#xiutingxkorean

[studytherin]

how i self-study for topik 2급

I took the 59th TOPIK and the result was out yesterday. I scored 192/200 on the test (97/100 for listening and 95/100 for reading = 192/200 = 2급) so I want to share how I self-study for the test in case this might be helpful for any of you who are also self-studying and aim at passing TOPIK 2급 too!

FYI : I started working on TOPIK on the 11th of April so it took me 96 days in total or roughly around 3 months.

Here are all my studying process, listed in respective orders.

April (Day 1-20) : I started with learning the language in general. I solely rely on howtostudykorean.com and its corresponding memrise vocabulary lessons.

***IMPORTANT : Please don’t just learn the grammar and ignore the vocabulary. At first I did but turned out I couldn’t construct any sentences because I had no vocabulary knowledge. So please, study those memrise lessons. (Just unit 1 is enough by the way) Although there are more than thousand words for you to memorise, but trust me, it’s worth your time.

May (Day 21-36) : After I reached unit 2 level 31, I then started practising with TOPIK previous papers which you can find on here. Tested myself with the 52th paper and I scored 167/200, which isn’t that bad actually.

May (Day 37-51) : After that, I constantly practised with previous papers while learning new grammar and vocabulary until I finished all new format previous papers and reached unit 3 level 54. Also, after I finished taking the previous paper, I thoroughly studied it. If there are some vocabulary or grammar I’ve never heard of before, I’ll look them up on the internet and add them to my vocabulary notebook.

June (Day 52-81) : I then stopped my howtostudykorean lessons there and hopped onto talktomeinkorean.com to revise grammar points I’ve learnt. And I studied until level 7 lesson 12. After that, I practised with practise tests I found on Youtube which you can check them out here: 듣기 (Listening Part) 읽기 (Reading Part) and the ones I found on Topik Guide’s website here.

July (Day 82-96) : Scared that I might encounter words I’ve never seen before, I studied beginner level’s vocabulary and grammar lists from these sites: 1, 2, 3. I also tried taking several old format papers to learn some more vocabulary. Again, if there were anything I’ve never seen or heard of before, they immediately went into my notebook. During the last week, I also retook old papers (35th, 36th, 37th, 41st, 47th, 52nd) I’ve already tried to familiarise with the actual papers once again.

Here are all resources I used in total. Some are what I totally rely on, some are just what I used for a few times, but I consider all of them as helpful resources anyway.

Howtostudykorean - where I learn grammar

Howtostudykorean’s memrise vocabulary lesson for unit 1  - where I learn the vocabulary

Talktomeinkorean - where I revise grammar points I’ve learnt from howtostudykorean

Listening Part practise test on Youtube

Reading Part practise test on Youtube 

TOPIK Previous papers 

Topik Guide’s practise test

Topik Guide’s beginner level vocabulary list

Topik Guide’s beginner level grammar list 

Keytokorean’s beginner level vocabulary list 

Mobile App - Memrise, Duolingo, LingoDeer, Naver Dictionary, TOPIK ONE, TOPIKexam, Sejong Korean Vocab - Basic

Hope you find this helpful. All questions regarding the test are welcome. And good luck!

[studytherin]

ʚ 2nd june 2018 ɞ

recent favourite quote from my favourite person 천 일 동안의 수고하는 일 고마워요 모든 소중하고 잊지 못할 기억도 고마워요 이 순간부터 우리는 오래오래 함께 걸어가자 #1000dayswithday6

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[studytherin]

ʚ 15th apr 2018 ɞ

long time no korean ( ಠ ͜ʖ ಠ) i literally put korean on a break for almost 2 years. and here i am, out of sudden, deciding to dust off my korean for a bit. basically, it’s because chinese consumes all my energy and i need something to boost me up. and excuse my korean handwriting, i’ve already tried my best to make it neat. my actual korean handwriting is a lot harder to read than this lol

studygram

[studytherin]

how did you practice korean grammar?

either write a korean diary or tweet in korean! the only way to practise grammar is to use it tbh 

[studytherin]

Hi, I was wondering maybe you could suggest some channels to watch to improve my Korean? Or just cool channels in general. Thanks^^

here is a list of youtubers that i really like (mostly they are either foreigners that live in korea or koreans that live abroad or can speak english really well)- Youjin유진- Korean Unnie 한국언니- 흐림Heurim- 휘트니 whitneybae - 영국남자 Korean Englishman- 국가비GabieKook- suminnie- Jeannie지니 츕스- Gelindigkeit겔린디히카이트- Daily Bkkang+ jaesix and rilaccoco aka my favourite people on youtube ever although they rarely speak korean in their videos lol

i also recommend watching web dramas by the way- 우리처음만났을때기억나?- a day before us- playlist global (‘seventeen’ web drama is so good!!)

[studytherin]

sorry for the dumb question but which language does you use to learn korean? i see that you are a bilingual so i am a bit confused

most of the time, it’s english. there are more learning resources out there in english so it’s a lot easier for me to just learn through the language. but sometimes, when grammar points can’t be explained that well and thorough in english, i’ll just switch to learning resources in thai for better understanding since asian languages do have similarities in particles and stuff. and nah, your question isn’t dumb at all!

[studytherin]

Hi! I just wanted to say you’re doing an awesome job on your Korean! I know it’s kinda hard to learn it because (i’ve been told) there’s a lot of articles to learn 😅anyways, 잘 하고 있어요! 💕💕

thank you so much! i’ve come a lonnggggg lonnnngggggg way with it ahahahahaha yeah true, there are tons of articles to learn. but looking on a bright side, some of the particles are kinda similar to my native language so it’s quite easy to memorise and understand. 넵! 감사합니당ㅜㅡㅜ 앞으로도 열심히 공부하겠습니다!

[studytherin]

is TOPIK 1 easy? any tips to get good grade?

i haven’t taken any korean classes before but still got 192/200 within 2 months so i guess i can say it’s pretty easy? unlike the intermediate level that i’m studying for oml this one is a nightmare

first off, here’s the link to my previous post on how i studied for topik i (1&2급)

1) practise makes perfect: check my previous post out, go to the resource section, then do all the practise tests i’ve linked down there. i did all that. i even did some twice or thrice. just do it over and over until you get used to the tests.

2) two most important things when it comes to learning a language are grammar and vocabulary. since this is the beginner level, there’s a limit amount of grammar and vocabulary you should know. if it exceeds this certain amount, then it would have gone into intermediate level already. so if you know all of the words required, you can definitely ace the test, and i’d say this is one of the biggest advantages of topik i. if you want to make sure you know it all, please study these

- Howtostudykorean’s memrise vocabulary lesson for unit 1

- Topik Guide’s beginner level vocabulary list

- Topik Guide’s beginner level grammar list 

- Keytokorean’s beginner level vocabulary list

if you can memorise all vocabulary here, you have a really high chance of receiving 180-200. for grammar, you also have to memorise all of them and understand ALL of the meanings they can be interpreted/used. for example, 는데 doesn’t only mean ‘but’, but it can also be used to show the reasons, explain, etc.

here’s a bonus : some of those grammar appear only once, some appear for like 5-6 times throughout the test. my friend who also took the test learned the grammar that appeared only once but didn’t learn the one that appeared numerous time. so if you don’t want to get these wrong, make sure to study the grammar ~(으)면서 :’) i found it on almost every page of the test and literally thanked myself for learning this one, or else i might get so many items wrong.

3) for reading part: i personally think i lost 5 marks on this part. and if i’m not wrong, i lost the marks on the questions that ask about the name of the passage, main idea, etc. asdfghjfkhajkg with my experiences, i usually narrow my choices down to only 2 but eventually choose the wrong one because i think of it way too much. so, don’t think a lot. the answer is, most of the time, pretty obvious and can be seen within the reading passage itself. so even though it’s just a small reading passage, please READ EVERY SINGLE WORD of it carefully. the answer is somewhere within there and don’t imagine it on your own like me ahahhahahahahaha

lastly, best of luck!