Are there any online tests for assessing Chinese/Mandarin proficiency

[mirgcire]

Does anyone know of an online test for listening and reading skills? It would be nice to have some way to gauge your level that did not involve the pressure and cost of the HSK. I was also think that it might be useful for determining if a class is effective by measuring the before and after level of students.

Thanks

[elliott50]

There is a very simple free listening test at http://chinesepod.com/resources/tests

and also a longer character test at http://www.clavisinica.com/character-test-applet.html.

...My results were "Intermediate (low)" for listening and able to recognise "approximately 2058" simplified characters - just to give you a flavour of what feedback you will get from the tests.

Elliott

Edited November 22, 2009 at 02:46 PM by elliott50
Adding more detail

[anonymoose]

and also a longer character test at http://www.clavisinica.com/character-test-applet.html

This might be good to get a very rough idea, but I don't think the results can be very accurate. I just tried the test on the advanced level with 48 characters, and managed to get them all correct. The result tells me I know approximately 3755 characters. Now, if I managed to get all correct, then it couldn't possibly distinguish between me knowing 3755 characters or 50000 characters.

[elliott50]

3755 characters is the maximum possible score on that test anonymoose, so well done - the test may be too easy for you!

You can get a more accurate estimate of the number of characters you know by using the "72 question" option and by taking the test multiple times.

Edited November 22, 2009 at 05:50 PM by elliott50
clarity

[chrix]

a test is just that. It just measures your ability to take the test, even the HSK doesn't measure your Chinese abilities, just your ability to take the HSK... usually there is some reason to believe that the ability to take the test in question is correlated in some meaningful way with the abilities you want to measure.

[wrbt]

Yeah I don't like the multiple choice nature of many of the assessments, as you're usually not given a very small set of options to look over and choose from when attempting to understand Chinese.

I guess you have context to work with, maybe that evens it out.

[Erbse]

I just took that multiple choice test and I have a question.

There were a few characters I knew the pronunciation, but I didn't know the meaning, because I just know them from two character words. Do you think this is a problem? Should I put emphasis on learning each characters individual meaning?

[chrix]

no, you're fine. Modern Mandarin has largely bisyllabic words, many characters are bound morphemes in the sense that they don't occur on their own.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, so I definitely think it is paramount to learn primarily words not characters (after you have a certain number of characters under your belt of course)

[wrbt]

This be true. There are many characters that look familiar when I see them alone but not sure what they are exactly, yet I can read them in words without even thinking about it.