TOPIK, or Test of Proficiency in Korean, is one of the recognized tests for the Korean language.
Passing TOPIK is often a requirement for school or work in Korea, as well as getting hired in a Korean company. But you can also take it just to gauge your ability.
Having taken the test myself, I realized several lessons from the experience. I wish I could tell you I’ve done well, but I made mistakes along the way.
I hope you can take a tip or two from my experience before you face the exam.
1. The More Time You Have, The Better You Can Prepare
I wish I had 6 months or more to prepare for the TOPIK exam. However, I only had a month or two, which was right after I registered for the test. But at least, I had background knowledge of Korean prior to the registration.
How about you? Do you already know a fair bit of Korean? How much time do you have to prepare for TOPIK? Because the more time you can allot to prepare, the better your chances of increasing your score.
You may be wondering what a luxury of time can do to your result.
At the very least, you’re able to move around. You get to:
- Build more vocabulary
- Discover more grammar
- Master more domains
- Get faster naturally
- Decrease jitters
- Build longer and effective habits
- Strengthen your memory
- Take mock TOPIK tests
Don’t force yourself by cramming days before the exam. If you can start early, then please do so.
2. Time Budgeting Is Key During the Exam
I’m already quite familiar with TOPIK I. The only problem is I lacked time for the harder items during the reading section, simply because I was trying to perfect my choices one by one.
What I can suggest from the experience is to become mindful of your time. It’s important to budget it towards the entire test and not overstay in a single item.
For the reading and writing tests, it might help to spend less time on the easier questions so that you have enough time for the difficult ones. But if you need the extra time to secure some points – since difficult items might be hard to get correct – then allocate it towards the easier questions.
Allotting time is not an issue during listening test, since every item has a fixed interval between them. But it helps to know when to answer – during the dialogue or after the dialogue ends.
3. Know the Question Patterns
It’s a great time saver if you’re familiar with the question types that will appear during the exam. Understanding Korean dialogue and reading long paragraphs is already burdensome, so it’s one less worry if you know what to answer.
There are plenty of YouTube videos that provide tips for every question pattern in the exam. Then when you’re ready, you can take mock TOPIK exams online for free to check if you know each question type well.
In my experience, I found the listening test to be tricky. While I was concentrating on the dialogue, I often forget that there are two questions for that single dialogue. Like, I was focused too much on answering number 25 that I forgot question number 26, which is also for the same dialogue.
In TOPIK II listening, the first 20 items are only dictated once. Once the dialogue ends, there’s no turning back and you need to answer already. If you could practice for that early on, then you can avoid missing a detail and end up answering correctly.
TOPIK writing is made up of two short questions and two essay questions. That can be practiced since there’s plenty of content online that are giving tips and advice on the writing exam.
4. Go Broad and Deep with Studying
If you’re just studying Korean casually, you wouldn’t need broader and deeper topics (i.e. science, economics, technology, health) because the vocabulary isn’t used in everyday conversations.
But in order to answer the difficult questions in the latter part of the test, you need at least a bit of background of these topics. Simply exploring and reading about them is enough, because all you need is to pick the correct answer from the choices.
There’s no way to tell which technical subjects they will provide in the test, but if you have the time you can study them. Just make sure you’re already confident with most conversational topics and common everyday conversations because it’s where the bulk of the test is focused on.
Otherwise, if you’re not ready for the technical stuff, you can always guess from context and base your choices from there.
5. Be Careful with the Choices
It can be natural to focus hard on the question. But don’t forget the answer choices as they can also get confusing, make sure to allot enough time for them.
Sometimes, two or more answers can have a similar meaning and can become candidates for the correct answer. The challenge is to pick the “better” answer.
Just don’t overthink it too much or you’ll lose time. Even if there are still two choices to pick from, at least you’ve increased your probability of getting the right answer to 50%.
6. Exercise Freedom to Write in the Test Paper
While it’s not allowed to write on the answer sheet (the one with the circles), you are free to write on the test questionnaire.
Perhaps you know the translation of a Korean word, but need to put it down first to let go of it from memory. Or you need to underline a clause and draw some arrows to emphasize something. You might also want to create a quick guide for yourself (like writing notes for grammar points or vocabulary). Or you need to circle the answers first before shading them in the answer sheet. That can be freely done inside the test questionnaire.
I found myself writing a lot during the Writing section. Before I answered questions 51 to 54, I first wrote down the possibilities for answers (they’re open ended questions) on the questionnaire. I also tried translating some difficult words in order to make sense of it before attempting to answer.
Just make sure not to write anything on the answer sheet, since it passes through a machine to scan the shade marks you’ve made.
7. Be Physically In Shape
No, I’m not talking about building muscle by going to the gym.
Basically, you simply have to make sure that your body is ready for the exam day. TOPIK can be a draining exam that makes you think hard and pay attention.
Sleep well, whatever amount it may be ideal for you (6 to 9 hours). There’s no reason to cram on the night before the test so you might as well allocate it towards sleep.
Make sure you’re not hungry or thirsty. For some reason, in the middle of TOPIK II exam I felt hungry. I started from TOPIK I and then went on to take TOPIK II on the same day with under an hour of interval in between. Never thought I would still starve given how much I ate during the break.
Thing is, your health matters when focusing on the exam. You can include your overall health such as your physical, mental, and emotional health into play. Hopefully, you’re not thinking of your girlfriend or your fight last night with a friend, it helps to stay calm and relaxed during the test.
Will you take the TOPIK exam? Good luck and I wish you the best!
