The exam, who needs it, and why
TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean) is the official Korean language exam run by NIIED, the National Institute for International Education of Korea. It measures reading, listening, and writing skills of non-native speakers.
TOPIK scores are required for university admission in Korea, government scholarships (GKS), many work visas (E-7, F-2 points system), and job applications at Korean companies.
TOPIK I (beginner) covers levels 1–2 with Reading and Listening only. TOPIK II (intermediate–advanced) covers levels 3–6 and adds a Writing section with two essays.
The same exam is now offered in three ways. PBT is the paper test most people mean by "TOPIK". IBT is the same exam taken on a computer — it is a separate registration with its own dates, and it IS available outside Korea, including Uzbekistan. TOPIK Speaking (말하기) is a separate 30-minute spoken exam covering levels 1–6 in one sitting; based on the 2026 plan it is currently held in Korea only.
TOPIK is not a school exam you take to feel good about your progress. Almost everybody who sits it needs a specific number for a specific door. Korean universities ask for Level 3 to enter an undergraduate programme taught in Korean, and Level 4 to graduate from one. Government scholarships, GKS above all, treat the score as a filter before anything else in the file is read. Several visa routes count it: the F-2-7 points system awards points by level, and an E-7 application is read differently when a Level 4 certificate is attached.
That is why the first useful question is never "how good is my Korean" but "which number opens the door I am walking towards". A person who needs Level 3 for admission and a person who needs Level 6 for a graduate programme are preparing for two different exams, even though they sit in the same room.
The exam is administered by NIIED, the National Institute for International Education, under the Korean Ministry of Education. It is not a private test, and no institute anywhere sells an official certificate. Anyone offering one is selling a forgery, and Korean universities verify certificates against the NIIED database.
Being a government exam also explains its shape. It is built to be marked identically in Tashkent, Hanoi and Seoul on the same day, which is why almost every question is multiple choice with exactly four options, and why the writing section is the only part where a human judgement enters.
TOPIK I and TOPIK II are separate exams, not two halves of one. TOPIK I awards Level 1 or Level 2 and tests only Listening and Reading. TOPIK II awards Levels 3 to 6 and adds Writing. You choose which one to register for, and the choice is final for that sitting.
This trips up more candidates than any other rule. Someone who is comfortably around Level 3 but registers for TOPIK I can score a perfect 200 and still walk away with Level 2, because Level 2 is the highest thing TOPIK I can award. The scoreboard has a ceiling, and the ceiling is set at registration.
The traditional paper exam, PBT, is still the one most candidates sit, and it is the one this guide describes in detail. A computer-based version, IBT, now runs alongside it in a growing number of countries, on different dates and with a different points total. The level bands are what carry across; the arithmetic under them is not the same, so do not take a practice score from one format as a prediction for the other.
Find the number you need, then find your current distance from it with one full past paper under real time. Not a chapter, not a vocabulary list — one complete paper with the clock running. Almost everyone discovers the same thing: the gap is not knowledge, it is speed. That single measurement is worth more than a month of unfocused study, and it costs one afternoon.