KLAT study guide
KLAT · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Korean Language Ability Test (KLAT) is a standardized proficiency exam that measures how well a candidate understands and produces Korean across five skill areas: listening, reading, vocabulary and grammar, writing, and speaking. Candidates typically take it to document Korean ability for university admission, employment, professional certification, or personal goal-setting, and it is useful for anyone who wants an externally referenced measure of progress rather than a self-assessment. The KLAT study guide has 5 sections and about 1,747 words.
01Listening (듣기): speech level, endings and discourse markers
Listening (듣기) checks whether you can follow Korean at real speed: short exchanges, longer conversations, announcements and short talks. Items ask you to choose the appropriate response, catch a specific detail, identify the main idea, or infer what a speaker means or will do next.
374 words, about 2 min02Reading (읽기): topic vs main idea, connectives and reference
Reading (읽기) covers 실용문 (notices, ads, instructions), 설명문 and 논설문. Questions ask for 주제, 중심 생각, 세부 내용, and also sentence insertion (문장 삽입) and sentence ordering (순서 배열).
363 words, about 2 min03Vocabulary and Grammar (어휘·문법): collocation, particles, endings
Vocabulary and grammar (어휘·문법) is scored as one area but rewards two habits: learning words as collocations, and learning grammar as contrasts rather than isolated forms. Collocation decides.
318 words, about 2 min04Writing (쓰기): level consistency, paragraph structure, spacing
Writing (쓰기) moves from controlled items (문장 완성, 문장 순서) to a short composition on a set topic with a stated length. Here form costs as many points as content: a good answer with mixed speech levels or broken spacing loses marks.
361 words, about 2 min05Speaking (말하기): fluency, honorifics and pronunciation rules
Speaking (말하기) assesses fluency, accuracy and appropriateness through read-aloud and pronunciation tasks, short question-and-answer, situational tasks (요청, 사과, 전화), and an opinion task followed by probing questions. Hold one speech level.
331 words, about 2 min