합격 Exams

The word on the talisman

합격 (hap-gyeok) means “passing” — the word printed in big letters on acceptance letters and exam results. For many Korean families, few words carry as much hope.

On the day of the national college entrance exam, the suneung, Korea famously goes quiet: office hours start later, flights are rescheduled during the listening test, and younger students line up outside test sites to cheer. In the weeks before, friends trade small gifts — sticky taffy (엿) and rice cakes, because they “stick” the way a passing score should, and toy forks, because to pick the right answer sounds like the word for “stab.” A talisman tucked into a pencil case belongs to the same gentle tradition.

Here it works for any test that matters: a bar exam, a nursing board, a driving test or a school you dream of.

In Korea, students carry this before big exams. Families often tuck one into a wallet or pencil case in the weeks before the test, alongside a good-luck snack like yeot (taffy) — because it “sticks.”

Wishes people write

• “Pass the bar on my first try.”
• “Get into my dream school.”
• “Ace my driving test.”
• “Pass my nursing boards.”

How people keep it

Keep it somewhere you’ll see it every day.

Make a Exams talisman

Other wishes