How to Check a Korean Workbook Before You Buy It: 6 Questions

Most unfinished workbooks were not bad books. They were the wrong book for that learner at that moment. The cover and the page count tell you very little. A sample tells you almost everything, if you know what to look at.

The six questions

1. Is the level right? Open a unit and read the explanation. You should understand most of it, with a few new things to learn. If everything is new, the book is too hard. If nothing is new, it is too easy.
2. Does it make you write? Learning sticks when you produce the language. Look for blanks to fill, sentences to complete and tables to copy by hand, not only text to read.
3. Can you check your own work? A workbook without an answer key is a reading book. Check that the answers are at the back, and that they are more than a bare list.
4. Is the explanation in a language you read easily? An English explanation of Korean grammar is not the same as a Korean one. Pick the one you can read without stopping.
5. Is the Korean natural, and is it clear where the examples come from? Examples should sound like something a person would say. For exam books, check whether the questions are past papers or original practice material, and whether the book says so.
6. Will you actually open it? A book you can print or read on your phone, and a unit you can finish in one sitting, has a better chance than a heavy book that needs a free weekend.

How to do it in ten minutes

Download the sample. Read one unit slowly, do the practice without looking at the answers, then check. If you made a mistake, see whether the answer key explains why. That one unit answers all six questions.