TOPIK Test Scores Published!

Finally, after a month an a half, my TOPIK scores have been published!

쓰기 (Writing) :57 

일기 (Reading) :48 

어휘/문법 (Vocab and Grammar): 47 

듣기 (Listening): 57

= 3급 합격!! Level 3 achieved!  Horray! 

Simply put, each section is out of 100. An average score of above 70 is needed to achieve level 4 and an average score of 50 is needed for level 3.

While of course higher scores would be better, I have passed level three which is something of an accomplishment in itself. The first practice test I took many many months ago was an abysmally low score, much below failing in most areas except listening. I really liked taking the test, mostly because it forced me to study and be more diligent since I tend to be such a lazy student. And of course, now that the TOPIK has been finished for over a month and a half, I have gone back to my lazy ways and probably forgot most of what I learned. If I had known that I'd be around for this summer's TOPIK I would have signed up one more time but alas at the time of registration everything was so up in the air I couldn't make any definite plans. 

My scores are more or less are what I was getting on my practice tests in the days before taking the test. The week before the test came something clicked in my brain and made me improve my reading comprehension. I blame my poor score not on poor comprehension, but on slow reading skills. I would say that I answered 75% of the questions that I answered correctly, but I only had time to finish just over half the reading section. The part that I am most impressed with, though, is my writing. In practice tests my score was always quite low and I never knew how to grade my essays so I was never able to get a good grasp on how my writing score would be. Since my spelling tends to be atrocious, I was a bit worried about this section, but it, along with listening (which is usually better, I am a little disappointed with this score) were my two highest scores. I hope to take the TOPIK again, maybe next winter or spring, depending on where life takes me in the next few months. Hopefully next time I can get up to level 4!!

TOPIK tests and Cherry Blossoms

It's that time of year. Cherry blossom season and time to take the TOPIK exam....

 

Finally, the much anticipated day of the TOPIK exam arrived. I found the test site at Kyunghee University without problem thanks to bumping into a friend from my Korean class on the way there. The entrance was a buzz with people selling pens, pencils white out etc., people selling text books, and lots of people giving away free stuff. I scored some awesome red/black pens. I've been meaning to buy a new red pen for a while so it worked out perfectly. 

After getting into the test building I had to find my classroom by looking up my registration number on this chart along with the other hoards of testers. 

I made it up to my classroom and got myself settled down. I had read on other blogs not to bring any stationary supplies to the test room, but looking around everyone had white out, pencils, pens, pencil cases and I felt a little self conscious. I almost didn't bring my pencil case with me, but I figured just in case I would. I had no white out and I was feeling a little nervous looking around seeing so many other people with it. Finally the test administers entered the room at exactly 1:40 and started to explain the rules. 

• Put everything into your bag and take the bag off the table.

• Take the battery out of your cell phone (and iPhones must be securely off). If a cell phone goes off during the exam it's big trouble
• Mark the test with the black computer marker only, except for the writing portion of the exam. For the writing test, you may use the black computer marker if you like but as it would be messy and hard to correct errors you can use your own ball point pen or pencil. 
• If you make a mistake you can correct it with your own white out tape. Liquid white out is not allowed. If you don't have white out tape you can raise your hand and the admins will lend you theirs.

 Then at 2:00 exactly, a bell rang to start the exam. Unfortunately, our test administrator started to walk around checking IDs after the test began. This was a huge distraction. At one point he got to the guy in front of me and started speaking really loudly for several minutes about how the photo on his registration paper was inappropriate and he was unable to verify his identity because of it. Finally he told him that they'd discuss it more after the test was finished. And then told the guy "don't worry, take your test and don't let this distract you..."... like I'd be able to do my test well after being yelled at that my photo was invalid. They need to check IDs before the test begins, not during the testing session.

Anyway, the first 90 minutes was grammar and vocab/ writing. I feel I did about the same as I usually do on grammar and vocab, which usually hovers around the 45-50 point mark. I think my essay was good enough (though I wish I had had time to proofread more), but I was thrown for a loop because this time the points for the  문장 만들기 and 빈칸 채우기. The 문장 만들기 was always 6 points each and the 빈칸 채우기 always had 3 questions which were 6 points each as well. On yesterday's test the 문장 만들기 questions were 7 points each and on 빈칸 채우기 there were only 2 questions, 8 points each. Good news, though, I think I finally may have gotten a 빈칸 채우기 problem right, which has never happened before. Bad news is I think I got one if not both of the 문장 만들기 wrong, so it probably equals out. After that, we had a half hour break before starting the listening/ reading.

I think I did alright on the listening, as I usually do, though under the stress of the testing conditions I don't think I did as well as I have in practice. My biggest problem was the reading. I think I may have gotten 75% of the questions that I had time to answer correct (I've improved a lot in this area in the past week or two, something just clicked in my brain) but I'm still a really slow reader and I was only able to do about 18 of the 30 questions before the time was up. I just filled in the rest of the bubbles and am hoping for the best.

But, the lovely part of the TOPIK was being at Kyunghee University in time to catch the cherry blossoms. It's a marvelous campus and I wanted to wander around more but I didn't have time. I'd like to go back if I have some time. I was told by my Saturday Korean teacher that this place was much better than Yeoido because there are lots of beautiful scenery but with way less sightseers. 

But, it seems to be a local hot spot anyway for catching the seasonal flora.  There was a bit of traffic on campus and lots of people who probably weren't students wandering around with cameras and pizza boxes looking to enjoy the afternoon.

So, if you happen to be around Hoegi station on line 1/ Jungang line, make your way over to Kyunghee University and check out the cherry blossoms before it's too late!

TOPIK Today

Today is the big day. I need to check in to the test area at 1:40 so I only have an hour and 40 minutes left. Am I stressed? Just a bit. I'd say I'd post my scores when I'm done, but I don't find out until June. But, the good news is, I took a practice test yesterday and my scores were around the passing mark so there is a slight chance, that with a little lucky guessing, I might be able to scrape by. Let's find out.

Wish me luck...

T Minus 4 days until the TOPIK.

Or the day I get destroyed.

As I mentioned in my last entry about the TOPIK I've been having a bit of a hard time getting myself up to par. A lot of my readers gave me some good advice and I've tried to take it all to heart. The Korean suggested just memorizing the common words on the test and another reader suggested an awesome app that allows you to make your own flash cards. I've used both of these suggestions. I've made 125 flashcards and managed to memorize nearly all of them to varying degrees. I may not be able to spell all them but as long as I can recognize them I'm happy. I do flashcards for about 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening, give or take. Now, I'm happy that I've memorized that many, but unfortunately there are about 200 more that I need to memorize for the vocabulary section and probably about 1,000 for the reading and writing because anything is game on those sections.

On the most recent practice test that I have taken I received the following score (remember that 100 is the total number of points for each section, 70 points is necessary to achieve level 4, 50 points in each section is necessary to achieve level 3. Below that is nothing, failing.

Vocab + Grammar: 50 points
Writing: 26 + essay (maximum 30 points)
Listening: 62
Reading: 29

My reading score is about on par with guessing randomly. And sadly, I read every question as carefully as I could. Unfortunately most of them sound like gibberish to me because of the amount of vocabulary I don't know (or don't recognize in the context of the reading). Sometimes when I start to see a lot of words I don't recognize, I start missing words that I should know because I start to panic. Then when someone goes through with me line by line and explains one or two key words I suddenly know the answer. But, unfortunately, I haven't been able to reproduce this phenomenon without help yet.

But, the most depressing part of this whole thing is that I've never studied for anything as hard as I have for this one exam in my entire life. I know that sounds ridiculous to most people, but even when I was studying for Organic Chemistry (which also quite nearly defeated me and was the first and only time in my life I've gotten a tutor) I also had 3 other challenging classes that I needed to study for and so Organic Chemistry only got an hour or so every few nights plus study sessions before exams. Now, Korean is the only thing I'm studying. I've only been working about 25 hours per week since I started studying in February. I go to Korean class for 2 hours MWF, then usually study for an hour or so after class and on TTh I usually put in at least 3 hours or more of study doing practice tests, learning grammar through a new book I bought recently, or just meeting my Korean friends and just speaking Korean. Plus the flashcards ever day. Is this not enough? I don't feel like I could do more than that. Usually after 3 or 4 hours of studying Korean my head is swimming and I don't retain anything anymore (not that I seem to retain anything anyway).

I'm partially grateful that the TOPIK has forced me to study and partially angry that all this information is being forced into my head. While I can recite all these flashcards now, there are very few of those words that I've actually been able to use in my everyday life. Though, I can tell you that the few that I have been able to use in everyday life are not easily forgotten. I much prefer learning language in a natural sort of progression. Learn the vocabulary that you need to complete a task, see it around or use it again a few more times and it's stuck and it's hard to forget. Memorize a bunch of flashcards about stuff I don't care about at the moment and the chance of me remembering the words for the long term is low. For example, yesterday I learned the word 단추. Before yesterday I never cared about the word, but suddenly I needed it. So I learned it. I figure it will now come up again in the future at some point, at which point I'll suddenly remember that time I needed to say 단추 and it will be reinforced in my mind. Where as if that word had been on a flashcard, I might have put it into my brain but I am sure that when I've actually needed it (and this has already happened with some of the other words I've put in my flashcards) I can't recall the word in a conversation. I know that it's a rather slow and less efficient way of learning the language, but other than for this test I'm not in much rush. I can hang out with my friends and converse in Korean and keep up with conversations about the things my friends talk about. So far I haven't needed to talk about science or politics and while I'd like to learn those words, I think I'd rather just learn them when I need them rather than cramming them in my head with a bunch of other unrelated words like I'm doing at the moment.

I guess I've realized that memorizing is good, just not in copious amounts like I've been doing. I think if I had the motivation to learn 10 words a week, of words that I wanted to use in the outside world, it would be more efficient than trying to learn hundreds in three months.



Also if anyone knows of a website that explains how the essays are graded I'd be eternally grateful. All I know is that you lose a point for each unique spelling error (I'm hoping that it's capped after a certain number because under stress it's quite possible that I might make as many spelling mistakes as there are points on the section).

Study, Study, Study

I've never been good at studying. I'm one of those people who goes to class, learns, never does the homework, and does well on the test. But, that's one thing that's never worked with me while studying Korean. I've tried everything I can think of to memorize vocabulary, and it's not that the methods don't work (flashcards, writing words repeatedly, making lists in my ipod and checking them often), but it's just that I don't keep up with it. And, it's never been a problem, really, until now.

I can speak Korean. I can hold down a normal, everyday conversation that you'd have with your coworker or friends. What did you do last night? How was your vacation? I'm having this problem lately... etc etc. And you know what? That's really all I need for now. I've never needed to talk about science or politics or technical stuff. I'll keep studying and I hope that some day I can progress to that point.

BUT, now I'm studying to take the TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean) with the hopes of getting the F-2 visa after passing EITHER level 3 or level 4 (intermediate). But, if I were to take that test tomorrow, I would fail. Miserably. Even though I've studied through level 4 at my hagwon (and took level 3 three times, to the point where I have the whole book practically memorized). Because I suck at studying. I always picked up the words I could use in conversation, because that's what I like to do. But I never picked up those nuance words that I could always get around using by using other, simpler words. This test, though, is all about nuances. It's designed to trick you into second guessing yourself.

For me, the questions fall in to one of two categories. The questions that I don't understand a word of and the questions that I understand every word of and STILL don't know the answer. The questions I don't know a word of, well I don't stand a chance with. But those questions that I DO know every answer to, I should be able to reason it out. But, let's put 4 words that mean very similar things as possible answers. Now, you need to know what word combination fits the best with the given information. Which, is good, you should know what words go together and what not, but I suck at studying and I have a feeling I'm never going to get these under my belt. All the Koreans have told me "just memorize it" but... I'm not a memorizing kind of person. And how can one memorize every possible word that could come up on a test? My method of studying is just talking and using my Korean, but this test doesn't even have  a spoken part. They measure me on all my weakest points.

I bought a reading book recently. I wanted to get the level 3, since reading is my weakest point (except for maybe writing). But, they didn't have level 3. So I settled for level 4. Big mistake. It takes me about 2 hours to read each one page long story in the book. I need to look up about every 3rd word or so and I can't answer any of the reading comprehension questions without help. I'm starting to get really discouraged...

To make things worse, I also started working with my Japanese friend who is studying for the test too. When we speak, I always feel that we're on the same level, or that even my Korean could be a little more advanced. But, then we take a practice test. Out of 10 questions, she gets one wrong. I get one right. Even more depression sets in. The thought that I might not even get 50 points (minimum score to achieve level 3 on the TOPIK) is becoming more and more real. I have less than 2 months left to study for this test. I've been studying pretty hard (in my terms of studying) for the past 3 weeks and have seen no improvement yet. Who's to say that trend won't continue? I'm only working part time now so I should have all the free time in the world to study, but it doesn't seem to matter.

What works for you?