I've been studying Korean for around a year on a slow-paced basis since I have a job and I still have some things to be taken care of... And perhaps at this time around, I think I have improved my reading and comprehension in Korean (for a beginner).

But my concern is to pass the EPS TOPIK this time at the moment. I know I can pass the TOPIK I Beginner at some point, plus the fact that the passing score is 80/200, but passing EPS TOPIK can be a milestone for me since I believe they have raised the difficulty level based from the previous exam papers.

Here is a list of some study strategies and make-believe that I've been doing and please, let me know some of your thoughts about them... (and you may add some, too.)

1. Patternized exam, or picking the choice based from the previous item... (But that only works at some time)

2. Focusing on nouns and verbs. But this can be complicated since there are thousands of vocabulary words to memorize and sometimes in a item, words are used alternatively. There are also homonyms in Korean (same word or same pronunciation, different meanings).

3. Using 50:50 lifeline. Out of 4 choices, 2 are safe to consider wrong answer.

4. Context clues, references in succeeding sentences. This can work on reading sometimes, but I guess not applicable on fill in the blanks. Actually, some sentences may divert attention, too.

5. Hanja references. AT some point, effective for me in learning vocabularies.

6. Listening recall. Due to listening to some audio tracks, podcats, and even watching Korean TV shows,  sometimes I'm picking an answer based on the word I'm familiar with.

7. Picking up those "easy" practices... But it makes me complacent though.