Basic HSK Info

[roddy]

In response to ala's question here, here's some info I wrote up ages ago for an old site about the HSK. I never got around to writing up the advanced exam ( I don't even kow anyone who's taken it) but there's stuff on the Foundation and Elementary / Intermediate exams there.

There's also the official HSK site, where you can get sample papers from, if they've turned the server on.

The HSK Exam

HSK stands for Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi - literally, Chinese Level Exam. It's taken mainly by foreigners who wish to have confirmation of their level of Chinese, either for their own interest, university entrance or job-hunting. Apparently it's also taken by Chinese nationals who do not speak Mandarin as a first language - presumably mostly those from ethnic minorities. I don't know how common this is.

The exam is available at three different levels. The first one is known as 'jichu' - literally foundation. This is where you come if you have only studied very little Chinese. As I understand it this is a relatively new addition to the HSK stable and I don't know much about it. According to the literature, this is suitable for those with between 100 and 800 hours of formal Chinese study.

The next level is known as 'chu, zhong ji' - elementary and intermediate level. This sometimes causes confusion, as 'jichu' is occasionaly translated as elementary thus making people thing that there are two elementary exams. I think what happened is that the HSK administrators decided to try and increase the number of people taking their exams annually and rather than divide and expand the elementary and intermediate levels they snuck in a foundation level at the bottom. I think this was unfortunate - mixing the elementary and intermediate level makes the exam look very daunting for those at lower levels, and the stated range of 400 to 2000 study hours is really a lot wider than it should be.

The advanced - gaoji - exam is the only one to include speaking and writing components (the elementary and intermediate exam includes some writing of characters, but nothing substantial). It is recommended for those who've studied for over 3000 hours.

Comments

A quick look at the above information will show that there are both gaps and overlap in the HSK coverage. If you've studied between 400 and 800 hours you could consider taking either the foundation or elementary / intermediate exam. Meanwhile, there's a great big gap between 2000 and 3000 hours of study - equivalent to about a year of full-time study.

I think the HSK is generally a very well-designed exam - I found that preparing for the elementary and intermediate exam improved my everyday listening and reading a great deal. The listening in particular requires you to master a lot of colloquial Chinese usage, while the style of the reading pieces are similar to those you will find in the notices and newspapers you come across everyday.

There are an increasing amount of good quality preparation materials for the HSK - but at the same time, there's also a fair amount of rubbish. One unfortunate habit of publishers is to print a 'comprehensive HSK course' which is actually just a bunch of sample exam papers with no guidance or explanation of answers. Another problem is that materials are very often in Chinese only - manageable for those at higher levels, but somewhat inconvienient for some. Still, it's all good practice. . .

Foundation

This is the most basic of levels, suitable for those with up to 800 hours of Chinese study behind them. There are three sections, Listening, Grammar and Reading, taking a total of two and a quarter hours.

The questions for this exam are based on the most common 3000 words, made up from 1600 characters.

Here's a part by part breakdown of what you'll see in the exam.

* Listening: This lasts about 35 minutes with 50 questions.

1. Part 1. One speaker makes a statement describing a situation. You have four pictures on your exam paper and you need to choose which picture matches the statement. 15 questions. The nice thing about this is that you don't need to read the questions - just look at the pictures, and as if that wasn't enough, you even get to here the statements twice.

2. Part 2.You hear one speaker ask a question, and have to choose the one correct answer from the four given on the answer sheet . Again, you get to hear the question twice. Total of 20 questions.

3. Part 3. You'll hear a conversation between a man and a woman, or a longer statement by one person and then one or more question. You choose one of the four answers given. The conversations or statements are not repeated in this section.

* Grammar. Two parts with a total of 40 questions, to be done in 40 minutes.

1. Part 1, 20 questions. You get four sentences, only one of which is correct. Can you find the correct one. Of course you can . . .

2. Part 2. 20 questions. Now you get one sentence, but this time there is a missing word and you have to choose between 4 possible words to fill it.

* Reading. 50 questions with one hour to do them in. This divides into 2 parts.

1. Part 1, 20 questions. You get four or five paragraphs to read, each with a number of words removed. Each gap has four possible words it can be filled with. All you have to do is . . . yeah, you know already. Ok, Ok.

2. Part 2, 30 questions. 8 - 10 reading passages, ranging in length from a few dozen characters to about 200. There are up to 6 questions for each passage.

Assuming you reach a minimum level, you are given a Foundation A, B or C grade. Foundation A is considered equivalent to Elementary C (see the elementary / intermediate exam) and therefore considered adequate for entry to certain undergraduate courses.

Elementary / Intermediate

The elementary / intermediate exam has four parts - Listening, Grammar, Reading and the cryptically named 'General'. The exam is taken in one sitting and lasts a total of 2 hours 25 minutes.

The elementary and intermediate HSK exam is based on a bank of 5000 words, made up from 2205 different characters. These words make up 90% of those used in everyday conversation and writing. The exam focusses on everyday situation - you'll hear students discussing a teacher, not politicians discussing trade deals; and read about an argument on a bus, not a legal dispute.

Here's a part by part breakdown of what you'll see in the exam.

* Listening: This lasts about 35 minutes with 50 questions. All questions are both spoken on the tape and written on the exam script - which is handy as you have time to read the questions in the pauses, but if you don't recognise a character you can wait for it to be spoken and hope that will help. It subdivides into the following 3 parts. One good thing about this part of the exam is that it does test your knowledge of colloquial spoken Chinese.

1. One speaker makes a statement and you answer one single question. 15 questions

2. You hear a brief exchange between a man and a woman and answer one question. 20 questions

3. You hear a longer speech from one speaker - it could be a story, part of a radio show, a university lecture, etc. You then answer between 2 and 5 questions on what you've heard.

* Grammar. Two parts with a total of 30 questions, to be done in 20 minutes.

1. Part 1, 10 questions. You get one sentence with four gaps, marked A to D. You also get one word, and you have to decide which gap it should go in.

2. Part 2. 20 questions. Again you get one sentence, but this time there is only one gap and you have to choose between 4 possible words to fill it.

* Reading. 50 questions with one hour to do them in. This divides into 2 parts.

1. Part 1, 20 questions. You read one short sentence, one word of which is underlined. You then have to decide which of the four words given below have the same meaning as the underlined word. This is probably the part of the exam that I am most dubious about - rather than testing your reading comprehension this is simply a test of your vocabulary - you could completely fail to understand the meaning and implication of the sentence, but if you know only the underlined words and the choices below you will be able to answer correctly.

2. Part 2 is a lot more challenging. You have 8 passages to read, with 3 to 5 questions on each (total of 30 questions). Passages start relatively short - about 130 characters - and get up to about five or six hundred (still only half an A4 page). The questions for each passage move from specific (what kind of person is Xiao Fang?) to general (what would be an appropriate title for the passage?).

* General Blank-filling. My least favourite part, by far. 40 questions, 30 minutes, 2 parts.

1. Part 1, 25 questions. You're given 5 passages, similar in style to those in part 2 of the reading. This time though some fool has left out some words and you have to choose which of four options should go in the blank.

2. Part 2, 15 questions. Now, if you are anything like me, you've been sitting through this thinking 'Hey, this is ok. I don't need to write anything - I can just learn to recognise the characters, I don't need to learn to write them - easy'. However, they've thought of everything . . .

You don't actually need to write an essay or anything. Not even a sentence. You read 4 short passages, each of which has a number of blanks. You need to decide which character should fill the blank and then write it on the answer sheet. No easy A,B,C or D options here - you actually need to drag the character up from the depths of your memory. Damn.

There are 6 possible grades (assuming you reach a minimum standard), Elementary A B and C, and Intermediate A B and C. These are sometimes expressed as one of six numerical grades from 3 to 8. Technically, an elementary C allows you entry to science and engineering courses in Chinese universities, while an Intermediate C gets you into arts courses. Personally, I think this is ridiculously low - I have the Intermediate C result, and I know I couldn't tackle either a science or an arts course - I would get very lost very quickly. Apart from anything else, the exam doesn't test extended writing - or even non-extended writing - which would surely be an essential part of any university course.

Apart from the doubts I raised in the above paragraph, I'd also like to make clear that this exam has far too broad a scope. 400 to 2000 study hours is equivalent to between six months and two years of full-time study. This means that those of you who are nearer the 400 hours end of the scale will look at this exam, see all the intermediate content, and run home in tears. The only thing you can do is have realistic aims and accept that there will be large chunks of the exam that are beyond you. Also, don't look at an Elementary A as being in the bottom half of an Elementary / Intermediate exam - think of it as being at the top end of an Elementary exam

[trevelyan]

Nice write-up.

Are you preparing for the advanced HSK, Roddy? I bought some materials to study for it but found the listening sections were damn hard. If you and other people are, maybe it would make sense to put together some kind of study group.

[roddy]

I'm taking a break from the HSK. To tackle the advanced exam I'd need to learn to write, and I just don't have the (time / patience / intelligence / scrap paper) to do that. I'll be quite happy to give it a shot as soon as they allow us to write our answers in pinyin though

Roddy

[akdn]

I'll be quite happy to give it a shot as soon as they allow us to write our answers in pinyin though

Or, indeed, as soon as the exam is computerised, and we can type the answers with IME

[Haoqide]

I know I've read this somewhere else, but I'm too lazy right now to search for it...what's the American equivalent of the HSK exam? Any info on that?

Oh, apparently, this exam is an international one...I'm a moron.

[geraldc]

I wish someone had told me that they actually print your ID photo on your HSK certificate. I assumed they only wanted a photo of me for ID purposes, If I'd have known it would be printed on my certificate for posterity, I would have given them a better photo.