Taking the HSK? Already taken it? Report in here!

[山东朱]

Thanks, Justin! The exam started out pretty bad for me, didn't concentrate much during the first listening part, which should be rather easy for me. Did a few lucky guesses there, same goes for the part where you listen to interviews. Finally found my concentration in the third part and should have gotten most right there. But overall worse than I hoped for in listening.

 

Reading however went much more smoothly, I started with the sentence-connecting (third of the four parts), one was about the history of seals and the difference between 印 and 玺. The other one was pretty easy, I in fact can't remember what it was about, haha. I didn't encounter much problems with the the five text, one about 四合院， another about 鲸鱼, one about the effects of supermarket design on the customer, and one life-lesson that hardships make you stronger. Again, one of them I don't recall, but overall I would guess if I made mistakes, there shouldn't be more than two. 选词填空 had one text about 最强大脑, which was 好巧 since I watched it for the first time last week. Overall, that part is not my strong suit, but I feel that at least half of them should be right. 找病句 I just spend the last 3 minutes on, most of the just glanced over, and three just clicked whatever. What I like about the reading part is that the text selection is pretty interesting, so it keeps you engaged.

 

The 书写 was the story of 杜康, which unfortunalety I didn't know yet, but that only made for a nice read. Dunno how I did on that part, but I got to over 400 characters and included the major story points, so the result shouldn't suck too much.

 

Since listening dragged me down quite a bit, I will just be happy to get 180 overall. But looking at some other posts in this thread, it's hard to judge yourself just where you screwed up and what you did right. Well, in 30 or so days I will know.

[datdere]

Just got the results back from my HSK3 on the 16th of March.

 

听力：100

阅读：100

写作：99

 

Quite happy with the results, on to HSK4!

 

On another note: It seems they've removed the real exams from the chinesetest.cn site, I guess it's back to using the BCLUP books again for preparation.

[jmido8]

Just got back my HSK 5 scores.

Listening: 78
Reading: 58
Writing: 74

Total: 210

I really thought I didn't pass it but I guess I was worried for nothing. I wasn't ready for the reading section at all. It was way harder than I thought it would be. If I had another half hour, I'm sure I would have done way better but I found myself with 30 questions left and 10 minutes. 

[obscuritea]

Finally was able to access my scores! I think the apostrophe in my name was what was causing the problems...

 

Took the HSK 5 after taking level 4 back in 2012 when I was in China. Was somewhat of a last minute decision this time, so didn't do much preparing till the few days before (which constisted of 2 practice tests and reviewing a couple hundred vocab words).

Listening: 80
Reading: 64  (out of time for last 7 or so questions, which was a bummer since I had at least a minute extra leftover when I did the practice tests!)
Writing: 77

 

I had a lot harder time on the listening questions than on the practice tests, so with that and the reading section I had been worried of passing overall, so I'm satisfied with my results!

[山东朱]

Result seems to be out early... and I passed the HSK 6!

 

听力 68

阅读 69

书写 56

 

总分 193

 

Listening a bit higher than I expected, writing pretty low though, dunno what when wrong there. But anyway, I passed, that's what counts, and I am totally happy!

[Geiko]

Today I took HSK 5 in Barcelona and well... it was disastrous, I wouldn't be surprised if I failed. We had been listening to the 听力 for about four minutes, when the CD suddenly stopped working. Then they put the second copy of the CD, but it didn't work either, so they had to call the techs to fix the problem. Then we were told to do the 阅读, but techs and Chinese teachers were constantly entering and exiting the classroom, so I found myself reading sentences three times and not understanding them, I couldn't concentrate at all. 书写 didn't go much better, the words for the first composition didn't inspire me too much (激动、材料、全面、发言 and I don't remember the fifth one). When we finished the listening part, I felt as if I were writing out a betting slip. The organizer told us that they will inform Hanban about the problems we experienced, so that they take it into account, but what can they do? Very frustrating... 

[shuoshuo]

Geiko, I also sat for the HSK5 this past week, here in China. Same words so same exam. No problems with our tape but the vocabulary was far beyond anything recognizable. Mind you, I know the 2500 HSK 5 vocabulary so I don't know how or why I couldn't do that exam. I also didn't even get to the last part of the reading section, so I can't imagine how many points I've lost (or didn't gain rather) there. The writing part for me was alright, and I managed to complete in time. I expect to fail, oh well.

[Geiko]

Shuoshuo, thanks for your comment! I found the 阅读 particularly difficult compared to the mock exams I had done, but I thought it was only due to my nerves and lack of concentration. Well, we'll see the results in a month. Good luck!

[shuoshuo]

Good luck to you too Geiko!

 

I found the mock exams we did in class particularly easy. I would occasionally encounter new vocabulary but it wouldn't affect my ability to understand the text and context. I don't know why the 阅读 part of the actual exam was just so difficult for me. It's so unfortunate. But even if I don't pass this exam, and I choose to continue studying Chinese language, my next challenge would be the HSK 6.

[edelweis]

@shuoshuo, Geiko, do you have the reference of the mock exams you used to prepare for HSK5? (book or website)

 

(Weren't there some rumours a few years ago about the New HSK tests being made easy on purpose for the first few years and then harder?)

[shuoshuo]

edelweis - We did mock exams in class a few times, so I'm guessing the Confucius Institute department of my university kept copies or gained access to them. There are a few I downloaded online.

 

My teachers told me that they went over as many papers as they could and it seemed to gradually increase in difficulty level. So I trust that the next exam will be even more challenging than the one I had to do recently.

 

Another thing, I was told that the 2500 words 'guideline' is meant for the last section where you're given 5 words and you have to write an 80-word paragraph. This means that the rest of the exam are expected to have many new characters. This is the kind of information I wish someone had told me about BEFORE the exam and not after it, haha.

 

I needed the HSK 5 certificate for an acceptance letter of a course I plan to do. The uni was nice enough to have given me the acceptance letter (knowing that I had planned to sit the HSK this May).  I wonder if I fail the HSK, will they revoke the acceptance letter? Oh well.

[Geiko]

Hi edelweis, I used these books:

 

• New HSK Mock Tests and Analyses, by Sinolingua (ISBN 978-7-5138-0026-6). Five mock exams, I would say they were easier than average. 
• 60天攻克新HSK五级, by BLCUP (ISBN 9787561908181). Four tests, two easy and two hard.
• New HSK Mock Tests for Level 5, by Sinolingua (ISBN 9787802008816). Eight exams, all of them pretty difficult, very close to how I remember the real one.
• New HSK Mock Test Level 5, by BLCUP (ISBN 9787561928790). Ten mock tests. I had previously worked with these series before taking HSK 2 to 4, and I liked them a lot, because they were slightly harder than the real exam, but not too much. However, this time I found them to be somewhat easier.
• Success with New HSK 5, by BLCUP (ISBN 9787802008816). Four mock exams plus 12 simulated writing tests. Average to easy.

It is obvious that I should have prioritised quality over quantity, but well, what's done is done! 

[edelweis]

@Shuoshuo, Geiko: many thanks for the details

 

 

 

I was told that the 2500 words 'guideline' is meant for the last section where you're given 5 words and you have to write an 80-word paragraph. This means that the rest of the exam are expected to have many new characters.

Wow. That's the first time I hear about this in 4 years of reading about HSK (although I didn't monitor HSK related information as closely since 2013 as in 2010-2012). And I think most people have never heard of this. I don't think it is explained anywhere in the HSK official site.

And it was definitely NOT explained in any document available in 2010 when some German organisation claimed New HSK level 6 was CEFR B2.

Edit: It was generally understood that the higher levels would contain words outside of the vocabulary lists, but not that the vocabulary list applied only to the writing part, or that the number of extra words would be higher than in the mock test books.

 

Just two years ago Jienene wrote

 

新HSK模拟试题集·五级 by Sinolingua. Their mock tests were significantly harder than the actual tests

And that same year milin wrote

 

the official level 5 exams also contain a number of level 6 words, and a number of words which are on none of the HSK lists. But nevertheless I can quite easy grasp the general meaning of the text, which I can't in the PUP and especially BCLU books. So those texts contain a lot more words that don't belong in that level, and the sentences are more difficult.

and again later in that thread.

 

So it looks like Hanban changed their test without telling anyone and people are going to have a difficult time passing exams which have already been discredited as being "easy"

 

Edit: Well I guess that globally it's a good thing that the new HSK tests become closer to the claimed CEFR level, but the way they are going about it looks like an attempt to save face and not caring about the test takers at all.

[shuoshuo]

edelweis- I think if you study the most common 4000 characters, you will think HSK 5 is really easy. But I sincerely don't believe that the 2500 is anywhere close to enough. But in terms of difficulty level, some people will find some papers difficult while others may find other papers more difficult.

[Coys1991]

What are some good site that will give you practice papers for HSK Exams?  I recently bought the Tuttle Edition for HSK Level A

[fabiothebest]

@Cpys1991 what do you mean when you say you recently bought the Tuttle Edition for HSK Level A? Level A is about the old HSK exam, now there are level 1,2,3,4,5 and 6. Which exam level do you mean to take?

[Coys1991]

I was thinking of taking the HSK 2.  But I have no idea what my level will be on with the recent changes for HSK. So I decided to buy the book since it really couldn't hurt me when learning new characters. 

[fabiothebest]

Yes, no problem, anyway be aware that level A requires to learn over 1000 characters, level 2 just 300. I'm taking level 2 on 14th June and I'm using material for level 2. I'm already preparing for level 3, I'd like to go on and eventually also study the vocab lists of the old HSK, it could be useful, but I suggest you to focus on the actual exam you are about to take. If you bought a book for level A, it's fine, but download the list for level 2 and make sure you know those characters before taking the exam. This is just my suggestion. If you don't plan to take a HSK exam anytime soon and you just study Chinese without focusing on the exam, then you can also study all the characters for level A, otherwise it could slowdown the preparation for the HSK exam.

[Coys1991]

Ok thanks for the information! I will keep this in mind when I am studying for the HSK exams.  Where are you taking the HSK exam at?  I will be arriving in Shanghai on the 14th of June.  My reading and writing are good so far because a lot of that is just pure memorization but my listening and reading skills are not very good.  Any suggestions? How do you study for these sections ?

[shuoshuo]

If the HSK results are released early can someone please inform us here? Thank you so much!