TOPIK II Writing 51 and 52: Two Questions You Can Prepare

TOPIK II’s writing section has four questions. Two of them are essays, and essays are hard to prepare for. 51 and 52 are not, because their formats repeat every sitting.

That makes them the best return on study time in the whole section.

What they look like

Both give you a short text with two blanks, marked ㉠ and ㉡. You write one sentence, or often one clause, in each.

51 is usually a practical text — an invitation, a notice, a short email, an advertisement. 52 is usually expository — a short explanatory paragraph about how something works or why something happens.

Nothing is invented. Everything you need is on the page.

Rule one: match the register

This is where marks are lost by people whose Korean is otherwise fine.

You write in the register of the surrounding text. And the surrounding text is never 해요체.

Writing 해요 endings into a 합니다체 notice reads as clearly wrong even when the grammar inside the clause is correct.

The plain written style is worth practising specifically. It is what textbooks, news and academic writing use, and most learners speak far more than they read, so it stays unfamiliar longer than it should.

Rule two: the connector tells you the answer

Blanks almost always sit next to a linking word. That word constrains what can go in the blank.

… ㉠ . 따라서 이 방법이 더 효율적이다.
(따라서 = therefore, so ㉠ must be the reason)

이 제품은 가볍다. 반면에 ㉡ .
(반면에 = on the other hand, so ㉡ must contrast)

Collect these and learn the shape each demands:

If you read the connector first and the blank second, half the work is done before you write anything.

Rule three: keep it short

One sentence. Sometimes one clause.

Graders are checking whether you can produce the right structure in the right register. Extra content is not rewarded, and every additional clause is another chance to make an error.

The grammar that shows up

Because 52 is expository, it leans on written-register connectors:

• -(으)므로 — therefore (written; 그래서 is spoken)
• -기 때문에 / -기 때문이다 — because
• -(으)ㄴ/는 것이다 — the explanatory ending
• -어야 한다 — must, in the plain written form

Notice that several of these are the written twins of endings you already use in speech. That is most of what the plain style is: the same meanings, dressed for print.

How to prepare

1. Get past papers from the official TOPIK site.
2. Do 51 and 52 only, repeatedly. Ignore the essays until these are automatic.
3. Keep a connector list. Every time a blank sits next to a linking word, write down which word and what shape the answer took.
4. Copy out model answers by hand in the plain written style until it stops feeling foreign.

These two questions will not pass the test for you. But they are the part where preparation reliably turns into marks, and for a borderline candidate that is exactly where the level boundary gets crossed.