TOPIK I Study Plan for Beginners: From Hangul to Level 2

If you are starting from zero, TOPIK I level 2 is a realistic first target. You need 140 out of 200 across two multiple-choice sections: listening (30 questions, 40 minutes) and reading (40 questions, 60 minutes). There is no writing and no speaking. In Korea the fee is ₩40,000.

What follows is the plan I would give a complete beginner: 24 weeks, about 10 hours a week, from learning the alphabet to sitting a full past paper. It is built on what the official paper actually rewards, which we checked against the 102nd TOPIK I published on topik.go.kr.

What TOPIK I actually tests

The official question composition page sets out the format:

All questions have four options. The level is decided by your total score, not by each section separately: 80–139 is level 1, 140–200 is level 2. Below 80 you get no level at all.

The official level descriptions are a useful syllabus. Level 1 covers survival tasks such as introducing yourself, buying things and ordering food, with "about 800 basic words". Level 2 adds phone calls, requests and using public places like the post office and the bank, with about 1,500 to 2,000 words, and you should be able to tell formal from informal speech.

What the 102nd paper showed us

We worked through the 102nd TOPIK I on the TOPIK site's past-paper service. Not every question is worth the same, and that matters for planning:

• Listening: 10 questions were worth 4 points and 20 were worth 3. The very first questions, short yes/no replies like "Do you have an umbrella?", carried 4 points each.
• Reading: 20 questions were worth 2 points and 20 were worth 3. It opens with very short sentences ("I have an older sister. I also have a younger brother.") where you pick the topic word, here family (가족), and ends with paragraph-length texts.
• Question 37 asked for the right particle in a gap (창문 + _ 엽니다). Particles are worth points from the first weeks of study.

The point weighting varies a little from paper to paper, but the shape is consistent: a lot of marks sit in short, everyday items that a disciplined beginner can get right.

A worked example: what 140 looks like

Using the 102nd paper's point values:

So level 2 means roughly 70% correct. You can miss about nine listening questions and twelve reading questions and still get there. Level 1 (80 points) is closer to 40%.

How much time to plan for

There is no official "hours to level 2" figure, so do not trust anyone who quotes one as fact. The best official guide comes from the National Institute of Korean Language (NIKL). Its international standard curriculum for Korean designs each level for between 72 hours (12 weeks × 6 hours) and 200 hours (10 weeks × 20 hours), depending on the school.

Two levels therefore means somewhere between about 150 and 400 hours of study. The plan below uses 240 hours: 24 weeks at about 10 hours a week. If you can only manage five hours a week, stretch every phase to double the length rather than skipping phases.

The vocabulary target comes from the same curriculum, which lists 735 words at level 1 and 1,100 at level 2, 1,835 in total. NIKL also has an older learner list from 2003 whose most basic band covered almost every word in the first TOPIK I reading questions when we tested it; see the official vocabulary lists and how to use them.

The 24-week plan

That is about 240 hours in total. Vocabulary runs through every phase. Aim for about 15 new words a day from week 4, reviewed with spaced repetition, and you reach about 1,800 words by week 20.

What a normal study week looks like (weeks 8–19)

If I were doing this with a job, I would split ten hours like this:

• Three 1-hour grammar sessions (one new pattern per session, with ten sentences of your own)
• Three 40-minute vocabulary sessions (new words plus review)
• Two 1-hour listening sessions (official TOPIK audio, slowed down at first, then at full speed)
• One 2-hour reading session (past-paper reading questions, untimed until week 20)
• One 1-hour review of everything you got wrong that week

Listening is where most beginners lose marks, because textbook dialogues are slower and cleaner than exam audio. The TOPIK site publishes past papers with audio files, and from week 12 at least one listening session a week should use them.

Free official materials to use

• Past papers: the TOPIK site's 학습하기 (Study) menu lets you solve past papers online, listening and reading only. When we checked in October 2026 it had 12 TOPIK I rounds, from the 102nd (2025) back to the 35th (2014), and its Learning Archive (학습 자료실) had the same rounds as PDFs with the audio files. See where to get official past papers.
• Free video lectures: Study in Korea, the government's portal for international students, points to free beginner-level (TOPIK I) video lectures on the TOPIK site in nine languages.
• TOPIK Basic: a free self-check you can take anytime. It issues no certificate and its results have no legal value, but it tells you whether you are on track.

A note on the TOPIK site: if you open one of its inner pages from a link, it often sends you to its home page first. Click the link again, or use the menu (학습하기 → 토픽 기출문제 풀어보기).

Mistakes beginners make with this plan

• Rushing Hangul. Three weeks feels slow. It is not. If you still read letter by letter in week 8, every listening question becomes harder.
• Learning words without particles. Question 37 in the 102nd paper was a particle question. Learn 창문을 열어요, not just 창문.
• Taking past papers too early. Before week 16, a full paper mostly measures what you have not studied yet. Use single question types instead.
• Ignoring timing. In the real test there is no extra time to transfer listening answers; you mark the answer sheet while you listen. Practise marking as you go. See mistakes that cost points.

Booking the test

Plan backwards from a real date. When we checked the schedule on 18 October 2026, the last paper-based test of the year in Korea was the 109th TOPIK on 15 November 2026 (registration in Korea closed on 7 September; results on 22 December). The next one listed was the 110th TOPIK on 10 January 2027, with registration in Korea from 8 to 14 December 2026 and results on 4 February 2027. The rest of 2027 appears in the annual implementation plan on topik.go.kr. Registration opens one to two and a half months before each test and the window lasts only about a week, so put the opening date in your calendar. The process is in registering for TOPIK step by step.

On the day, TOPIK I candidates must be in the room by 09:20. Listening runs from 10:00 to 10:40 and reading from 10:40 to 11:40. Your score report is valid for two years from the results date.

Checklist for the last four weeks

• Registered, with the admission ticket and a valid ID ready (passport or residence card; university student cards are not accepted)
• At least three full past papers done under time
• A wrong-answer notebook with every missed question and why you missed it
• Listening practised with marking as you listen
• Reading finished in under 60 minutes with five minutes to spare
• Your last mock score at 140 or above. If you are at 120–135, focus on the listening questions you are losing.

Once you have level 2, the step up to TOPIK II is bigger than it looks: a 300-point test with writing. What the levels mean explains where you would land.