Question types, pacing and how to practise
TOPIK I: 30 questions, 40 minutes, 100 points. TOPIK II: 50 questions, 60 minutes, 100 points. Audio is played ONCE only (apart from a few early TOPIK I items), and difficulty rises steadily: short dialogues at the start, lectures, interviews and documentary excerpts at the end. Listening is the first section of the exam — latecomers are not admitted.
Choosing the dialogue that matches a picture (1–3), picking the next line, identifying where a conversation takes place, main idea, the speaker's purpose or attitude, selecting the statement that matches or contradicts the content. TOPIK II questions 41–50 give two questions per audio clip — read both before the clip starts.
Read each question's options BEFORE the audio begins — that tells you what to listen for. Jot down numbers, dates and place names as you listen. If you do not know an answer, mark something immediately and move on: TOPIK has no negative marking, and a blank is a guaranteed zero. The biggest mistake is going back to a missed question and losing the next clip too.
Use past papers with both the audio and the transcript: listen without the text first, answer, then listen again with the transcript and find exactly where you lost the thread. MOON's archive has the audio and transcript for every round. Twenty minutes a day of real-speed Korean (news, podcasts) makes a visible difference within two months. Do not slow the audio down — nobody slows it down in the exam.