TOPIK TIPS

TOPIK TIPS

The new year is approaching and so is the 21st TOPIK test which is to be held on 23rd January, 2011. Hundreds of Korean learners would be appearing in this test for the first time. Those who are in Korea must be visiting book stores looking for a good guide book. Today I also went to the Kyobo bookstore in SNU,  looking for a good guide book for TOPIK Advanced level. There was only one available
which didn't seem very helpful to me. So I put it back in the shelf and started checking some beginner and intermediate level TOPIK guide books, just out of curiosity. Most of them had just given the answers and explanations of previous papers and as far as I could check in a glance, the explanations were surely not of very good quality. Yet I have seen some new learners buying those books very enthusiastically. Anyway, something is better than nothing. :) But what about students learning Korean in some Indian, Vietnamese or Indonesian university. They don't have access to even those books. Of course they can buy these books online but then who would be willing to spend his money on buying books just seeing the covers. 

Too much of disappointing and distressing news, right? Here comes the good part, I am going to share some tips on how to score better in TOPIK. These tips are original because I have learned and discovered with my own experiences with TOPIK. I have tested them myself and shared with my friends and they have always been useful. Don't expect any magical mantra from me, these are very simple points that you might already be knowing, if you have appeared in TOPIK. But It might definitely be useful for the beginners. So let's start....

PREPARATION TIPS 

1. You don't need any GUIDE BOOK to prepare for the TOPIK test nor do you need any special teacher or tuition for it. Self study is the key to success in TOPIK.
2. DOWNLOAD PREVIOUS TOPIK PAPERS- The first step to start with is to download previous TOPIK papers (at least last 5) including listening files. They are your guide books; they are your teachers.
3. Analyze the Papers- Sit back and analyze the papers. Don't try to start checking your skills from the first question; first of all, just read the whole paper. Give it proper time. It is the most important part of your preparation- TO UNDERSTAND THE TEST. 
4. Get deep into the Test structure- Try to find what they are trying to find in you, where and how they are trying to trick you, what kinds of vocabulary and grammar patterns they are repeating again and again etc. Are you getting the point I am trying to make? 
5. Check where you are- No guide book or teacher can know your level, your strong and weak points better than you. So the next step is to check your skills and weaknesses and the best way to do it is solving the TOPIK paper itself.
6. Solve TOPIK Papers- Take a set of TOPIK papers and start solving it. NOT CASUALLY please! Take a watch with you and set alarm for exactly 90 minutes for one section of the set. Solve all the sections of the paper-Vocabulary & Grammar, Reading, Listening and Writing. Don't lose hope if you are continuously getting questions that you don't know at all. Keep solving, it happens with everyone in the beginning.
7. Find your weak points- Check you answers. Don't get depressed even if you have got only 10% answers right. You can still do it. Now analyze and make a list of which grammar patterns, that you thought you knew well, confused you; in which type of question you got tricked, what kind of vocabulary you need to work hard upon, what kind of questions you should have skipped instead of wasting time over them and whatever other problems that you think you need to work on and that you think could have been avoided.
8. Always solve papers in a Mock Test manner- Never try to solve the papers casually like 10 or 20 questions at a time. Solve only one paper but do it in real environment, keeping the time. If you think you would realize that you would not have been able to find your weak points had you solved the paper casually in the previous step. Believe me, it helps. You will feel at ease in the examination hall if you have taken a few mock TOPIK tests at home in real environment.
9. Never Pause or Repeat Listening audio- Students often tend to pause the audio file or rewind it when they don't understand it. Never do it. Do the best guess you can. You can listen to it 10 times while checking your answers and correcting mistakes but not now.
10. Make a list of Grammar Pattern and Vocabulary- After you solve a TOPIK paper set, make a list of grammar patterns and vocabulary that you couldn't understand or that you know now but might forget after some time. Then refer to your Korean language textbooks or a good grammar book and a dictionary. Write meanings and explanations of those patterns and words in a notebook. It will be very useful for the last time study/revision.

The post is getting too long, so I'll give it a break here. The rest and more important part will come in the next post: Exam Hall Tips.