Thousands of young people in HCM City have lined up over the past few days in order to take the TOEIC test as fast as they can before new updates are implemented next year.

Many people flock to the IIG Vietnam building in HCM City to take TOEIC tests on December 3

IIG Vietnam, the country representative of ETS announced in late October that the TOEIC listening and reading tests will be updated in Vietnam, beginning on February 15, 2019. The updates will include updated questions to reflect the changing use of English around the world. There will be no change in score scale, test difficulty, number of items or test length.

However, many people fear that the updated tests will be more difficult.

Since early November, many people have visited the IIG Vietnam building in HCM City to take TOEIC tests and the number of hopeful contestants peaked in the past two days. Many started queuing at 3 am and the crowd filled the stairs and the yard.

Nguyen Hoai Thuong, a student at Ton Duc Thang University, said, "On November 30, I went to the IIG centre at 3.45 am and already saw two other people waiting there. 20 more people came 20 minutes later and there was a crowd an hour later. When the small gate opened, everyone ran in and climbed the stairs to the eighth floor because the lifts were blocked. It was chaotic."

Some people arrived at 5.30 and had to wait until 11.30 am.

Nguyen Duc, an English teacher in HCM City, said, "If you don't really in need of a TOEIC certificate for jobs or graduation before February 15 yet, I think you should keep learning before taking the new tests."

According to Duc, people racing to take the test now will only have six weeks for studying. Unless they are already good at English, they may not have good results. The new tests are more difficult and learners will need about one month to get themselves get used to the new format.

"It's not necessary to line up and fight in the crowd since 4 am," he said.

Dtinews