bring inside the room.
The Address of the Center is at 19th floor, Bangkok Business (BB) Building, 54 Asoke road, Sukhumvit, Bangkok.
You can take the BTS to Asok Station and find a motorcycle to BB tower. A motorcycle costs 20 Baht. However, you can also walk going to the BB Tower. It will take 15-20 minutes.
- Be confident in your answers.
There is no need to bring pencil and eraser because the center will provide everything on your table. You will have your manual instructions, sample sheets, pen, pencil, and eraser. There will be instructions on how to fill up the answer sheets. If you’re unsure, the staff around can help you.
There will be 2 parts of the test. The listening test will take 45 minutes while the reading test will be for 75 minutes. There will be 200 items in all.
Listen very carefully because the audio will only be played once. Read through all the comprehension parts because the answers are all there. You just have to understand.
My Story of Unfortunate Event
I just recently took my second TOIEC test for my new employer. The first time I took the test was Oct. 2015 and it has a validity of 2 years. I asked if I can just renew it but they said that I can’t because as they say, “a person’s English-language skills may improve or decline over time.”
Anyways, my story started when I was getting ready for my second TOIEC test. I was literally sitting on the chair listening to the sample questions when I was asked to go out because of a problem with my work permit. I was told that I will not be allowed to take the test because I had an erasure on my permit and it was not signed. (Erasure using a white ink.) I didn’t even notice it because I thought it was just okay. They told me to go back to the Dept. of Labor where I got the permit and have it signed. So I did, I went to the Dept. of Labor which is almost 2 hours from Bangkok, have it signed and went back to the Center the next day.
To my dismay, the head wasn’t convinced with the signature telling me that I have to ask for a stamp of the department. That was when I was almost crying. Well, not really crying but I was just so tired of thinking of doing the same process again and waste another day or two for it.
I didn’t have a choice though so I did go back to the Department, explained the situation and begged the officer to put all the stamps available because I really don’t want to see her face anymore which she did. I think she was also tired of me because she gave her number to give to the head in case they still won’t accept it.
Then it was my lucky day the next day. They accepted the stamp+signature on my work permit and allowed me to schedule the test. I did the test and got the result the next day.
LESSON OF THE STORY: Make sure you don’t have any kinds of erasures on your important documents. You have to ask the officer to sign or put a stamp on it right away to avoid problems in the future.
This was my test result the first time I took the test.
Goodluck with your test!
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