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| TOPIK – Exam Hall Tips |
In the first part of TOPIK TIPS, I gave you some tips on how you can prepare for TOPIK test in an effective manner. In this part we will be discussing what kind of precautions ypu need to take in the exam hall and what is the right way to attempt the TOPIK papers.
- Don’t bring anything to Exam Hall except your admit card and a pen- I have seen many examinees bringing colorful pencils, gel pens, sharpener, eraser, ruler and even books and dictionaries sometimes.
Believe me, last time study of vocabulary and grammar will make you no good, it will only stress you up; so leave those bulky books and notes behind in your book shelf and instead crack some jokes with friends when you are waiting to hear the start bell. Probably they will not allow any stationary into the exam hall. You have to color the OMR answer sheet with a special pen that they will provide you. If you make any mistake and want to change your answer, you just have to raise your hand and the invigilator will come to you and remove the wrong mark with whitener. You may need a pen in the writing section. - Attempt all Questions- Never leave any question un-attempted. As TOPIK has a multiple-choice question pattern and it has no negative marking scheme, you have nothing to lose even if you mark all the questions wrong. And remember that even your 100% random guess has a 25% chances of turning to be the right answer. So after solving all the questions you know, try to use the elimination method. It means you try to eliminate the answer options that you are sure are not correct one by one and in the end give your luck a try. And when you see you have only a few seconds left and you have some questions unanswered, remember your God or angel and just randomly mark A, B, C or D to all,
- Don’t spend much time on difficult questions- they intentionally put some difficult or tricky questions in the middle of the papers. Don’t waste too much time on them, just make a smart guess and move ahead. If you have time remaining in the end you can come back to them (Mostly people can’t
- Make a strategy in advance which section to attempt first- There is no single strategy that works for everyone. While solving TOPIK papers during preparations, analyze which strategy works best for you. Some students prefer to solve a particular section or type of questions first.
- If possible, Try to do the writing essay question first- It was my strategy, you can have your own. I think, if you write the essay in the beginning, you write it better because in last you are in hurry and you can’t get good ideas and also make many mistakes. When you finish it in the beginning you feel relaxed that you have completed a big part of the paper and you can concentrate properly on rest of the paper. But even if you don’t do it in the beginning at least read it and give 1-2 minutes to make an outline of the essay in your mind. It will make you feel relaxed that you have the idea and in the end you just have to pen it down.
- Don’t color the answer sheet after every question- This is a very important tip. While solving TOPIK papers during preparations I realized that you save a few minutes if you color the answer sheets after solving every 8-10 questions rather than coloring it after solving every single question. So just mark the answer on the question paper itself and color the answer sheet when you have got a good no. of answers piled up. Be careful! make sure you are marking the circles of right questions.
- Don’t jump on conclusion after just reading the first option- The answer options in the TOPIK papers are really tricky. Sometimes they are nearly the same. So make sure to read all the given options and choose the most appropriate one.
- Read the Instructions very carefully- Especially for the questions with “Choose the right/wrong..” Sometimes students just see the first option, they finds it perfectly right and mark it but in fact what they were supposed to do is to choose the wrong one.
- Don’t think about your girlfriend/boyfriend during Listening Section – Losing your concentration for only a few seconds may spoil a good part of your listening paper. So just close your eyes and concentrate on the sound. It really helps to read the question and answer options before you hear the question text. All the question are repeated so you have marked the answer after just listening the first part, utilize the time to read the next question in advance when the last one is being repeated. but you have any doubt about your answer always listen it the second time.
- Be careful about listening texts upon which more than two questions are based- In the last parts of the listening section, sometimes more than one questions are based on one text. So be careful and read the instructions carefully.
- Take notes while listening the text- Sometimes data and facts come in the questions that you can’t remember later while solving it. So keep taking small notes of them. You can also use this technique while solving the long paragraph questions in Reading Section.
- Always use the plain or formal/polite form of sentence ending- In the essay writing section you should always write in Plain diary form (다/ㄴ다/는다). Beginners can use the formal polite ending (ㅂ니다/습니다). Never use the casual spoken form (아요/어요) or lower form (아/어) of language.
All the Best…
About TOPIK GUIDE
sir ,i attempted an answer wrong in ONGC GT exam.so i corrected it by using whitener and i did the same while writing my roll number.please tell if my paper will be rejected or it will be considered.please help me
using whitener for making corrections is perfectly okay… Don’t worry….
Thanks for this great information .examination hall tips are really useful
Hey, thanks for your help on this site.
I’ll be writing my first TOPIK (중급) test this Sunday, and I’ve been studying really hard for it. I’ve done every 중급 test since number 15 on my own (always getting scores between 70-80%, so I’m feeling good about this weekend.
I have some questions, though. With the listening test – are the questions just broadcasted to everybody over a large speaker, or do we each have individual headphones?
Also, say I make a mistake on the score sheet (or whatever you want to call it). I just put up my hand and somebody comes to fix it? It it complicated?
Last one… are you SURE we should be using the plain form on this writing test? When I’ve been doing my practice tests, I give it to my (Korean) girlfriend to grade for me… she always says it sounds weird when I write “저는….. 한다” or “저는… 했다.”
저는 논술문제를 답하면 항상 이런 식으로 쓴다. That form is okay? My girlfriend says that 저는 should always be followed with 습니다… and I say that it doesn’t… and then we get into fights about who is the native Korean speaker, haha.
Thanks for your help!
You are doing great… You will surely be able to get a high score in TOPIK Intermediate….
yes they broadcast the listening questions to everybody over a large speaker… Fixing a mistake on answer sheet in not complicated at all… They are very quick to respond.. But if you want, you can carry your own whitener pen…
And about the form of language to be used… That’s a very good question.. Thank you for asking that. I thought this may be relevant to other TOPIK GUIDE readers as well; so instead of replying you personally i thought of writing a small post on it. you can check it here.. http://www.topikguide.com/2012/07/which-form-of-language-to-use-in-topik-exam-formal-plain-or-informal.html All the best!
Hi Satish, first of all thanks for this awesome blog! I did what you mentioned for the first paper by writing my composition before doing the rest of the paper and I can say it really did help! And I’d also like to add a tip for fellow TOPIK candidates, if you don’t mind. I just did my test today, the 26th one, in Singapore. I find that while doing the listening and reading component, there are a lot of pauses in the audio recording. I used that time to start on the reading questions at the back and that helped me a lot later on while the other candidates around me were rushing. So I’d recommend doing that as there is really a lot of extra time. But at the same time make sure to focus on the listening more than the reading; the listening gets priority and if you miss it both times you won’t get a chance to listen to it again. So yeah, that’s what I’d recommend
Thanks again for this wonderful blog!
Thanks but u didnt send previous papers yet although i shared my mail.
You are the best tip of my korean language.
Thank you so much.
Wow, very useful topic you have raised here. I love your articles. Nicely presented information in this post, I prefer to read this kind of stuff. Great work!
@Betty
check this link…
http://www.topikguide.in/2010/12/topik-2011.html
hi sir:) when will the topik exam happen here in the philippines? i don’t know which site i will go to see the schedules? thanks
very good tips. thank u
Hi Chi Heung, Thanks for sharing these points with us. I will try to clear all your confusions as far as I can.
“Taking notes or recording sound about the exam problems, or passing on test material to other people.” – It means you can’t any notes on any other paper (except the question paper itself) and and take it home. As you submit the question paper back to them after the exam they have no problem if you write anything on it
about the second confusion regarding whiteout tape and pencil:-
They give you a black computer marker pen to mark the answers in multiple-choice questions. for ‘writing’ questions you need to carry a pen/pencil. You can carry a whiteout tape yourself but for those who don’t carry the invigilators have it. you just have to raise your hand, invigilator will come and correct your wrong marking.
“”- Written answers of the 1st section can be written with any pen (including a pencil). – When pencil is used by accident, you may erase it with an eraser. Other pen marks can be corrected by drawing two lines over the wrong answer, or by whiteout tape. “
—— Here they are just explaining how to correct your writing mistakes. If you have used a pencil you can use eraser and if it’s with pen either you should use whiteout tape or just draw two lines over the mistake.
Hope I m clear..
All the Best
Satish,
Admin, TOPIK GUIDE
You say: “# Take notes while listening the text- Sometimes data and facts come in the questions that you can’t remember later while solving it. So keep taking small notes of them. You can also use this technique while solving the long paragraph questions in Reading Section.”
But in the “other important details” in the topik official site, at the end where is written:
“Types of Cheating” it says:
“6. Taking notes or recording sound about the exam problems, or passing on test material to other people.”
mmm so It’s possible to take notes or no?I don’t understand…
Another misleading rule:
“- Whiteout tape can be used to change an already marked answer.
“- Written answers of the 1st section can be written with any pen (including a pencil). – When pencil is used by accident,
you may erase it with an eraser. Other pen marks can be corrected by drawing two lines over the wrong answer,
or by whiteout tape. “
So: I can take with me pencil and whiteout tape?
This comment has been removed by the author.
Oh, sorry I forgot: thank you for all the work that have you done since now!!I’m going to take the intermediate test in July and the best way to improve my Korean will be learn as much words as possible…
You say: “# Take notes while listening the text- Sometimes data and facts come in the questions that you can’t remember later while solving it. So keep taking small notes of them. You can also use this technique while solving the long paragraph questions in Reading Section.”
But in the “other important details” in the topik official site, at the end where is written:
“Types of Cheating” it says:
“6. Taking notes or recording sound about the exam problems, or passing on test material to other people.”
mmm so It’s possible to take notes or no?I don’t understand…
Another misleading rule:
“- Whiteout tape can be used to change an already marked answer.
“- Written answers of the 1st section can be written with any pen (including a pencil). – When pencil is used by accident,
you may erase it with an eraser. Other pen marks can be corrected by drawing two lines over the wrong answer,
or by whiteout tape. “
So: I can take with me pencil and whiteout tape?
Thanks so much for making such a great blog! I’m going to take the intermediate TOPIK in April but right now I am not doing very well at taking the practice tests. They take me a very long time to complete and I have too many wrong answers. My problem is that I’m very good at speaking, but not very good at writing, grammar and reading. But, the whole topik is based on all my weak points!!! Keep posting more here, I’m going to be following from now until I take the test!!!
@Amanda
Yes, all the guides say so because most of the beginner learners don’t know how to use plain form properly and examiners know it as well. So ㅂ/습니다 form is equally acceptable at beginners level. Thank you for commenting.
I’m used to writing in plain form (unless I’m writing an email to my sister-in-law, for example). But since all of the guides show the 습니다 form for the first level, I thought maybe it was expected for that test. I’m self-studying all the way and have no teachers to ask.
Thanks for the reply!
@Amanda
Plain form is always a better and preferred way for writing essays in exams. So not only you CAN but in fact you SHOULD write in plain form.
I have a question. If you’re taking the beginner level CAN you write in plain form or are you expected to write in ㅂ니다/습니다?
good article dear.
if u get some free time come to my blog/shiva12877.blogspot.com.
Thank so much for your great tip