TOEIC Speaking Task 4: Reading a Schedule and Answering Three Questions

Task 4 hands you a schedule, a menu or an itinerary, forty-five seconds to read it, and then three recorded questions. Candidates with good English lose the task in a specific way: they read the whole document twice, answer the first two questions well, and run out of time on the third.

The task is not a reading test. It is a scanning test with a clock. The fix is a fixed order of looking and a fixed shape of answer, practised until both are automatic in toeic speaking and writing practice tests.

What Task 4 asks you to do

The prompt presents information in a table or list: times, places, prices, names. Three questions follow, usually one about a time, one about a place or a person, and one that needs a short decision or recommendation.

Each answer window is short, and the recording does not wait. There is no second look at the document while you speak, which is why the reading window is the whole task.

The scan order: time first, place second, exceptions last

Do not read the schedule. Scan it in this order.

First pass, seconds one to fifteen: the time column, top to bottom. You are looking for the shape of the day, not the details.

Second pass, seconds sixteen to thirty: the place or person column, lined up against the times you just read.

Third pass, seconds thirty-one to forty-five: anything that breaks the pattern, marked with an asterisk, in a note, or in a different font. Exceptions are where the third question usually lives.

Schedules are built so that one line contradicts the others. Find it before you speak, or the third question will find it for you.

Three question shapes that repeat

Time questions: answer with the time and the activity in one sentence. The workshop starts at ten fifteen, after the registration period.

Place questions: answer with the place and one identifying detail. It's in the east hall, the room next to the cafeteria.

Decision questions: answer with a choice and a reason, in two sentences. I'd recommend the morning session, because the afternoon one overlaps with the tour.

Nothing longer is needed. Extra words do not earn extra marks and they eat the window.

What to do with an exception

An exception is a line that says the usual rule does not apply: closed on the second day, moved to a different room, only for registered guests.

Handle it in three steps. Say the exception. Say what it means for the question. Say what you would do instead.

The lab is closed on Friday for maintenance, so the session on Friday can't run, and I'd suggest the Thursday group instead.

That is one sentence with three clauses and it answers a decision question completely.

A worked Task 4

Schedule: registration 09:30, welcome talk 10:00, workshop A 10:15 to 11:30, workshop B 11:45 to 13:00, lunch 13:00, site tour 14:00, closing 16:00. Note: workshop B moved to room 204.

Question one, a time: The welcome talk begins at ten o'clock, right after registration.

Question two, a place: Workshop B is in room 204, because the original room is being used for the tour briefing.

Question three, a decision: If I had to choose one workshop, I'd take workshop A, because it finishes before lunch and leaves time for the tour.

Three answers, thirty seconds of speech, no hesitation. That is the shape of a strong Task 4.

Two schedules to rehearse with

Build both from a real event you know: a conference programme, a train timetable, a clinic day. Write nine questions across the three shapes and answer them out loud with a timer.

The value is in the timer. Most candidates answer correctly when untimed and lose the third answer when the window is real, so practise with the countdown running and stop speaking when it ends, even mid-sentence.

What separates a 6 from an 8 on this task

At 6, the answer is understandable but late: the candidate finds the information after the first few seconds of the window and speaks in fragments.

At 8, the information arrives in the first four seconds and the sentence is complete, with one supporting detail attached.

The gap is not vocabulary. It is the scan order and the decision to answer in a fixed shape rather than composing a new sentence for each question.

Frequently asked questions

How long is TOEIC Speaking Task 4?

The task gives you a short reading window followed by three questions with separate answer windows, and the whole task is over in about a minute and a half. The preparation time is the only part you control, so spend it on the scan order rather than on reading the document from the top.

Can I take notes during TOEIC Speaking Task 4?

You may write while the document is displayed, and a few marks are worth making: circle the exceptions, and put a tick beside the two times you expect to be asked about. Do not copy the schedule out, because copying uses the seconds you need for the third scan pass.