Questions 51–54: templates, marks and the common mistakes
TOPIK II only: 4 questions, 50 minutes, 100 points. Question 51 — fill two blanks in a notice, letter or message with full sentences (10 points). Question 52 — two blanks in an expository paragraph (10 points). Question 53 — describe a chart, table or survey result in 200–300 characters (30 points). Question 54 — a 600–700 character opinion essay on a given social topic (50 points). Writing is the only section marked by people: two independent raters score content, structure, vocabulary and grammar.
The key is reading the sentence before and after each blank carefully: the answer is almost always built from words in those two sentences. In 51 the register must match the text (-습니다/-ㅂ니다 in a notice, -아/어요 in a letter to a friend). In 52 the expected patterns are usually "-기 때문이다", "-아/어야 한다", "-(으)ㄹ 수 있다" and similar. Each blank is worth 5 points; a sentence with the right meaning but a grammar error earns partial credit, a blank earns zero.
The most formulaic question — learned properly, 22–26 of the 30 points are all but guaranteed. Structure: (1) what the survey or statistic is about, who ran it and when; (2) the key numbers and the change (증가하다/감소하다, 2배 증가, ~에 비해); (3) the cause or outlook (이러한 원인으로는 … 을/를 들 수 있다, ~(으)ㄹ 것으로 전망된다). Written register only (-ㄴ/는다); never "나" or "저". Under 200 characters loses marks, and so does going over 300.
The prompt gives two or three guiding questions — give each its own paragraph and the structure builds itself: introduction (why the topic matters) → question 1 → question 2 → conclusion. Under 600 characters is a serious penalty. Timing: 8 minutes for 51–52, 12 for 53, 30 for 54. The most common errors: spoken register (-아/어요), drifting off topic, repeating one idea, and not knowing the 원고지 (grid paper) rules — punctuation gets its own square, and a paragraph starts with one empty square.