Taking the TOPIK II

Since beginning to learn Korean 4 years ago, I’d always had a goal in mind to learn this language for myself and to become conversationally fluent. In the back of my mind, part of me hoped that I’d one day be professionally proficient as well, though that’s looking pretty far off at the moment. Perhaps one day if I continue my studies and practice.

But while I had taken a year and a half of Korean language classes in university, the majority of my study has been self-study. Using textbooks, online resources, and language exchange, I was driven to improve my skills. Before coming to Korea, I was somewhat confident in my skills, having at that point studied for about 2 years. As I found out shortly after arriving in Korea, my skills were, to be blunt, pretty trash. I had plenty of textbook understanding and knew the basics of communicating and ordering, but beyond that, the practical and everyday Korean that was necessary for me to get around was not up to the level it needed to be at. People spoke faster, occasionally less clearly, and used a lot of grammar and vocabulary that I hadn’t learned.

In short, I was very overwhelmed. But luckily, after adjusting to life living in Seoul after a few weeks, my skills got a little stronger. I could get around with little help and for the most part, I was okay. But I still wasn’t satisfied with my level. I wanted to take my skills to the next step. After several months of continuing self-study, interacting with people in practical situations, and some language exchange, I decided to start studying for the TOPIK II exam.

For those who don’t know, the TOPIK (Test of Proficiency In Korean) exam has two levels: Level 1 and Level 2. Level 1 tests for basic proficiency in Korean. Can you read the language, answer basic questions and comprehend common daily expressions? But level 2 is an intermediate to advanced level test; evaluating test takers on their ability to understand higher level Korean grammar, vocabulary, and higher level content such as lectures and news articles on politics, science, Korean cultural history, etc.

Throughout both TOPIK tests, there are 6 levels that one can receive. In TOPIK I, test takers can receive level 1 or level 2 depending on their score. Likewise, in TOPIK II, test takers can receive levels 3 through 6, with 3 being low intermediate to level 6 being native like proficiency. While of course it would be awesome to one day be at level 6 proficiency, at this point in my life, that’s not possible. My goal was to reach level 4, advanced intermediate proficiency, which I thought would be attainable for myself. I’d have to work and really push myself to study, but I thought I could do it.

TOPIK II consists of three sections: A 60 minute listening section, a 50 minute writing section, and a 70 minute reading section. Clocking in at 3 hours, it’s a daunting exam. While I was relieved there was no speaking section, there really should be considering that speaking is an extremely important part for language fluency and proficiency. (Update: they've now added a new separate speaking section). Nevertheless, with reading and listening counting for the majority of the points for the exam, I knew I should focus the majority of my energy on studying for those parts.

I bought my TOPIK textbook in August of 2020, with no set goal of when I’d actually take the test. I started lightly studying on occasion, but was shocked by how much content I needed to work through. Tons of high level grammar concepts, hardly used in spoken language but much more common in written language, countless vocabulary words necessary for speaking about different topics, on top of a long list of Korean idioms and onomatopoeias (side note: there are so many onomatopoeias in Korean??? It’s amazing that there’s that many words to describe things but also why are there so many??).

It was a mountain of work, and honestly it was pretty discouraging. But I started sifting through the material and expanding both my grammar and vocabulary slowly but surely. I did this for a few months until I decided to try and see what the questions were actually like.

Again, hit with the realization of how much vocabulary I needed to learn. This was actually also confirmed by a couple blogs that I’d read online about other people’s experience taking the TOPIK II test. They stressed how much they wished they’d spent more time memorizing vocabulary words and less time on grammar. Looking back as well, I agree with this 100%. While having some high level grammar memorized may help for some questions, it won’t help with too many of them. Vocabulary is crucial for understanding the content and the questions. Without it, you’re out of luck and left to guess based on context clues.

As I began to study more vocabulary and practice with more questions, I realized how most of the questions are straightforward. Unlike English proficiency exams (looking at you TOEFL!!!) the TOPIK exam doesn’t try to trick you. The questions are straightforward and merely just testing you on whether you can understand the material or not. There are also tips and tricks on how to solve certain question types. Once learning these, the questions become a little bit easier to solve. But still, vocab, vocab, vocab!

My studies started to become more rigorous and focused in the beginning of 2021. I decided I was actually going to try and register for the test instead of telling myself that “I’d get to it eventually” or “I’d do it in a couple months”. Otherwise, without some sort of goal or deadline, I wouldn’t take my studies seriously. The TOPIK tests are only held a few times a year, so if you miss registering for a date, you need to wait another 3 months, if not longer, for the next registration period. I’d initially aimed to take the test in April, but I missed the registration period (and to be honest, I hadn’t pushed myself enough to register).

Finally, after beating around the bush for many months and half-heartedly studying, I finally decided to register for the July 11 exam. I saw online how competitive the TOPIK II exam registration process is, as it’s required for certain visas, entrance to university programs, and jobs as well.

The morning of registration, I was extremely stressed. The TOPIK website is outdated and was easily overwhelmed by the amount of traffic that came to the website. At one point, it said that there were 13,000 other people in front of me waiting to register. Whether that’s true or not, I’m not sure but regardless, once the registration period started, I was immediately kicked from the website and sent back to the end of the line. Frustrated, the only thing I could do was wait again and hope I’d be able to register. After waiting an hour and a half on the website, it was finally my turn to register. A lot of the slots at different locations had been filled up and closed. Luckily, I was able to snag a spot at a local middle school. After choosing my location, filling out some information, and paying the fee, I was finally registered for the test. Hooray!

Now, it was crunch time. I had about 2 months to study my butt off and learn as much as I could. I finally decided to start studying for the writing section. In retrospect, it was enough time for me to get a basic understanding of the first 2 question types of the test (I skipped out on the third question type, knowing I didn’t have the time to commit to studying for it), but if I could redo things, I’d definitely start studying for the writing section earlier.

The 60 days flew by so fast, and finally it was the day of the test. I felt extremely unprepared as the previous days before, I’d decided to take a practice test in full and didn’t do as well. I ran out of time on both the reading and listening sections and I didn’t get enough points that were necessary for me to get a level 4. I was so stressed the morning of, I couldn’t eat and felt sick to my stomach. But I ate something light and around 11 I headed to the testing center.

I arrived by 12, got my temperature taken and found my testing room. After a short while, the test proctors came around and verified our information, explained the rules of the test, and took our phones and other devices. We would do the listening section, then immediately start writing. After writing, we’d have a 20 minute break before returning to finish with the reading section. I felt a little bit calmer being in the room and was focused and ready to take the test.

Overall, listening was the most difficult section. As it was a middle school, they played the listening tracks over the intercom. I was used to doing the listening section near my computer, or with my headphones in, so this threw me off and I couldn’t hear as well as I’d been used to. I didn’t feel too confident after listening, but couldn’t focus on that too much as I needed to jump into writing.

Writing was okay. The first 2 questions I think I did okay on, and the second question type I spent the most time on. I knew this is where I needed to focus my energy in order to write it correctly and get the most amount of points I could. After finishing it, I only had about 15 minutes to attempt to do the third question type: the long essay. The question was actually pretty interesting and I almost wished I’d prepared more since I had opinions on it, but I didn’t even hit the minimum word requirement. I also knew my vocabulary and grammar were nowhere near the level of formality I needed to be at. But since I knew I didn’t need to do well on that question to get level 4, it was okay.

Lastly came reading. At this point, I was running out of energy and was becoming tired quickly. While my energy and concentration were dwindling quickly, I pushed through and felt confident about most of the questions I’d answered. I saw many of the vocab words I’d studied and felt so happy that I’d learned them and memorized the meanings. But while I was feeling good, the last 7 questions were based on 3 long reading passages. I only had 15 minutes to answer these questions. It was me against the clock. I did my best on the first 2 passages but I ended up having to guess for the last 3 questions since I had no time to read the actual passage.

But finally, I was done!!!! 3 hours of testing and my brain was absolutely fried. They returned our cellphones and we were free to leave. Now, the waiting began again. I wouldn’t find out my results until August 19th at 3pm.

When the results came out, the website was, yet again, flooded with thousands of people trying to get their results. Finally, once the website loaded, to say I was shocked to see my results would be an understatement.

Level 5. Level 5!!!!

An extra 4 points had managed to just barely push me into the level 5 range. All my studying had paid off.

While the process of studying for months was stressful, hopefully this result will help me land opportunities in the future.