TOPIK II Reading: Question Types and a 70-Minute Timing Plan

TOPIK II reading is 50 questions in 70 minutes. That is 84 seconds a question on average, but the questions aren't equal. The first dozen take seconds, while the last ten are opinion pieces and reports that need several minutes each. Most people who run out of time do so because they spent too long early on, not because they read slowly.

This guide maps every question number to its type, using NIIED's official assessment framework. It then gives a timing plan that budgets by block, and shows the traps in the 102nd TOPIK II paper, the most recent one NIIED has released.

The basics

• Period 2, after the listening and writing period. In Korea it runs 15:20–16:30, and you must be seated by 15:10.
• 50 questions, 2 points each, 100 points. Every question has four options.
• Reading counts for a third of the 300-point TOPIK II total. Level 3 starts at 120 points and level 4 at 150 (see TOPIK levels and score bands).
• Questions and instructions are in Korean. The instruction for each block is printed once at the top, so learn what each instruction means before test day.

Every question type, by number

This follows NIIED's framework for TOPIK II reading, which has applied since the 75th test.

Seen this way, the test is mostly the same four tasks repeated on longer and harder texts: blank, matching content, main idea, attitude/purpose. Practise those four skills, not 50 separate question types.

A block-by-block timing plan

This is the plan I'd recommend. Write the checkpoint times in the margin when the period starts. If the clock starts at 15:20, you should reach question 13 by about 15:30.

Two rules make the plan work:

1. If one question passes two minutes, mark your best guess and move on. A blank answer can't score, but a guess between two remaining options often does.
2. Mark the answer sheet as you go, not at the end. The last three minutes are for checking, not for transferring 50 answers.

What the 102nd paper teaches

We worked through the 102nd TOPIK II reading booklet alongside NIIED's answer table. Four questions show the habits that win points.

Question 10: read the numbers, not the impression

A donut chart showed what 1,600 adults consider when choosing a travel agency: price 48%, range of products 25%, company size 16%, reviews 9%, other 2%. One option said people who value price are "more than half" of the total. It feels right, because price is clearly the biggest slice, but 48% is not over half. The correct answer was the plain comparison that company size (16%) matters to fewer people than range of products (25%). In graph questions, check every number in an option against the chart.

Question 31: the answer is often the last sentence

The passage asked why drink containers are usually cylinders. It compared the perimeter of a square, a triangle and a circle with the same base area, and only the final sentence said the aim is to use the least material and cut production costs. The correct option was "to reduce the cost of making the container". In the blank questions (16–18, 28–31), the sentence after the blank, or the passage's last line, usually explains it.

Question 39: let the small words place the sentence

The sentence to insert says that society, too, offers too few retraining opportunities for retired athletes. The 도 (also) means something must come before it, about individuals lacking the means to prepare. A sentence starting with 이에 (in response) must follow it, saying that clubs now support job training. Only position ㉢ sits between those two. Connectors (그래서, 하지만, 이에, 또한, 반면) and particles like 도 decide most insertion questions.

Question 50: watch for the future dressed as the present

The passage described a proposed reform of the retirement pay system, in which payouts would start at age 55. One option said that under the current system you can receive retirement pay from 55, but that is the proposal, not the current rule. The correct option was that the reform includes having outside institutions hold the money. In "matching content" questions, wrong options often keep the right words and change the time (past, now, planned), the person, or the quantity.

Two more patterns

• Question 21 tested an idiom: visitors stopping traffic to take photos was behaviour that made people 눈살을 찌푸리다 (frown). Idioms with body parts (눈, 코, 목, 손) appear regularly in 21.
• Questions 23–24 and 42–43 were withheld in the published paper "according to the Copyright Act". Only the questions and options are printed. Practise feeling words (설레다, 섭섭하다, 허전하다, 당황스럽다) from older papers where the passages appear.

How to practise

• One block a day, timed to the plan. For example, 13–24 in 15 minutes. Then check every wrong answer against the passage and find the sentence that proves the right option.
• A full 70-minute paper every week or two, on paper, filling in a real answer sheet.
• Log your mistakes by type (number trap, time trap, connector, idiom, main idea). The method is in how to use official past papers.
• Build vocabulary from the official word lists rather than random apps. See the NIKL learner vocabulary lists.

Checklist for test day

• Instructions for each block memorised, so you don't read them in the test
• Checkpoint times written in the margin (15:30, 15:45, 16:00, 16:12)
• Each option in a graph question checked against the numbers
• In matching questions, every option checked for time, person and quantity
• No question left blank at 16:27

If you are moving from level 3 to level 4, reading is usually the quickest section to improve, because the question types repeat so closely. The plan in level 3 to 4 builds on this timing.