Inspiration

My TOPIK Writing stinks. Like, really stinks.

Last time I got a 22/100 on the Writing portion (and at least 1.5 times as high on all the other parts). So, I don’t want to repeat that. Therefore, I’m going to spend the next handful of posts in the 120 TOPIK Challenge ONLY on Writing. I feel that it’s the area of TOPIK that most of us have the greatest opportunity for improvement.

Already, within the first 3 practice writings I’ve done with my tutor, I’ve gathered together a great deal of tips to share that have completely revolutionized the way I’ve thought about Writing up to now. Some of the best tips include:

1. The writing = OBJECTIVE (like a newspaper), not subjective (like a diary), as I’d been writing
2. Key points:
   1. Simple vocab and grammar that you know well beats advanced phrases that you “kind of” know
   2. Idea development is king – if your message is clear and ideas are strong, it beats complicated expressions every time
   3. Transition words are queen – these are absolutely necessary to show an excellent progression of ideas – so it’s imperative to memorize these

Additionally, I’m going to tackle the Writing tasks in REVERSE logical order – starting with practicing the MOST difficult first and moving on to the simpler ones after that. I feel that this REVERSE practice will give me a bit of a leg up on the test when compared with doing things “in order.”

For one thing, I’ll get so good at this order of things that I won’t run out of time on the longest writing during the test and will squeeze out the maximum number of points from the 50-point Essay question.

1. 논설문 = Editorial Writing (600-700 characters)
2. 설명문 = Explanatory Writing (200-300 characters)
3. TWO short answer fill-in-the-blanks

Challenge

Start thinking about your own TOPIK Writing. Find a Korean tutor who can help you work on your Writing on up to the TOPIK test date.

I’ll share tips from my own TOPIK Writing feedback in the next post, but for now, you need to find your own tutor to give you personalized feedback on your writing.

Over to you:

Let me know how your Writing is. Did you get a score from last time? What’s your biggest area for improvement? Let me know in the Comments below or on social media with #120TOPIK.

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