Preparing for my first ever HSK exam

[novemberfog]

I am planning to take the HSK exam in Tokyo this October, and I think I will be a bit ambitious and take the Elementary/Intermediate level test. I am aiming for level 4 or 5, which the HSK website shows as being the lowest level for entrance into technical universities. I'm not planning on studying in China, but I work in the semiconductor industry, so ... I don't know, it is just the goal for now.

I have been studying Chinese off and on as a hobby for about 5 years, and most of my Chinese study resources are from Taiwan and designed in 80s before there was an HSK. I am looking into getting some books to help my improve my listening and my vocabulary, as well as review the grammar points that are required for my target level. Right now I'm using ChinesePod to practice listening and pick up new vocabulary, but I think some resources that target the HSK are going to be important. I learned this the hard way with the JLPT -- if you don't study the word lists and grammar they test on, you won't pass, even if you function perfectly in a normal Japanese office or anywhere else! But I digress...

Like has been suggested in past threads, before doing anything I took a practice test for the HSK Basic exam. I didn't do so well, mostly because of vocabulary I did not know. My listening skills were weak too, and more than anything I want to improve my listening skills for the test.

I am really interested in this course that Roddy suggested before:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/846-excellent-listening-course&highlight=HSK+Listening

It appears, however, it only comes with cassettes. Does anyone know if there is a version witht he CDs available? Or if there is another text that anyone highly recommends, I would greatly appreciate it. I am really interesting in that learning course, but I'd hate to go buy a cassette player just to convert the cassettes to CDs.

I have been looking at vocab lists on the Internet, and I noticed they are listed as HSK 1-4, yet the HSK exam levels seem to go from 1-9. Does this mean the lists are for an older version of the exam? Which of the four lists correspond to the HSK Elementary/Intermediate level.

I'm not done yet!

Has anyone used the follow texts? Were they any good?

Essentials of HSK - Listening - ISBN:7-5619-1175-0

Essentials of HSK - Reading - ISBN:7-5619-1177-7

Essentials of HSK - Grammar - ISBN:7-5619-1176-9

[wushijiao]

Or if there is another text that anyone highly recommends, I would greatly appreciate it.

I would strongly recommend the following book, especially if your listening skills are relatively weak or you have a limited time to study before an HSK (although I wouldn't recommend the book as an overall listening course to put down a foundation.)

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/8525-hsk-%e5%90%ac%e5%8a%9b%e9%a2%98%e5%9e%8b%e5%88%86%e6%9e%90%e4%b8%8e%e8%ae%ad%e7%bb%83-%e5%88%9d%e4%b8%ad%e7%ad%89&highlight=hsk+listening

The problem is, again, it comes with tapes, rather than CD's.

Tapes do suck compared to more modern technology, but then again, at least in China, you can buy a Sony Walkman for about 150RMB. If you get the book the Roddy suggested, and the one that I suggested, and the ones that many people have recommended below (which also use tapes), then it might be worth the investment of 20 bucks to go back to the technology off the '80's.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/10578-listening-to-tapes-what-do-you-do&highlight=listening+hsk

[novemberfog]

Looks like I will break down and buy a cassette player. I went to the electronics shop and asked about Walkman, and the sales guy was startled. It turns out that they don't sell cassette Walkmans in Japan anymore. Who would have thought? The home of Sony...anyway, I did find a cassete recorder like the type journalists carry around...it is bulky and ugly and about US$35, but I'm going to convert the cassettes anyway so all is well.

Wushijiao -- The text you recommend looks really good, I think I am going to try it out. You wouldn't happen to have an ISBN for the book? Did you buy in online or did you find it at a book shop in China? Hopefully one of the online sites carries it...

I took an elementary/intermediate level test and while I understand the grammar, the vocabulary blew me away again. I have until mid-August to register for a test so hopefully in a few months I will have a better idea which test will be suitable.

Also, I am still rather curious about the test levels. I was in a book shop in my city here, and the HSK books for Japanese were numbered levels one through four, just like the word lists I see online. However, on this forum and on the HSK website, it seems like there are eleven levels. Any one have any ideas?

[roddy]

Tapes are pretty much your only option. There's come CD stuff around, but in my experience it's been recorded right off the tapes anyway, so you don't get any quality benefit. I've even got one set of CDs where you can hear the sound distorting as the tape player slows down for a few seconds - and they still consider this good enough for publication.

Sounds like you are on the right course. All I will say is to remember that if you are aiming for a 4 or 5, bear in mind that that Elem/Int exam goes up to 8 - therefore large parts of the exam will be very bewildering. You've just got to accept that and do the parts you can do, well.

I have been looking at vocab lists on the Internet, and I noticed they are listed as HSK 1-4, yet the HSK exam levels seem to go from 1-9.

There's no one-to-one correspondence between the vocab levels and the 1-11 ranking, but if I remember correctly then an extra vocab level is added with each exam - so the first one for the 基础 exam, second and third for the 初中级 exam you are looking at (although presumably you'd be able to get an elementary pass with just the second), and then the fourth comes into play for the 高级 exam.

Would be interesting* to sit down with some exams and see how closely they follow what's in the word and grammar lists.

Roddy

*Relative to say, watching paint grow.

[wushijiao]

ISBN for the hsk 听力题型分析与训练 is: 7-5619-1394-X

Here is a picture:

http://www.blcup.com/list_info.asp?id=1497

[novemberfog]

I think I will order both texts and get to work on my listening.

wushijiao: thanks for the book information!

roddy: Thank you for clearing that up. You are right about the testing at a higher level. Perhaps I will just aim for a solid score on the basic exam, hopefully building a strong foundation along the way. There will always be next year too.

The "experiment" you mention does sound interesting. I may try it out just for the hell of it.

[roddy]

Checking my books, I remembered wrong

The 初中级 exam uses the 甲,乙 and 丙 - ie the first three - levels of vocab. It doesn't make any reference to what you need for a 初级 pass as opposed to a 中级 one.

基础 uses 甲，乙。

高, I'm going to assume, uses them all.

This is typical of the HSK exams. The 'lowest' exam covers two lists. The next covers two levels, but only introduces one extra list of vocab.

If you're interested in this kind of stuff, the 汉语水平词汇与汉字等级大纲, 7-5058-2530-5 has some information on how the lists were made up. I haven't read it, but it has titles like 词汇分级标准和筛选程序. It also contains the word and character lists themselves. Also, 汉语水平等级标准与语法等级大纲, 7-04-005845-6 has a classification and grading of grammar points, which I've never seen elsewhere. Both books are all in Chinese, and probably only of interest if like me you're the kind of person that likes to spend time working out how many words you can write with x number of characters, and how many words you need to learn per minute between now and the exam, and then fail the exam as you forgot to actually learn anything.

[TheManInTheHat]

I am also in the same boat here, taking the exam for the first time and really have no idea what to expect. I noticed a few other threads floating around that probably contain the answer to my questions. But to save me sifting through them, if some one would be so kind to answer them, I'll post them here.

First, I am taking the 初中级, and have heard that the 听力 is a killer. How is it formatted roughly? Are the answers written options of

A) The buttler did it

B) It was Colonel Mustard with the stapler

C) Murder? What murder?

Or is are the options presented on Audio and you answer by just selecting

A)

B)

C)

Secondly, I have been reading the 阅读快乐 to get familiar with the question formats and lexicon. Do these books correspond with any particular HSK level?

Finally, while I can read, my written Hanzi isn't the greatest. While there is no essay component in the 初中 I am still wondering what sorts of words should you focus on. Measure words? Conjunctions? Adverbs?

I was going to ask about reading speed, but I guess that's hard to judge - though if anyone has answer, that'd be great.

Cheers and good luck guys,

Minth

[kudra]

with roddy's indulgence I would like to bump this post

Preparing with practice tests? Keep track of your performance on the practice tests in the weeks and days before the test, then post those results along with your actual performance on the hsk, so we can reconstruct the curve. Thanks.