What are the best sources to study for TOPIK?

Question

I am going to take TOPIK II exam in a few months, but I'm not sure which books are good to study. I found out these books.

Are they familiar to anyone here? What are good and quick books or online sources to study?

Answer 1

First of all, you are asking this question on the right place: https://korean.stackexchange.com/

Older TOPIK questions and their answer keys, upto the 41st TOPIK, can be found on the official topik website at
www.topik.go.kr

The TOPIK format changed starting from the 35th TOPIK. All the previous TOPIK questions are availabe, while the new format TOPIK questions are only available upto the 41st TOPIK

A sample answer sheet for TOPIK-2 is here: http://blog.naver.com/soylim/60194251381

This website has collected all the older TOPIK questions and answer keys conveniently

http://www.topikguide.com/previous-papers/

If you are concentrating on the exam then it is better to practice the old questions from the 35th to the 41st TOPIK

For practice you can try the older format TOPIK-Intermediate (old level 3-4)

Based on your level of Korean you may practice the older format TOPIK-Advanced (old level 5-6) but some of those questions might be too hard

If you are attempting TOPIK-II then you most probably will not have to review the old TOPIK-Beginner (old level 1-2) questions

The TOPIK questions from 35th to 41st are available as an online test here: http://www.studytopik.go.kr/
The online interface is a bit buggy but workable

I am not really sure about which books to refer to. I guess one that has more sample tests and practice questions would be better

Also, for online resources:
Websites and internet resources for learning Korean

http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/41465/korean-language

Best of Luck.

Answer 2

I don't have the privilege to take TOPIK test in Korea and there are not many Korean language books available available in my country. So, I purchased TOPIK self study package from TOPIK GUIDE. It doesn't have any physical books but many handy PDF books with grammar and vocabulary material well arranged. But the most useful things are the video tutorials that really helped me understand the question patterns. The books and videos could be more professionally designed but for the price I paid, I am very satisfied. If you are in Korea, I think you can find a lot many books in bookstores. I have heard the books from Darakwon are good.

Answer 3

I recently took the TOPIK II for the first time and mostly used the 시대교육 series you show in the picture.

I focused mostly on the TOPIK(토픽Ⅱ) 한국어능력시험 단기완성 book, and it was really a great resource. It was small enough to actually get through it before the test, went through all the question styles, and had great grammar review. It's not in depth, but it will show you where you need to study more.

Since the 단기완성 book does not have a writing section, I also went through 한국어능력시험 TOPIKⅡ(토픽Ⅱ) - 쓰기 100점 받자!, which is page after page after page of writing prompts. It was actually really helpful because you get a good feel for the style of the questions and they have example answers so you can (somewhat) compare your answers and see what a Level 6 answer would look like. I ended up doing the best in writing on the exam, and a lot of it is thanks to this book.

I also got 한국어능력시험 TOPIK Ⅱ(토픽Ⅱ) 한 번에 통과하기(토픽Ⅱ 중ㆍ고급 교재 + MP3 CD) in this series, but didn't start looking at it until after the exam. It repeats a lot of the 단기완성 book, but with more example questions, mock exams, and some writing practice. It also has a really great vocabulary section that breaks down words into lists of synonyms, antonyms, situations, topics, etc. In retrospect, I wish I had just focused on this list of vocabulary instead of worrying about not knowing every word in example reading passages. If you need to buy one book, this would we be my recommendation because it's the most comprehensive.

I also went through part of the Cham Korean book with the online videos. They were surprisingly good and free! A lot of other courses on their site too, so worth checking out. The videos also worked without ActiveX, so that was a plus.

In the end, I passed Level 3 and only a few points shy of Level 4, and I credit a lot of that to these resources. I plan to retake it annually to track my improvement.