Please take PCAT on a desktop or laptop computer. Speaking responses are recorded through your microphone, and the answer screens are designed for a computer-sized display, so smartphones and tablets are not supported and are not covered by our testing. You can still read this site, sign in and check your results on a phone. If you arrive here on a phone, open eltpcat.com on a computer when you are ready to take the test. The test itself runs in a web browser — there is nothing to install. Before it starts, an environment check confirms that your browser can record audio, that your microphone is picking up sound and that you are online.
The current version of Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Safari on Windows or macOS. The Speaking section records your voice with the browser's built-in recording API, so an up-to-date browser is required. Firefox can record, but it is not covered by our testing, and we do not recommend it for a scored attempt. You do not need to guess whether your setup works: the environment check that runs before every test confirms your browser, microphone, speakers, camera (optional) and network connection, and tells you what to fix before any time is counted. JavaScript and cookies must be enabled, because sign-in and the test itself depend on them. A stable internet connection is needed throughout; if you are disconnected, you can resume within 24 hours of starting the test.
Usually within 30 minutes of finishing the test; it can take longer at busy times. PCAT is scored by AI, so there is no multi-week wait for human graders. Your score report shows a PCAT Score and a CEFR-aligned level for the whole test, a score and level for each of the four skills — reading, listening, writing and speaking — and, for speaking and writing, dimension-level scores with written feedback on what worked and what to fix. For Speaking and Writing, Communication (did the message get through, was the task achieved) counts for 85% and Language Quality (grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation) for 15%. In the app, the report also comes with a study plan. The report is available in your account as soon as scoring completes.
JPY 5,500 per attempt, tax included. PCAT uses credits: one credit is one full four-skill test. A pack of three credits costs JPY 14,850 (JPY 4,950 per attempt) and a pack of five costs JPY 22,000 (JPY 4,400 per attempt), all tax included. There are no other charges — no registration fee and no charge for the score report. Credits are valid for one year from purchase and cannot be transferred or redeemed for cash. A credit is consumed when you start a test; if you are interrupted, you can resume the same attempt within 24 hours of starting it without using another credit. Refunds are not issued as a rule once a test has started; see the terms of service for details. Payment is by card through Stripe.
The time limits for the four skills add up to 45 minutes. The sections run in this order: Listening 12 minutes, Reading 10 minutes, Writing 11 minutes and Speaking 12 minutes. If you are given a report or summary task in Writing, the Writing limit extends to up to 15 minutes. On top of this come the environment check and short instructions before each section. Each section has a single time limit — there is no separate limit per question, except that each Speaking question has its own preparation and response time — and the clock starts when you begin the section, not while you read the instructions or work through the sample question. Listening audio is played once. In Speaking, the test moves on to the next question automatically five seconds after each recording ends. If you are interrupted — a dropped connection, for example — you can resume within 24 hours of starting the test at no extra cost; after that the session expires and a new credit is required. Set aside a quiet hour with a working microphone and a stable connection before you start.
TOEIC Listening & Reading measures the receptive skills: understanding what you hear and read. PCAT measures all four skills, including the writing and speaking that TOEIC Listening & Reading does not measure directly, through workplace tasks such as replying to a work chat, answering an email and responding by voice in a role-play. Results come as a CEFR-aligned level, and the scoring puts communicative effectiveness first: whether your message got through counts for 85%, language quality for 15%. Depending on the purpose, PCAT can replace TOEIC or be used alongside it. If your organization already uses TOEIC as an internal standard, you can keep it and use PCAT as an additional assessment. PCAT is taken online with time limits of about 45 minutes in total, and results usually arrive within 30 minutes.
All scoring is done by AI. Listening and Reading are adaptive: the questions adjust to your answers, and your score is estimated from how difficult the questions you answered correctly were, not simply from how many you got right. In Writing, too, each answer is judged as you go and the next task is made harder or easier. Speaking and Writing are scored three times independently by AI against the criteria published on this site — Communication, whether the task was done and the message understood, counts for 85% and Language Quality for 15% — and the median of the three is used for each dimension, which evens out the variation of a single run. Speaking responses are transcribed and assessed for pronunciation first. Your answers and recordings are not used to train general-purpose AI models; see the privacy policy for details. The audio you hear in Listening and Speaking is AI-generated speech.
Yes. Organizations can run PCAT for employees and candidates and manage it in the organization portal: invite test takers individually or in bulk, allocate the organization's credits to them, set up test periods with reminders, track progress, and review results, score reports and CEFR distributions by department. Payment is by invoice. Depending on the purpose, PCAT can replace an English test you already use, such as TOEIC, or be used alongside it with your existing standard kept in place. For tests taken with the organization's credits, organizations see scores, CEFR levels, skill-level results and score reports, but not the text of answers, audio recordings or video. See the page for organizations for how to get started.