쓰기The TOPIK Writing Section
4 items, 50 minutes and 100 of TOPIK II's 300 points. It is the only part of either paper you produce rather than choose, and it is the part most candidates under-prepare.
Two completions, one data description of 200~300자, and one argument of 600~700자 — the last of which is worth more than the other three together.
- 문항Items
- 4
- 배점Points
- 100
- 시간Minutes
- 50
- 비중Share of TOPIK II
- 33%
네 문항The four tasks
Two completions and two compositions, in ascending order of what they cost you.
-
51 빈칸에 알맞은 말 쓰기 10 pts
Complete two blanks in a short practical text (a notice, an email)
분량 one sentence each
-
52 빈칸에 알맞은 말 쓰기 10 pts
Complete two blanks in an expository paragraph
분량 one sentence each
-
53 자료를 설명하는 글 쓰기 30 pts
Describe a chart, survey or set of figures in prose
분량 200~300자
-
54 주제에 대해 자신의 생각을 쓰기 50 pts
Argue a position on a given topic
분량 600~700자
시간 배분Where the minutes go
50 minutes, and the points are not spread evenly across them.
Item 54 alone is 50% of the section and 17% of the whole paper. It should get half the clock.
문어체The register the essays must be in
The commonest avoidable loss on the whole exam.
Items 53 and 54 are written in 문어체 — the plain written style, which is 한다체: 간다, 이다, 아니다, 해야 한다. It is addressed to no reader in particular, which is exactly why it is the register of newspapers, textbooks and every argument ever set as an exam question.
Writing them in 해요체 is the mistake, and it is a mistake of register rather than of grammar — the sentences are correct and the essay still reads as a letter. The speech-level page has the whole ladder if you need it: the six Korean speech levels, of which 한다체 is the written one.
Items 51 and 52 are the opposite case. They are completions of somebody else's text — a notice, an email, a leaflet — so the register is whatever that text is already using, and a polite email takes a polite sentence back.
환경 문제는 정말 심각해요. 우리가 노력해야 돼요.
해요체 in an essay. Grammatical, and marked down.
환경 문제는 매우 심각하다. 따라서 우리가 노력해야 한다.
한다체, with a connective doing the work 정말 was doing.
준비What actually raises this score
Write to the character count
Item 53 is 200~300자; Item 54 is 600~700자. Both are tighter than they look. Practise with a counter until the range is something you feel rather than something you check.
Learn twenty connectives properly
Structure is marked directly, and structure in Korean is carried by connectives: 따라서, 그러나, 반면에, -기 때문에, -을 뿐만 아니라. The connective endings are a list worth working through before the exam.
Describe data out loud
Item 53 is a chart in prose — increases, decreases, proportions, comparisons — and it uses the same twenty phrases every time. It is the most learnable thirty points on the paper.
이어서Where to go next
자주 묻는 질문Common questions
How long does the TOPIK 54 essay have to be?
600~700자. Under the minimum loses marks and over the maximum wastes time you need elsewhere, so the length is a target rather than a suggestion — practise writing to it with a character count in front of you until you can feel the range.
Should I write TOPIK essays in 해요체?
No. Items 53 and 54 are written in 문어체 — the plain written style, 한다체 — which is what every newspaper, textbook and academic article is in. Writing an essay in 해요체 reads as a letter rather than an argument and it costs marks. Items 51 and 52 are different: they are completions of a given text, so they match whatever register that text is in.
How is TOPIK writing marked?
By human markers against published criteria, which is why it behaves unlike the multiple-choice sections. The two short items are marked on whether the sentence fits its blank grammatically and in meaning; the two long ones on content and task completion, on how the writing is organised, and on the range and accuracy of the language. That is 100 of 300 points on the paper.
How much time should I spend on each writing item?
The section is 50 minutes for 4 items and the marks are not evenly spread — 51 is worth 10, 52 is worth 10, 53 is worth 30, 54 is worth 50. Budget by the points: about five minutes each on 51 and 52, ten to twelve on 53, and everything left on 54.
Check before you rely on this. The shape of the exam — sections, item counts, timing and the score each 급 is awarded at — is hand-entered from TOPIK's published 시행 계획 and is the one part of this site with no machine-readable source behind it. It is reviewed once a year. Confirm the current figures at topik.go.kr before you register, and treat the exam calendar as theirs alone — it is not published here, because a stale date is worse than no date.