Photos on my Score Certificates

I received mail from TOEIC運営委員会 this weekend. Knowing what's inside, I rushed to open the envelope. To my disappointment, I couldn't get 990 this time round; the score was 985. One encouraging sign, however, was that I got 100% on each of the "ABILITIES MEASURED" in the Listening Section. I found some of the Part 2 questions very difficult, and I had to guess in some cases. It seems like I got lucky this time.

Back when I joined エッセンスイングリッシュスクール in 1999, it was very difficult to get 990. It was sometimes impossible even for native speakers. Why? The answer is simple. On some occasions the highest possible score was not 990. Instead it was like 980 or 985, so even if you got every question right, you still couldn't get 990.

Since then, things have changed. As far as I know, the maximum score is almost always 990 these days, which makes my situation all the more awkward; what excuse could I have as a TOEIC teacher!? Well, maybe there's no excuse. Life goes on, and I'm registered for the next TOEIC. Maybe I just have to do my best then.

Here's a selection of my score reports. On the left are my TOEIC scores, and you can see my TOEEL iBT scores on the right.

Perhaps the third one on the left needs some explanation. On the 124th administration of the TOEIC, I conducted a little experiment: I marked "(A)" for every single question. I wanted to know what the score would be like. The result was 180 (110 for the Listening, 70 for the Reading). I thought no one but myself would do anything like that. How naive I was to assume that! Later I was to meet ヒロ前田さん, who calls himself 変態レベルのTOEICリサーチャー. He devises much more interesting and sophisticated experiments on every administration of the test. If you are wondering what I'm talking about, check out his blog.

On the right are my TOEFL iBT score reports. I'm still struggling with this test. I got 109 in February and 111 in March out of the maximum score of 120. One of my goals this year is to get 120 on this test.

By the way, don't I look different on each of the photos? How could anyone change so much in such a short period of time? It's a mystery.