Korean Job Discussion Forums

[goreality]

I think some people need to read the first section of the book that lists all the 'irrelevant\' technical information.

My friend's Korean is better than mine, but we scored around equal on the intermediate test because I am a better test taker.

All any test proves is that you can take the test. Is it the best proficiency measure for language? No. Is it the easiest way to compare? Yes.

[Drew345]

I agree with the OPs point about the scoring in the TOPIK being odd.
In my view, the whole test is really a reading test. Yes, even the listening and writing are actually reading tests in my view (except for 30 points on the essay for writing). So here is a big reading tests somewhat arbitrarily divided into 4 sections.
The key then becomes to treat the questions on the writing section as being worth "gold", while the questions on the other sections are just silver or copper.
Specifically, there are two long reading questions on the writing section, that a person might be tempted to skip or guess because they are whole page questions and only worth 4 points each (for the same time investment you could get 20 points on the grammar section). But because they are on the "writing" sections, even though they are reading questions, they are worth "gold" points, so should be done at any time cost.
Just my 2 cents (copper pennies). Treat those "writing" section questions as "gold" on that TOPIK.

[nate1983]

[duhweecher]

[Lucas]

[duhweecher]

[Lucas]

[duhweecher]

[littlelisa]

Is it possible your friend is writing his essay as though he were writing in English, except translated into Korean? Korean essays are written differently than English ones.

Anyway, the last intermediate test had a really tough writing section. It had 4 short answer/writing parts, and those were really hard (the answer key shows ONE answer for them, and previous practice tests always had more than one possible answer, and also examples of partial points, which this test did not have.

BTW, I definitely agree with whoever said the whole thing almost is a reading test!

[littlelisa]

In other news, just found this:

http://bluehanbok.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/topik-rumors-changes-in-the-type-of-exam/

[salutbonjour]

A speaking section should make it harder for the Chinese people who know little but can guess a lot.

Anyhow, your friend failed writing because of bad luck on the ABCD's, bad answer on the short answer or a poor essay.

[duhweecher]

[duhweecher]

Update: Immediately after seeing his score online, he lodged an official complaint using the form that they have online.

He got zero response from them.

So two days ago he went to the office to speak to an official. According to my friend's explanation, the office is in an officetel building dedicated to several other offices (that have nothing to do with language study). There was one woman in an office the size of a one-room flat. It had two cubicles...i.e. it looked like the rinky-dink headquarters of a pyramid scam.

Long story short, we've all but decided that the test isn't being government regulated (or even government inspected) AT ALL, despite having a government-backed website. However, the government is officially accepting and recognizing the test for several different requirements imposed on foreigners living here. (The TOEFL, SAT, GRE, and such exams are typically not recognized by governments, but the scores are respected due to the extremely thorough test-center inspections and the like. So, even if they were, it wouldn't be a problem. The TOPIK, however, IS government recognized and has zero inspections.)

I'm assuming that the people who check test-takers scores are 100% the proctors in the rooms or at the test-centers where the students take the test. This can raise so many problems--it's not even funny; especially when you consider that Korea is...yes I'll say it...racially insensitive toward non-Koreans/ non-Asians.

I'm considering writing about this. I've actually met a Chinese person who got a 5 on the exam (I also speak Chinese and sat down and tried to see if guessing using Chinese on the test works...it doesn't). His Korean is far worse than my friend's. I even paid this Chinese friend to take a practice test yesterday (10,000won/ hour + coffee) and he scored in the lower level 4. It's utterly impossible that he got the scores that I saw on his score sheet (especially in grammar). It could be an isolated case, who knows.

I'm thinking it's safe to say that there are MANY loop holes in the scoring here and there are no safe-guards against race-based scoring (but I'll have to investigate it more before saying it's 100% due to race). At this point it's just safe to say that discrimination can easily play a role in scoring and being backed by the government says a great deal about our country's views toward combating such practices. So while Jasmine Lee (look her up) argues that immigrants here should learn Korean and prove that they know it, little is being done to block people from using her "erudite" ideas to set up the racial glass ceilings that exist in other foreign countries.

Korea has reached a point where multiculturalism requires thorough race-based investigations to probe whether race is being used to discriminate against people who don't fall within certain lines of the colour spectrum (especially if they are requiring photos on people's applications and the like).

[salutbonjour]

[Fox]