EPS-TOPIK: How the Exam Works, and Why Clearing the Sector Floor Is Not Passing

Clearing 60 does not mean you passed

You reached the sector floor and the list came out without your name. That is not a marking error. It is how the exam is built.

EPS-TOPIK is scored out of 100 over 40 questions in 50 minutes. The minimum score a candidate must reach is set by sector: 60 for manufacturing, 45 for the other sectors, and 30 for the special fisheries track, which is judged Pass/Fail. Those are the figures on the administering body's own page as re-fetched on 29 August 2026.

Then comes the part that costs people a year. The assessment is norm-referenced. HRD Korea states the rule for deciding passers: among candidates who have scored at or above the sector floor, passers are selected in score order, up to the planned intake. The floor gets you ranked. Being ranked is not being selected.

Exam dates and intake numbers are set per country and per intake round.

There is also a second exam, and it is not optional. Selection runs under the score-based foreign worker selection system (외국인력 선발포인트제): a first-stage Korean-language test, then a second-stage skills test and job-capacity assessment. Only first-stage passers may sit it, and a candidate who does not sit it is removed from the final selection.

MOEL and HRD Korea stated on 9 February 2026 that they planned to raise the minimum passing score for every sector. No revised figures have been published, and 60, 45 and 30 remain the live figures as of 29 August 2026. Read the notice for your own exam round before you register.

It is not the TOPIK you may have studied for

Two exams, two ministries, and one does not stand in for the other.

The regular TOPIK is run by the National Institute for International Education (국립국제교육원), or NIIED, under the Ministry of Education. NIIED's TOPIK page does not mention EPS-TOPIK. A TOPIK certificate is not an EPS-TOPIK pass and does not substitute for it.

The results differ in kind. Regular TOPIK awards levels — TOPIK I covers levels 1–2, TOPIK II covers levels 3–6, and Speaking covers levels 1–6 — and it is delivered as PBT and IBT. EPS-TOPIK awards no level at all. It produces a score, and the score exists to rank you.

EPS-TOPIK has been administered by HRD Korea, under the Ministry of Employment and Labour, since August 2005. Its stated purpose is to evaluate Korean-language ability and understanding of Korean society as an objective selection criterion for the foreign jobseeker roster.

Delivery does not vary by country. Every sitting is CBT (computer-based) or UBT (tablet-based), and there is no PBT. Every sitting on the live 2026 schedule — general and special, in all listed countries — is tagged CBT.

What is on the paper

40 questions, 100 points, 50 minutes, all of it four-option multiple choice. Listening is recorded audio with four choices.

Reading covers vocabulary and grammar, information in practical materials, and reading comprehension, and it includes industrial safety signs. Listening covers sounds and their written forms, visual materials, and conversations or stories.

Three content domains are examinable: Korean-language ability, understanding of Korean culture, and industrial safety and health.

A colour-vision assessment (색각평가) follows immediately after the language test.

The second exam is where selection is decided

Under the score-based foreign worker selection system, the Korean-language proficiency test is the first stage and the skills test and job-capacity assessment is the second stage.

For all sectors the total is 205 points: 100 from the language test, 100 from the second test, and 5 in job-capacity-assessment bonus points — 2 for work experience, 1 for completing training, 1 for education and 1 for a national qualification.

The special fisheries track is built differently. The total is 200 points: the language test is Pass/Fail and carries no points, the second test is worth 110, and the bonus points are worth 90 — 30 for work experience, 20 for a qualification, 20 for training and 20 for education. For special-fisheries candidates EPS-TOPIK is a gate, not a score.

The skills test comprises a physical-fitness assessment, a Korean-language interview and basic skills.

The bonus points have thresholds: at least 1 year of work experience, at least 120 hours of training, an associate degree or higher, and a national qualification. And one rule cancels a great deal of hope — qualifications obtained abroad are not recognised.

From 2026 the skills-test interview carries a larger share of the marks. Questions measuring comprehension of work instructions and knowledge of sector-specific tool names were expanded, and in-depth safety questions were newly added. MOEL and HRD Korea stated on 9 February 2026 that the changes were shared with the sending countries so that candidates could prepare.

Who may register, and what shuts the door

You must be aged 18 through 39, assessed as of the first day of the registration period, not the exam date. The Philippines is one year narrower at ages 18 through 38, and that is the only published country exception to the age range.

You must have no criminal conviction resulting in imprisonment or a heavier sentence. That is a severity threshold, not a bar for any offence at all.

You must have no history of deportation or ordered departure from Korea, and no disqualifying restriction on departure imposed by your own country.

There is also a cap on Korean time already used: you must not have accumulated 5 years or more on E-9, 5 years or more on E-10, or 5 years or more across the two combined. Where the employment-activity period was extended under Article 18-2(2) of the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers (외국인고용법), the cap is 6 years.

Cheating ends more than one exam. A candidate caught cheating has the test voided and is barred from EPS-TOPIK for 4 years from the date of the penalty. Carrying or using a mobile phone during the test and proxy test-taking are both on the prohibited list. HRD Korea takes anonymous reports at cleaneps@hrdkorea.or.kr.

Registering and paying

HRD Korea sets and runs the exam. Everything around it belongs to your country's sending agency (송출기관): the sending agency handles registration, collects the fee, and processes cancellation and refund. Cancel within the registration period and the refund is full.

Registering in person and registering individually are the stated principle. Registration through a representative or as a group is prohibited outright.

The fee is 28 USD, or the equivalent in local currency. The Philippines is the one published exception, at 24 USD.

The study material is free, and last year's questions are not coming back

HRD Korea publishes all of the official study material free of charge.

The EPS-TOPIK Standard Korean Language Textbook (EPS-TOPIK 한국어표준교재) was fully revised for the first time in 11 years, announced on 23 December 2024, distributed free as booklets to the sending countries and downloadable free. A public sample question book with listening audio is published alongside it. Self-study editions are available in Korean and in localised editions for Nepal, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines (English), Thailand, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan and Laos.

Questions have been 100% non-disclosed since 2013. HRD Korea states that the exam draws entirely on non-disclosed questions based on the Standard Korean Language Textbook, and that the public question book exists to show question types — the same questions will not appear. From the second half of 2025 the exam is set on the new standard textbook.

Here is our opinion, and those two facts are the whole of the argument: paying a broker for real past questions buys nothing. The questions have not been published since 2013, the textbook the exam is actually set from costs nothing, and the money would be better kept for a second exam that is worth as much as the language test.

What a pass gets you, and what it does not

A pass makes you eligible for entry on the foreign jobseeker roster. That is what it does. Employers select from that roster through the Employment Center (고용센터), and there is no entitlement to placement.

The sequence runs: the first-stage Korean-language proficiency test, then the second-stage skills test and job-capacity assessment, then final selection, then a health examination — the health examination comes after the test, not before you sit it — then a job application (구직신청서) during the designated window. Your sending agency compiles the jobseeker roster (구직자 명부) and sends it to HRD Korea, which converts it into Korean, verifies the basic requirements, and certifies and manages it. An Employment Center recommends candidates, an employer selects, and a standard labour contract (표준근로계약서) is concluded under Article 9(1) of the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers. The employer obtains a Confirmation of Visa Issuance (사증발급인정서), and you apply for the E-9 visa at the Korean embassy or consulate. After entry comes at least 16 hours of post-entry employment training for foreign workers (외국인 취업교육) over 2 nights and 3 days, before you are placed at a workplace.

That training has a deadline: within 15 days of entry. For workers re-entering after their employment-activity period expired it may be shortened to under 16 hours.

One warning belongs here. Anyone other than an Employment Center who intervenes in selection, placement or hiring faces up to 1 year's imprisonment or a fine of up to ₩10,000,000 under Article 29 of the Act, for breach of Article 8(6).

The Special EPS-TOPIK is a different exam on a different scale

The Special EPS-TOPIK (특별한국어능력시험) is for workers who have already worked in Korea, and almost every number in it is different.

It is 40 questions, 200 points, 50 minutes. Reading is 20 questions — 8 job-specific and 12 common — for 100 points in 25 minutes; listening is 20 questions for 100 points in 25 minutes. It is four-option multiple choice, delivered by CBT or UBT.

The pass mark is 120 points or more out of 200, the equivalent of 60 out of 100. Passers are then selected against each country's allocated quota, which is assigned in proportion to the number of candidates from that country.

This is the one place in the whole of EPS where a regular TOPIK level carries weight. The bonus points, available only on the Special exam, are 5, 10, 20 or 25 points for returnee resettlement-support education or training (귀국예정자 재정착 지원 교육·훈련); 10 points for departing after seasonal work ends; and 20 points for a worker at a U-turn firm (유턴기업 근로자) holding regular TOPIK level 3 or higher.

A Special passer can be matched straight back to their final Korean workplace through designated referral (지정알선) only if they worked there for at least 1 year and sat the exam in the same sector as that workplace. Sitting in a different sector forfeits the direct match.

Settle one thing before you register: the minimum age. HRD Korea's Special EPS-TOPIK page states ages 18 through 39. easylaw.go.kr, citing HRD Korea's own operations guide and current as of 15 July 2026, states ages 19 through 39. Both give the Philippines ages 18 through 38. If you are 18, confirm your eligibility with your sending agency before you pay the fee.

The two re-entry routes, and which one needs an exam

These get conflated constantly, and the difference is one exam and five months.

The committed-worker re-entry special provision (성실근로자 재입국 취업 특례) under Article 18-4 of the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers requires no Korean exam at all. It returns you to the same employer 1 month after departure, exempts you from post-entry employment training for foreign workers, and is allowed only once. It requires a labour contract of at least 1 year effective from the re-entry work start date, at a business designated by the Foreign Workforce Policy Committee (외국인력정책위원회).

The Special EPS-TOPIK re-entry program (특별한국어시험 재입국제도) requires the Special EPS-TOPIK. It is for E-9 workers who were re-employed and then departed voluntarily before their stay expired, for departures on or after 1 January 2010. Re-entry comes 6 months after departure, and there is no exemption from post-entry employment training.

If neither route applies, Article 18-3 of the Act sets the default: a worker who has worked in Korea and departed cannot be re-employed under the Act until 6 months have passed from the date of departure.

The E-9 guide sets out both routes in full, including the filing deadline that decides whether the 1-month route is open to you at all.