The TOIEC test claims to assess overall communication skills by only testing listening and reading skills, which Messick (1996) would categorise as construct under- representation. Both the TOEFL-iBT and IELTS tests however, cover the four language skills, which, theoretically, would suggest high construct validity, but would not necessarily be considered as construct-irrelevant (Messick, 1996), obviously depending on what topics within the target construct are being tested. Hughes (2003: 31) goes so far as to suggest that defining construct validity is not necessary for direct tests of what are sometimes seen to be common-sense constructs, which he names as reading and writing.