TOPIK II · Korean vocabulary
You don't need all 3,000 words. You need the ones that come back. I counted every word in 28 TOPIK II exam papers — 14 reading, 14 listening — and ranked what was left, from the words that appear in nearly every paper down to the ones that only turn up now and then.
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The problem with vocabulary lists
Most TOPIK word lists are sorted by theme, by textbook chapter, or straight down the alphabet. None of that ordering tells you which words are worth your evening. So you spread yourself evenly across thousands of words and meet half of them for the first time in the exam hall.
This is the same vocabulary, sorted a different way: by how often it actually appeared. Work from the top and every hour you spend lands on the words most likely to show up again.
What's inside
Every word ranked by real exam frequency and sorted into 5★ Essential (94), 4★ High-Value Core (196), 3★ Frequent Extension (393) and 2★ Foundational (786).
Real texts never use the dictionary form — you meet 새롭다 as 새로운, 새롭게, 새로워요. The three most common shapes sit right beside each word.
The company each word keeps in real Korean — 중요한 역할을 하다, play an important role — so you learn it the way it actually appears.
Korean near-equivalents with a short English note, so you widen your vocabulary in place without opening a dictionary.
Korean doesn't pronounce what it writes. For the words where the gap is widest you get what you actually hear, romanised, plus the chain of sound changes in the order they really happen.
Five tick boxes per word in Excel, a live progress dashboard, and a Spot Check quiz that draws a random batch from any tier — change the seed for a fresh set.
Four tiers, so you always know what to do next.
The four tiers
Each tier is a different job. The list is ordered for you: start at tier one and work down.
Nearly every paper. Learn to write them and use them.
Very common. Learn to write them, no sentences needed.
Recognition is enough. Know them when you meet them.
Screen once and tick the ones you didn't already know.
Formats
The same 1,469 words, three ways. Use one, or use all three together.
186 pages, A4, two columns. One page is one 20-word chapter, and every chapter ends with a shuffled two-way self-test.
Six sheets: how-to, the main list, the sound-shift list, a live progress dashboard, a Spot Check quiz and its hidden word pool. Works in desktop Excel and WPS.
3,466 cards in five sub-decks, Korean → English and English → Korean, including the sound-shift words both ways. Double-click the .apkg to import.
How to study it
Do not drill all 1,469 words the same way. The full method is in the pack; here it is in short.
Five rounds, one box each: spot the shape, lock the meaning, spell it from memory, use its collocation in a sentence of your own, then test full recall. These decide your reading score.
Four rounds: meaning, then the three inflected forms, then spell it from the English, then re-test a week later.
Two rounds only: read the entry aloud with its collocation, then cover the Korean and check the meaning comes back. No spelling practice.
One pass: scan down and tick only the words you did not already know. Re-draw them weekly in Spot Check, and promote anything that keeps coming back to the 3★ method.
Written form and spoken form differ: 없이 is read 업씨. Read the "reads as" column aloud, then use the Anki sound deck both ways. These are the words you will hear but would not recognise on paper.
Get the pack
$19 USD, one-time
No subscription. Yours to keep, on all your own devices. Updates to this edition are free.
Secure checkout by Paddle, our merchant of record — cards, PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay. They handle the tax and send your invoice. 14-day refund policy.
Questions
No — and that is deliberate. There are no test questions, no reading or listening passages and no question-number references anywhere in the pack. It is an independent frequency analysis of vocabulary only. That is also why it is safe to keep and share with nobody.
Normal books list words alphabetically or by theme. This one ranks 1,469 words by how often they actually appeared, so every hour you spend lands on the words most likely to come back.
No. The PDF and the Excel workbook stand on their own. The Anki deck is there for people who like spaced repetition, and it is included either way.
They are real form controls, so you need desktop Excel or WPS. Online previews — Google Drive, phone previews, chat apps — will show the columns but no boxes. That is not a damaged file. Everything else in the workbook works everywhere.
Yes — the PDF is laid out for A4, two columns per page, and prints cleanly in black and white.
Honestly, no. Headwords are in dictionary form and the 3★ and 2★ tiers assume you can already read Hangul and handle basic grammar. Come back when you are working towards Level 3.
The standard license is for one person. Multi-user licenses for classes are available — email me with the number of students.
Email hello@topikfrequency.com within 14 days of purchase and I will refund you in full, no explanation needed. See the refund policy.
The moment your payment goes through you land on a download page, and Paddle emails you a receipt that also links back to it. Keep the receipt — it is your license and your proof of purchase.