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

[∞保罗∞]

By the way - just in case anyone is interested . my approach to the last written question was wrong.I've been told this evening that you are meant to write clearly about what you see in the picture - so I just started making stuff up about a father talking to his son while fishing. This seems to be wrong. Also you don't have to use very advanced language - you just have to try not to make any mistakes....so maybe I should have said 父亲和儿子正在钓鱼。儿子抓到一条鱼 , 儿子把钓竿从水里拿出来... （actually not sure if my chinese is fully correct there - but it's more about that type of thing). Can anyone with decent chinese give an example about what is a good answer to this? The picture was just a father and son, holding holding a fishing rod with a fish on the end.

[TaxiAsh]

8 hours ago, mungouk said:

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.

 

I think we must have been in the same group. I can't see how she could have run two groups. It was being recorded by another that she said, and they take photos throughout the exam.

 

 

 

8 hours ago, mungouk said:

 

Overall I thought Ms Chen the coordinator at the Nottingham CI was really helpful... communications were regularly (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 (and Sheffield, Manchester 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.

 

 

Yes, I agree. Very good. She explained everything well in what are quite odd exam conditions!

 

and like you say I had a few niggling questions to ask her, in email, and she responded always within a day. I'm impressed with the set up. I think this will probably become more common now.

 

In the second one, when she was explaining what happens if you get cut off, and my skype failed at the exact time! haha! I found the meeting easily, so that's something that works too.

 

I wondered how I would get back

 

4 hours ago, ∞保罗∞ said:

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.

 

I know we're all at different levels, but I noticed all the buttons too. You can (like you see in the mocks - click on SUBMIT) but I just spent anytime going back looking at my reading questions.

 

When it finishes, you can then log out of Skype, as others are doing different levels at the same time. (I didn't know this on first time)

 

-

 

Hope you all did well and pass.

 

I'm not sure.

 

I took hsk2 first (and I've only been learning 3 months - and only studying for hsk2 for last few weeks when these exams came up) so I can't beat myself up if I fail hsk2.

 

I found it MUCH harder than all the mock tests I did. Lots of new words. I even know now I got one of the easy questions wrong. I've never known the word for banana! hahaha! So since there wasn't guo or gua at the end of the word, I put false, but since learned that word.

 

I think I should have got 100% on the hsk1 reading, and hopefully near 100% on listening...

but hsk2, I probably either failed just, or just passed. I know I got a lot wrong, and I spent too much time on that missing word in the sentence section. I find that hardest in the reading section.

 

all the best, and let us know your results,

 

 

(p.s. tip for anyone doing in future, get something to hold the phone securely. I'm an amateur photographer, so I have a tripod, and I just bought an attachment to set the camera up for phone/skype)

 

some others struggled with this, and one doesn't want any hassles when trying to stay calm and relaxed for an exam.

 

[TaxiAsh]

one thing I thought would be different from the mocks, is that numbers don't appear in the PY in the official tests. Glad mungo showed me TOFU character learning now, as this helps when numbers are missing in the PY.

 

(btw @mungouk) I've recommended that to loads of English learners of Chinese.

 

If I just scrape a pass, it's down to this mungo, so I have you to thank. I'd easily pass hsk2 with a bit more practice in a few months. I don't like the idea of scraping a pass, but I'll be annoyed with myself if I 'just' fail.

 

It really is great for learning characters and how they are built. I love the 'look up' feature as you find loads of new words, just by piecing things together. If someone asked me what a football field was, then just from learning football and airport characters can guess how to write them! It's such a good language to learn.

 

 

[PJ]

1 hour ago, ∞保罗∞ said:

By the way - just in case anyone is interested . my approach to the last written question was wrong.I've been told this evening that you are meant to write clearly about what you see in the picture - so I just started making stuff up about a father talking to his son while fishing. This seems to be wrong. Also you don't have to use very advanced language - you just have to try not to make any mistakes....so maybe I should have said 父亲和儿子正在钓鱼。儿子抓到一条鱼 , 儿子把钓竿从水里拿出来... （actually not sure if my chinese is fully correct there - but it's more about that type of thing). Can anyone with decent chinese give an example about what is a good answer to this? The picture was just a father and son, holding holding a fishing rod with a fish on the end.

 

OMG that is such a revelation, thanks!!!  I have been wondering for the past year why I scored so low on my HSK5 writing (73 or so, when I was expecting at least 95; iirc I got a 98 on HSK 4, and thought I did better on 5).  I thought I wrote such a clever and fun story, even added a lot of humor -- and I was pretty sure the grammar and vocabulary were 100% right (even checked it with a native speaker afterwards).  Couldn't understand what went so wrong.  Now, I think this must be it.

 

I also asked my proctor at the time, but she had no help for me, other than suggesting I could pay to "challenge" the scoring -- which could even result in a reduced score.  I figured, why do that when I already passed??  But this certainly makes me feel better!

 

Unfortunately this trick is quite unique for HSK5 (maybe a little for HSK4, I forget).  I don't think the HSK6 writing has any "tricky" interpretation we need to know ahead of time, but just in case, do you mind asking your sources for any tips/directions on that?  Since my sources won't tell me anything, maybe because I haven't paid for their classes, lol  ?‍♂️

[mungouk]

I've posted these before (somewhere), but here are the marking guidelines for HSK exams, levels 1-6:

 

http://www.chinesetest.cn/userfiles/file/HSK-pingfen.pdf

 

Specifically for the HSK 5 "write a short essay" bit (写短文), questions 99 and 100 it says:

 

4.写短文

HSK(五级)中有“写短文”题。我们分第 99 题和第 100 题来介绍。

 

第 99 题

 

0 分:空白。

低档分:未全部使用 5 个词语，内容不连贯，有语法错误; 有较多错别字。

中档分:内容连贯且合逻辑，有语法错误; 内容连贯且合逻辑，有少量错别字;
内容连贯且合逻辑，篇幅不够。

高档分:5 个词语全部使用，无错别字，无语法错误，内容丰富、连贯且合逻辑。

第 100 题
 

0 分:空白。

低档分:内容与图片相关性不大; 内容不连贯，有语法错误; 有较多错别字。

 

中档分:内容与图片相关且合逻辑，有语法错误; 内容与图片相关且合逻辑，有少量错别字; 篇幅不够。

 

高档分:内容与图片相关，无错别字，无语法错误，内容丰富、连贯且合逻辑。

 

注:本题以描述为主。我们尽量选那种适合描述的图片，考生基本不需要进

行议论;考生如果侧重议论，也不会影响其成绩。因为评分员关注的是汉语表达 的规范与流畅，而非立意、见识的高下

 

 

 

[PJ]

On 6/28/2020 at 7:07 PM, mungouk said:

I've posted these before (somewhere), but here are the marking guidelines for HSK exams, levels 1-6:

 

Thanks man, it's very helpful!  Although I still think they aren't clear enough on what we were supposed to write in HSK 5.  In that regard I think 保罗's information is still more useful.  They need to give a more human description, and maybe an example.  That said, it seems that was just an HSK 5 "trick", and HSK 6 doesn't seem as confusing in that way.  A summary is a summary.  HSK 3-4 were easy to understand as well.

[mungouk]

8 minutes ago, PJ said:

they aren't clear enough on what we were supposed to write in HSK 5

 

Yes, quite.

 

Although they do specifically say: "注:本题以描述为主。我们尽量选那种适合描述的图片，考生基本不需要进", so the emphasis is on describing what you see, rather than making up a story.

 

Maybe there are more detailed manuals somewhere for those actually marking real exams... the guidelines I posted are actually aimed at people self-marking mock exams.

 

If we have enough people here who've passed HSK 5 and can post on what they wrote, or how they approached those questions, and what they scored, then maybe we could get a clearer picture.

 

Then again, "HSK 3.0" might render all of this obsolete by this time next year... who knows?

[mungouk]

On 6/28/2020 at 8:07 PM, ∞保罗∞ said:

I've been told this evening that you are meant to write clearly about what you see in the picture

 

Out of curiosity, who was the source of this information?  (And can they share more?)

 

[PJ]

7 minutes ago, mungouk said:

Although they do specifically say

 

Yes I did note that part.  Without that, it would be completely worthless!!!

 

Your idea to collect more responses is certainly good; too bad it's been over a year for me now, I can't remember what I wrote any more.  I just remember thinking I was hilarious, surely a 100pt story, LOL.  Even threw in at least one HSK 6 vocab I had learned by then.  I thought the point was to demonstrate our narrative range.  No wonder, I must have lost most of the 30 points there.  On #99, they should also clarify what they want to see, besides just usage of the words.  BTW I wrote in to the big HSK center, asking things like this.  Asking for a rubric, and giving them several sample possibilities, based on the TOEFL rubric for example.  No response whatsoever.

 

What's HSK 3.0??  I haven't been following.  I see there are some online tests now, but I thought that was the same test, just taken from home?  Are they actually changing the format again??  That would suck, I've been preparing for the HSK6 over a year now lol.  Still another year to go it seems.

[mungouk]

16 minutes ago, PJ said:

What's HSK 3.0?? 

 

Haha, well you did ask... Have a look over here.

And yes — the online "at home" tests they've been running during May and June due to the COVID-19 lockdowns are more-or-less the same as the computer-based tests previously held in testing centres.

 

[mackie1402]

5 hours ago, mungouk said:

Maybe there are more detailed manuals somewhere for those actually marking real exams... the guidelines I posted are actually aimed at people self-marking mock exams.

 

If we have enough people here who've passed HSK 5 and can post on what they wrote, or how they approached those questions, and what they scored, then maybe we could get a clearer picture.

 

If I remember correctly, there are usually example answers at the back of the mock test books you can buy. I remember they had a lot of example sentences for the writing part in HSK 4 when I did that a while ago. I'm sure there would be some mock test examples in the HSK 5 books, too. I've got a tonne of books somewhere. I'll dig them out when I'm free and see if I can find anything. 

[mungouk]

7 hours ago, mackie1402 said:

there are usually example answers at the back of the mock test books you can buy.

 

Yes, actually all the mock papers I've downloaded have answers at the back as well. I should have paid more attention to them I suppose. 

 

We had some discussion about those in another thread, HSK 4 Writing Section... generally they do look rather simple, but if the criteria in the marking guidelines are that you can make grammatically-correct sentences, "rich in content" and with no typos then I guess that's all we have to go off.  ("完整、无错别字、无语法错误且内容丰富。")

 

 

 

 

[mackie1402]

1 hour ago, mungouk said:

that's all we have to go off.

 

For HSK 4 they're pretty irrelevant as you only have to write short sentences, but for HSK 5 they should have much more use. You should be able to get an example of what type of sentence structures are used, the range of vocab, and what type of content you should write for each question. 

[∞保罗∞]

Results of that online exam are allready out! I failed again, but failed better! 55% this time... last time I got over 60 in the ting li, must have reall made a mess of it this time lol , but last time only got 48% overall, , The global average for the exam was 203. Best of luck everyone!

 

 

 

Ticket No.	Test	Subject	Scores	Average
H52067646010100001	HSK五级 2020-06-28
		写作	56.0	68.26
		听力	53.0	71.67
		阅读	56.0	63.34
		Score	165.0	203.27

[mungouk]

Results from the 28 June exam are just out.... very relieved to have passed.  My score is much higher than expected, actually.

 

Can't believe I'm already working on HSK 5 with my teacher... although by the time I get through the textbooks it might not exist any more.

 

 

[∞保罗∞]

Congrats dude! fantastic result!! I got 223 in my HSK4 last November.

[mungouk]

Thanks @∞保罗∞ !

 

12 minutes ago, ∞保罗∞ said:

I failed again, but failed better!

 

Beckett would be proud!  ?

[∞保罗∞]

hahaha in Ireland 40% is a pass....I wouldn't have got through the leaving cert if you needed 60% haha

[Milkybar_Kid]

Hiya,

 

Does this mean that I've passed?

 

Thanks

[Milkybar_Kid]

Hiya,

 

Does this mean that I've passed?

 

Thanks

 

Does anyone know the passing score for HSK 6?