Chinese brokers have been selling purported Test of Proficiency in Korean questions online for as much as $5,100 ahead of the exam, raising concerns over the integrity of the Korean-language proficiency test.
A search for “TOPIK” on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu shows numerous posts advertising test-related services in Mandarin slang that roughly translates to “carpooling,” “score guarantee” and “immediate pass.”
One student in Korea told The Korea Herald that Chinese classmates had said they received answers to the reading and listening sections before the exam and memorized them.
The Korea Herald contacted a broker on Xiaohongshu to ask about available services. The broker responded by sending a promotional booklet.
The booklet outlined three services: proxy test-taking, advance answer provision with a claimed 90 percent accuracy rate, and real-time one-on-one assistance during the test using a small earpiece. It also said answers could be provided six, eight or 12 hours before the test with a 90 percent "hit rate," saying there was no need to worry about the score.
The broker offered pretest training on how to use a small earpiece, which it claimed was 1 millimeter in size. The booklet further said customers would receive a full refund if the proxy test service failed to produce a result.
The broker quoted 20,000 yuan ($2,900) for the earpiece service and 25,000 yuan to 35,000 yuan for advance access to test questions, depending on how early they were delivered.
The broker claimed the questions had been obtained from a staff member at a test center in South Korea.
Other posts suggested what appeared to be a coordinated scheme in which test-takers in earlier time zones, such as Europe, memorize exam questions and pass them to brokers for a fee. Brokers then resell the material to candidates in later regions before the test begins.
A student who sat for the 105th TOPIK exam on Sunday told The Korea Herald that some partial answer keys uploaded by brokers on Xiaohongshu matched answers from the test he took.
Searching for the term "TOPIK preparation" on Xiaohongshu yielded over 87.5 million posts, a majority of which related to testing malpractices.
TOPIK, administered by the National Institute for International Education, is held multiple times each year and is widely used by Korean universities in admissions, with some institutions or programs also using it to satisfy graduation requirements.
In 2025, the exam was administered in 17 countries, and the number of test-takers reached roughly 550,000 by September, according to education authorities.
Officially, NIIED administers two versions of the exam, known as Form A and Form B.
NIIED told The Korea Herald that it was aware of the malpractices and was doing its best to diversify test questions and adjust testing timetables.
"We are aware of what is happening on social media," said an official at NIIED's TOPIK Center. "There is an increase in test-takers and more places are accepting the scores now, leading to a surge in testing malpractices."
"We are coming up with many different responses, but the reality is we aren't able to prevent 100 percent of it."
seungku99@heraldcorp.com
