TOPIK Intermediate

& thus begins my forage into the unknown~

I've been studying Korean for about a year and a half and I've finally decided to try my luck at the TOPIK Intermediate! So today, my friend and I went down to the Singapore Korean School to sign up :D Cost us $80 bucks! Motivation to study hard for the test so as to not let that $80 go to waste.

I must say, as of now, I am extremely unprepared ):

So I enrolled for the TOPIK Intermediate Preparation class in Daehan Korean Language school, and just had my first lesson. When I stepped into the class, it was a complete culture shock. Students there could converse fluently in korean, and I felt like a complete noob ): Of the 5 students in the class, I could safely say that I was the worse ):

When we were going through the questions in the book, I was totally stumped!! Never seen so many unfamiliar words in my life. It somehow reminds me of Chinese (when I was still learning it), except that I am much much more motivated when it comes to Korean (which is a really good thing!)

So this is the book I'm using now! It's called Complete Guide to the TOPIK (Intermediate), by Seoul Korean Language Academy (Publisher: Darakwon).

From what I've seen so far, it's a pretty good book for preparation for the TOPIK! The first part of the book introduces you to the different type of questions, and explains why the answers are the way they are!

For me, the vocabulary is extremely unfamiliar (highlights and purple words are those that I'm seeing for the first time). But the good part is that the tips below explain the question and sometimes the grammar and sentence structure as well, which really helps noobs like me!

Because there's a listening section in the TOPIK as well, for those who don't have the audio CD or cannot catch what they are saying, they have included the listening transcript at the back of the book, complete with english translation!(omg life saver!!)

As of now, I am really worried for listening ):

If you guys have any tips on how I can improve my vocabulary fast or how to further prepare myself for TOPIK Intermediate, do not hesitate to comment below :) Help much appreciated!