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

[TaxiAsh]

15 hours ago, mungouk said:

Anyone can check your results online if you give them the admission ticket number, but even better I just noticed you can download a digital certificate as a PDF.

 

I wrote this in a separate post to make it easier to find:

Great news! Amazing, thanks for this.

 

I just have to find all my log in details now, as my computer died yesterday, I'm using an old laptop now! doh!!

[PJ]

Damn, June 5 is last day to take HSK 2.0??  I may rush in a bit to take my HSK 6 under the old system, before prepping up for 3.0.

 

Is there a difference which "test center" we choose for the home tests?  As I discussed earlier in this thread, I found the center you take the old exams to make a big difference (for me at least), because the fonts were illegible (well, less legible for beginners) on the old computers.  Are there any related concerns here?  Better to do with a certain test center with better fonts or systems?

 

Thanks!!

[milin]

From this page (https://improvemandarin.com/new-hsk/) I understand that the new level tests will probably not be rolled out before 2023-2024. Perhaps only levels 7-9 of the test will be added earlier. So I assume it will still be possible to take the old level tests for a couple of years.

 

Henk / 汉克

[TaxiAsh]

1 hour ago, PJ said:

Damn, June 5 is last day to take HSK 2.0??  I may rush in a bit to take my HSK 6 under the old system, before prepping up for 3.0.

 

Is there a difference which "test center" we choose for the home tests? 

I was also thinking about having a pop at HSK4 before the change, I couldn't pass it, but if the test was June, I would perhaps try, for the sake of 40 quid!

But then I thought, surely they won't be running any tests in June, as what is the point?

 

But then read the post above mine ^^^

 

maybe it's worth taking a high level, if the implementation of the new system won't be for a while.

 

??!!

[mungouk]

No rush — the existing exams are scheduled until December 2021 at least.

 

http://www.chinesetest.cn/goKdInfoOrPlan.do?type=hsk

 

 

[PJ]

9 hours ago, milin said:

From this page (https://improvemandarin.com/new-hsk/) I understand that the new level tests will probably not be rolled out before 2023-2024. Perhaps only levels 7-9 of the test will be added earlier. So I assume it will still be possible to take the old level tests for a couple of years.

 

Thanks but isn't this an outdated article?  There are many from this past week that say the new system begins Jul 1 2021.  E.g. https://ltl-school.com/new-hsk/

But basically any google hit for "new hsk" says Jul 1 2021.

 

This seems to be further corroborated by my trying to register for an exam (HSK6) and the latest test date available anywhere in the US is in June.

 

1 hour ago, mungouk said:

No rush — the existing exams are scheduled until December 2021 at least.

 

http://www.chinesetest.cn/goKdInfoOrPlan.do?type=hsk

 

That's interesting, as it doesn't seems consistent with the test date availability in the US.  But also, I don't see it say anywhere that that list is for HSK 2.0?  If I'm not missing something, it could be implying that the later test dates are for 3.0?

[mungouk]

The official notice from the MOE says that the standard will be "officially implemented" 正式实施 from 1 July, but it's not clear what that means or how it will affect the exams.

 

That's less than 3 months away, and there has been nothing published yet about the new exam formats and no textbooks etc.  As some of the old hands here have pointed out, when HSK 2.0 replaced 1.0 there was a period of parallel running where both sets of exams were available.

 

2 hours ago, PJ said:

the latest test date available anywhere in the US is in June.

 

Interesting — I just tried to register for HSK 5 and HSKK Intermediate in the UK as well as Hangzhou and Beijing, and I'm only seeing dates up to June as well.

 

 

[RekaT]

Hello All,

I'm curious if anyone had taken the HSK test last Saturday? This date was not in the official calendar (http://www.chinesetest.cn/goKdInfoOrPlan.do?type=hsk) , as our paper&pencil test was postponed to May 22nd. 

 

Is it always 1 month until the result? (pen&paper test)

[tsitsi]

Anyone else writing the home test on Saturday the 5th?

[7800]

I had been delaying taking the HSK4 for almost a year. I wanted to take the paper-based version, just to see if I could actually write the characters down... but it was taking too long. I like to keep my documents up-to-date just in case, and I'm too far from getting a 90%+ on HSK5, so I took the HSK4 earlier this month anyway.

 

[suMMit]

I took the HSK 3 this past Saturday with basically no specific preparation. It's never been a motivator for me, so I haven't ever paid any attention to it. A friend of mine was registering to do the HSK 4 and convinced me to do it with him.  I didn't think I was ready for 4, so settled on the 3. I did one practice test of each section the day before and that was the first time I had seen the test format. So at the actual test, I realized right away that I would do better if I have prepared for the  hsk format more. I found the listening very easy (though the first question I got muddled up in what was the example and what was the first question). The reading was mostly fine for me, but I read too slow and ran out of time, had to just guess on at least 6 questions. The writing was also mostly fine, though there was one jumbled sentence to put in the correct order that I almost recognized no characters in?. Three was definitely the right level for me and I think I will "pass", but my score won't be great. When I take the 4(or if I retake the 3) I will do a better job of preparing for it. It was an interesting experience nonetheless.

[mungouk]

1 hour ago, suMMit said:

I did one practice test of each section the day before and that was the first time I had seen the test format. So at the actual test, I realized right away that I would do better if I have prepared for the  hsk format more. I found the listening very easy (though the first question I got muddled up in what was the example and what was the first question). The reading was mostly fine for me, but I read too slow and ran out of time

 

Well done on taking the exam! Even if it's not a particular goal, I think it's useful to have an objective measure of listening and reading now and again.

 

Yes, I think everyone would agree that understanding the exam format and getting lots of practice are really important in the exam, especially regarding the timing.

 

Even if you know all the vocab and grammar, the exam format can be a huge distraction if you're not completely familiar with it. Actually I would say that "exam technique" really counts for a lot in the HSK.

加油！ 

 

[suMMit]

On 6/24/2021 at 10:54 PM, suMMit said:

I took the HSK 3 this past Saturday with basically no specific preparation.

 

[Mantou]

I took HSK5 in December. Didn't really think I'd pass based on the practice exams I did (especially for reading I always ran out of time or I rushed too much and after reading a paragraph I already forgot it's content).
Then in the Exam for the first 3 or so questions other people in the Zoom (used for proctoring) were chatting...
Then in the writing section when you have to write a text and incorporate certain characters into it I didn't recognize the character 憾  (请给我一点遗憾。哈哈).
 

写作	My Score 77.0	Average (My Test-Site / Global) 76.11 / 64.21
听力	67.0	70.67 / 72.24
阅读	71.0	64.33 / 63.38
Score	215.0	211.11 / 199.82

Anyways, I'm glad I passed. When I took HSK 4 my writing was way worse than reading and listening, but I also didn't practice it.
This time the writing section was the part I practiced the most and voila it's my best section.
I actually quite enjoyed practicing my writing and will practice it more in the future.

I'd recommend anyone that wants to take HSK5 to do all the available practice exams. I was quite confident in reading HSK5 level texts and knew all the HSK5 vocab. Only when I did a practice exams did I realise that the texts have a lot of unknown words in it and are very different from HSK5 graded readers.

[becky82]

I'm preparing for the 26 March 2022 HSK6 exam (handwritten), less than 50 days away; my first time.  (Wish me luck!)  My goals are 80% (listening), 70% (reading), 80% (writing), but it's not clear to me that these are realistic (sometimes it's good to set high goals, and even if you fall short, you're still doing fine).  It's not even clear to me that I'll pass (60% average) the exam.

 

I'm currently practicing like crazy on the past exams.  However, everyone says these are significantly easier than the actual exam, and that's consistent with my HSK5 experience.  I'm getting 68-74% (listening) and 70-85% (reading).  Listening is my clear weakness.  My writing is probably fine (I already write short stories); I've discussed this with my teacher.  Some questions:

 

- I've been trying to practice my listening in particular.  Does the readership here have any suggestions for what I can do to improve my HSK6-related listening?

- On the practice exams, I have sufficient time to answer the 语病 questions, and I'm regularly getting 5-7 of them correct (out of 10).  However, if these are substantially harder on the actual exam, I may be better off blindly guessing and saving the time for the other sections.  What's others' experience here?

[alantin]

On 2/5/2022 at 2:40 AM, becky82 said:

- I've been trying to practice my listening in particular.  Does the readership here have any suggestions for what I can do to improve my HSK6-related listening?

 

With 50 days left... That's not awful lot of time to improve listening comprehension... I probably would play the old HSK6 tests' listening section as background music all the time. They always have the same voices and the format is the same, so I think getting as familiar as possible with their voices and the old questions should help.

 

My main listening comprehension practice is that I record the tutor's voice during all of my iTalki lessions (3-4 hours a week), strip away the silent regions, and then I listen to those while commuting and walking my dog. I'm very familiar with their voices and I can understand quite difficult subjects when they tell them to me, but with new people, it sometimes takes a little time for me to get used to them. In the HSK test, you don't have that time.

 

Also I guess there are only so many ways to frame a question or set up those discussions, that you need to gleam the answer from so there should be repeating patterns in there that can help you in the test if you're familiar with them already.

Of course any additional listening to what ever you like to listen to should not be bad either. Counted in hours per day.

[becky82]

On 2/7/2022 at 1:04 AM, alantin said:

I probably would play the old HSK6 tests' listening section as background music all the time. They always have the same voices and the format is the same, so I think getting as familiar as possible with their voices and the old questions should help.

 

I think I can do that.  Thanks!

 

On 2/7/2022 at 1:04 AM, alantin said:

With 50 days left... That's not awful lot of time to improve listening comprehension...

 

I feel this way too.  I can always take it again, if it's a total disaster.

[TaxiAsh]

On 2/6/2022 at 5:04 PM, alantin said:

They always have the same voices and the format is the same, so I think getting as familiar as possible with their voices and the old questions should help.

 

My main listening comprehension practice is that I record the tutor's voice during all of my iTalki lessions (3-4 hours a week), strip away the silent regions, and then I listen to those while commuting and walking my dog. I'm very familiar with their voices and I can understand quite difficult subjects when they tell them to me, but with new people, it sometimes takes a little time for me to get used to them. In the HSK test, you don't have that time.

 

I've noticed this too, from both points.

 

This is a great point about the HSK though. Listen to their voices as much as possible as always the same speakers. 

 

So perhaps @becky82 don't just listen to the hsk6 lessons online, listen to all the levels and familiarise yourself well with as much of their voices as possible.

 

All the best! 

[Geiko]

In 2014 I passed HSK 5 with a total score of 227/300 (听力 76, 阅读 81, 书写 70), but I have to admit that I cheated, because I finished the 阅读 during the 书写 time.

After that I took and failed three times HSK 6 (in 2015, 2017 and 2018).

For the last two years my Chinese studies were put on a hiatus for personal reasons. This year I want to restart them and finally pass HSK 6.

To begin with, I want to know exactly where I'm now, so today I sat HSK 5 again (computer based). Although I didn't do it perfect (far from perfect), I felt much more in control during the 听力, I could finish the 阅读 in the amount of time given (the computer based exam doesn't allow cheating, once you start a new section you can't go to the previous one) and the writing went ok, considering it's my weakest skill right now. In the last years I read books and watched TV in Chinese, but didn't write at all, so typing was my best chance.

In a couple of weeks I'll come back to tell you how it really went and I'll be able to plan my studies for HSK 6 from a realistic point of view. 

[becky82]

On 2/13/2022 at 1:04 AM, Geiko said:

In 2014 I passed HSK 5 with a total score of 227/300 (听力 76, 阅读 81, 书写 70), but I have to admit that I cheated, because I finished the 阅读 during the 书写 time.

 

That doesn't seem like cheating to me; that's just... sensible.