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

[PJ]

8 hours ago, 重大雷雨 said:

Thank you for that information.   Should increase my scores, as I had been hiding the answer choices until after the question finished.

 

No worries, good luck!  Im studying for my hsk 6 too.

[重大雷雨]

Recently took the HSK 6 for the first time. 

 

My thoughts:

 

The listening section seemed much more difficult than the practice tests;  not because the content was more difficult to understand, but because the questions appeared to be more specific, the pacing was different from my practice, the characters were smaller and somewhat pixelated on the screen and the test was early in the morning, so I had limited sleep the night before.

 

The reading section felt somewhat easier and the passages looked shorter (could have just been the layout of the actual exam vs. the practice tests).  I finished with 5 - 10 minutes left over.

 

The passage for the writing exam was more difficult than the practice exams, but the input method was better than I expected it to be.  Computer only glitched and froze a few times for 5 -10 seconds.

 

I believe I could have either failed the test or gotten top marks.  I cannot predict at all how I did on it.

 

[PJ]

Sounds like you will pass easily!  Congrats!

[∞保罗∞]

just got the results from hsk4 and hsk5 done on November 16 

 

passed hsk4 but score wasn’t 完美 failed hsk5 but not terribly upset about it - wasn’t prepared and passed the 听力 barely - I really have never practiced writing since I started learning - need to get on it. Really could have failed that HSK5 by a lot more - i guessed more than half of the 阅读， and the writing was brutal no idea how I got 46.

[mungouk]

Respect for trying the level 5 — I certainly wouldn't fancy sitting TWO HSK exams on the same day!

 

[Icellama]

So I got the results from my HSK 6 test. Pleased with my results, but I know that you need 180 points to pass HSK 5. On HSK 6 I got a 175 total score. My question is basically did I pass it? Or maybe wether if I will get a certificate or not? Can´t find any info about the passing score on HSK 6.

[mungouk]

Wikipedia says (my emphasis):

 

Quote

HSK 5 and 6 also have a maximum of 300 points and originally required a score of 180 points to pass.^[15][16] However, since a decision made in February 2013, there has been no official passing score for either HSK 5 or 6.^[17]

 

Also everyone receives a certificate for HSK and HSKK regardless of the score you got.

 

[∞保罗∞]

Cheers Mungouk appreciate that, HSK4 was in the morning from 9am and I was far far far too relaxed for that - I was ready to do that exam in March, but missed the payment deadline and couldn't sit it, the score is slightly 尴尬 because there is no way I shouldn't have got 100 in the listening and reading for HSK4.

 

HSK 5 was way above my level - I knew I should pass the listening section - although I can't believe it was by only one point，The reading / writing needs more structured study - during 2019 I listened to chinese constantly and watching only chinese tv shows but barely did any writing or reading. I'm fairly decent at picking apart what chinese people are saying now - so though the HSK 5 audio is actually fairly slow compared to native speakers， I thought I would have gotten a higher score. 

 

The HSK 5 started on the same day in the afternoon around 2pm. During the HSK5  I had the worst headache ever- not an excuse was probably just tired/run down from HSK - I actually think the score is terribly flattering based on how many guesses I was reduced to in the end (practically the whole reading section). I even added a few PIN YIN words in desperation, in the writing section to connect the sentences together. I guess I need to be able to speak it and understand Chinese for work and family. Reading is important but writing isn't (for me).

 

That particular HSK5 exam was difficult compared to past papers - I  know this before there was about 8 or 9 chinese teenagers in the exam and my friends son also sat the paper who said it was particularly difficult. Those are Irish resident chinese kids that can for the most part speak fluent chinese, only speak chinese at home with their parents etc. - The global average score for that paper was 194. 

 

 

 

 

 

[DavyJonesLocker]

On 12/16/2019 at 6:55 PM, mungouk said:

Wikipedia says (my emphasis):

 

Quote

HSK 5 and 6 also have a maximum of 300 points and originally required a score of 180 points to pass.^[15][16] However, since a decision made in February 2013, there has been no official passing score for either HSK 5 or 6.^[17]

 

Also everyone receives a certificate for HSK and HSKK regardless of the score you got.

 

 

HSK 5 gets you 5 (or 10?) extra points for working visa purposes , I wonder how this is taken into account.

[mungouk]

Yes it's 5 points... I was just discussing this with an HR department today.

 

 

Presumably they put all of this information that scores points in when they apply for your work permit.
 

Or maybe you were referring, @DavyJonesLocker, to how they decide whether you've passed it or not, given there's no official pass mark?

 

Anyway, here's the PDF of the whole set of guidelines. (Chinese only.)

 

外国人来华工作分类标准(2019年6月1日起-省外专发).pdf

 

[DavyJonesLocker]

On 12/18/2019 at 12:56 PM, mungouk said:

Or maybe you were referring, @DavyJonesLocker, to how they decide whether you've passed it or not, given there's no official pass mark?

 

 

Yeah it was this I was wondering about.

[roddy]

On 12/16/2019 at 10:55 AM, mungouk said:

However, since a decision made in February 2013, there has been no official passing score for either HSK 5 or 6

Wait, what? That just seems ridiculous. Were too many people failing, or what?

[mungouk]

I seem to recall reading that it's up to institutions to decide their own cut-off mark for what they would accept in HSK 5 or 6.

Similar to how universities decide what IELTS grade you need to get in order to join their courses?  IELTS clearly proclaims that it has no "pass mark" and nobody seems to have a problem with that. 

 

 

[Weyland]

2 hours ago, mungouk said:

I seem to recall reading that it's up to institutions to decide their own cut-off mark for what they would accept in HSK 5 or 6.

I mean it's not like HSK6 is just HSK5 elevated to a higher status by giving it a more difficult reading section. So having either of these as the cut-off mark seems rather arbitrary.

[roddy]

IELTS is a very different beast - that's one exam for the entire range of English abilities. 

 

I suspect, although I'm not about to spend any time checking, that for degree level courses at least, it's not the institutions that decide what level to accept, but the education authorities. 

[mungouk]

I did the "at home" version of HSK 4 this morning, conducted by the Confucius Institute at Nottingham University in the UK.

 

There's not really much to add to this lengthy thread about this "at home" version of the test, except that the arrangements went smoothly from my point of view.  

 

There were 4 of us taking tests this morning, plus 2 invigilators. We all logged into the same Skype call, presented our ID to the camera and then gave a 360-degree view of the room we were in... it was all very casual.  Then we set up our phones/tablets to show ourselves and our computer so that the invigilator could watch us doing the test. My laptop's camera was also on throughout the test... I think the software takes some stills of you during the test for temporary records until the results are released.

Then we ran the Exam Client program, it downloaded the test, and we sat there for 30 mins waiting for it to start.

 

Overall I thought Ms Chen the coordinator at the Nottingham CI was really helpful... communications were regular (emails), she explained everything really well before the test began and so on.   I didn't even receive a reply to my email enquiries from some UK Confucius Institutes, but I was very happy with Nottingham — as well as Sheffield, Manchester, London South Bank and Edinburgh, who were all helpful and responsive even though they weren't running the tests this time.

 

The results will be out in 10 days.

[∞保罗∞]

Good man Mungouk! sounds great and hopefully test results will be decent -  the online at home test might be the way forward in future - you know the OCT online oral chinese test - it has nine levels (corresponding to new HSK maybe? ) It would be cool if they could do that with the written tests - my exam kicks off in the next hour will report back here.

 

[∞保罗∞]

Just finished HSK 5 home edition. About 10 others taking it. Had great fun in the writing section - normally it's a nightmare trying to remember how to write anything.  At the end it just finished the timer and said exam complete (I didn't get to click on "submit paper"). Did that happen to you Mungouk? I assume it just submits it automatically.

 

Audio section was much harder than previous mock exams... reading section the usual disaster - I'd say my result will be similiar to the last time I sat the HSK last November, except writing section should be slightly better.

 

I could have done well in the writing, but sentence structure not great 虽然。。。但是 won't get very many marks at this level but did manage to squeeze in  莫名其妙. The first writing section story I have to admit got a bit weird - it was 浪漫 母亲 至今 and one other word I forget (remembered 微笑）。  (not a difficult word), and another word I didn't know what it meant....I used the word i didn't know as an adjective, and the story was about my mum advising me on the most romantic way of wooing (追ing）my girlfriend...we ended up with 4 kids at the end of the story - not sure that is great advice from my mu qin. 

 

And the Second writing section was a dad and Son together - and the son had just caught a fish and is holding the fishing rod with fish on the hook in the picture. So you know I say I'm so proud of you son, but you know we aren't getting any younger and we will have to rely on you soon...so study hard and earn lots of money type thing...now lets go home and eat the fish... yea creative writing is not my strong point! but there was some decent chinese in there compared to my normal crappy writing section.

 

 

[mungouk]

@∞保罗∞ How was the IME in the writing section?  

Did you have to type every single character individually?

 

Yes, as far as I know it submits automatically when the time is up.

Glad to have today over with... although a little HSK exam isn't much in the scheme of things. I just had a drink on Zoom with a friend who submitted her PhD today — that put things in perspective a bit.

 

Onwards and upwards!

 

[∞保罗∞]

That drink on zoom sounds nice ! the Ime was ok but it took time to type everything- find it very slow going and yes you had to type each individual character. For part 1 of writing - Loved the sentence drag and drop feature - that was very smooth.