New HSK Advanced

[Diego Loukota]

Hi all,

I took the new HSK (5, written) last May and I recently knew that I passed it with 227/300. Does anybody know the correspondence between the old and new HSK levels? What's more, apparently no university in China has yet upgraded its information on admission requirements according to the revised version (I had to take it because the old one was no longer offered here in Italy). Does anyone knows/has heard/guesses what will be the new standard corresponding to old level 8? (It should be 5 of the new, since 8 used to be the the highest of old chuzhongji, but apparently nobody knows for sure... ). What makes me doubt is that the test felt indeed easier than the old version, in spite of having a writing section, so I do fear that the new level 6 alone will become the new standard for graduate admissions in humanities, but these are only my guesses. Besides, who knows whether the oral test will be taken in consideration on that account. Thanks in advance, Diego.

[shuoshuo]

Here's a link to the correlation between the old and new HSK: http://hsk.byu.edu/test_correlation.php

Can someone please tell me if there is such a thing as the new HSK Advanced (levels higher than HSK6)? Thanks.

[mokushiroku]

Shuoshuo,

Level 6 of the HSK is the end. You've beaten the game... kinda...

I remember taking the old HSK, passing the final level and feeling like I was on the top of the world. Then I got into a career of translation and realized that even the old HSK wasn't exactly what you would call preparation for a translation career.

In the end, you've got to make sure you know what you want to do in the long run. Use the HSK as a stepping-stone, not a final destination.

[耳耳语语]

There is also a test, for native speakers, to assess how standard their mandarin is.

"Putonghua Shuiping Ceshi"

http://hongkong.geoexpat.com/forum/71/thread206237.html

http://baike.baidu.com/view/21049.htm

[Sarevok]

Here's a link to the correlation between the old and new HSK: http://hsk.byu.edu/test_correlation.php

Can someone please tell me if there is such a thing as the new HSK Advanced (levels higher than HSK6)? Thanks.

You've gotta be kiddin' me, comparing the good ol' 8 to scoring 210 points in the New HSK 5? That's quite a wild comparison if you ask me, definitely not in the same ballpark. Scoring 210 out of 300 is some 70%, to get an 8 on the old HSK you got to score way above 80 in each section and test itself was much more challenging. In the new test, you can just skip the whole reading section if you feel so inclined, reap the points from the other sections and still pass the exam.

And comparing the old Advanced levels to the New HSK 6 is even more ridiculous...

Well, my Chinese testing days are over already, I have sorta beaten the game back then and learned quite a few things in the process, which is what counts in the end, if you can retain most of that stuff. If you take the same approach, you can't go wrong with the new test either.

The old HSK definitely needed a reform, but Hanban just botched it...

[shuoshuo]

@mokushiroku - Thank you for your response. I have always considered the HSK as a requirement or a prerequisite to something else. I expect it's the same as those English exams and to me, they're definitely just a basic qualification. I'd expect translators to have a degree in translating, and an HSK diploma would be a requirement to get into the degree program. That's my perspective on HSK.

@Sarevok - I expect that the new HSK is a more effective way of testing someone's level in Chinese. With the old HSK, yes, there were students who were great at Mandarin and they scored well. But the test being only MCQs, there were also students who could barely use Mandarin in their everyday life scoring HSK4-6 because they were lucky with the MCQs. That was almost quite ridiculous. So I hope this new HSK is an improvement to the old system.

[ZhangKaiRong]

@shuoshuo

I still don't recognize the HSK as a good indicator of your Chinese level. The basic principles of the the new one and the old one is quite the same: you have X characters for each level, learn them one by one, do some mock exams, take the real exam, get the certification. Chinese school system and examination system is still resembles the Confucian one. The better scores you have in your diploma the better man you are. The philosophy behind the HSK is also like this: the higher HSK you have the better you speak Chinese. Errr, how about no? I have many classmates who passed the HSK5, but they have serious problems with communicating real Chinese people, because they don't understand what the Chinese say, and the Chinese don't understand what the heck these 外国人 say. In my view, grinding for the HSK leads to bad 口语. Most of my classmates ignore tones when they speak, they use synonyms well, but with bad tones or no tones at all. Sometimes even our Chinese teachers didn't understand what they said, though their ears got used to the foreigner's Chinese. There were some classmates who had serious pronounciation problems: they often mixed the pronounciaton of j and q, t and d, and rarely mixed k and g. So ta1hen3da4 changes to da1hen3ta4, or zhe4ge4hen3jian3dan1 changes to zhe4ge4hen3qian3tan1. Is their Chinese good? According to their certification, it surely is. According to real life standards, it isn't.

There was a Korean girl in my group who passed HSK6. She failed the HSKK intermediate exam. I know that HSKK is also a bad exam, I mean talking to a machine that records what you say? Ridiculous. Communication is not like this. Even though, HSKK intermediate is not a hard exam at all, knowing all the words for HSK6 should be enough to pass it. She also often checked her dictionary during class conversations because forgot how to say something. Is her Chinese good enough? It should be, she passed HSK6. But her spoken Chinese is quite low, so I also wouldn't employ her if I were a Chinese company boss.

I guess these examples prove why I consider the HSK level = Chinese level theory as a clear BS. Of course, if you want to study at a Chinese university or work at certain Chinese companies, you need the certificates to prove that you know Chinese. But it doesn't necessary mean that your Chinese level is OK. IMO, Chinese is hard because you need to improve four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. Other, non-tonal languages are way easier, reading and writing are easier (yes, Japanese and Korean are hard anyway), and listening and speaking are also quite related.

[Sarevok]

I expect that the new HSK is a more effective way of testing someone's level in Chinese.

AFAIK the HSKK (oral exam) is optional and you have to pay extra for it - so it's not that everyone is taking it. And with the new scoring system (unless they changed it again lately), you could skip the writing section completely (if your writing skills are bad or for whatever reason) and still score the necessary 180... in which case you're down to the good old MCQ again. How is that more effective? Granted, if you opted to skip it like that, you would have to get near perfect results in all other sections, but I was able to score 100 in listening and 98 in grammar back in days, so it's doable. Or, if we don't go into extremes, you could just scribble something down to get, let's say, half the points in the only "creative" section and then just breeze through the MCQs. It's not even essay writing on a given topic, it's been dumbed down to rewriting a previously read article in your own words. And that's the New HSK 6, for the lower levels it's even easier. And Hanban claims that HSK 6 is supposed to translate into CEFR C2 level :-O

The Chinese are known for their obsession with exams as well as the so-called 应试教育 (exam oriented education), there is also a term 填鸭式教育 (duck-stuffing education, i.e. memorizing a dictionary from cover to cover). I've met a lot of people who supposedly passed 英语六级 (English level 6, which seems to be highest in some Chinese testing system), yet were unable to hold a meaningful conversation in English. Same is true with certain Korean classmates who held a high level HSK certificate, yet when they opened their mouth, I didn't know whether they were speaking Korean or Chinese (after putting in some imagination, I thought it might have been the latter). The exam score won't reflect your pronunciation or conversational ability. And the new test is no better in this regard, probably even worse than the old (if only Hanban wasn't making such ridiculous claims).

The HSK was never widely recognized by employers, at least not in Europe, mentioning it on your CV would mostly give you a blank stare (that was certainly the case a few years ago and I doubt it changed much recently). The actual language proficiency is very easy to test during an interview, if someone felt so inclined. So what is it good for anyways, besides enrolling in a Chinese university? If you just grind for the exam itself, then not much. I took a different approach with it, preparation for the exam just complemented my other studies and I feel it has helped me tremendously - I got my reading up to speed, cemented my knowledge of grammar, expanded my vocabulary (which helped me in other areas as well... especially with Chinese being such a vocabulary-heavy language). If you take a similar approach, you can't go wrong, that was my point.

I was also taking the exam repeatedly as a method of gauging my progress. When I scored a 6 on one session, then a 7 on the next and finally the 8 (which has proven a bit elusive), I took it as an indicator that there was some progress made. This part you can't do anymore with the new test - the scoring system is different, the Advanced levels are done away with and taking the exam is much pricier...

[shuoshuo]

Thank you for the responses Zhangkairong and Sarevok. I need the HSK to apply to a Masters degree program (at a Chinese university). I definitely won't look at the HSK as though it is the only defining factor in someone's level of Chinese language. If someone takes it and scores well, I suppose that makes them good test-takers. But having said that, those who score well earn respect from the Chinese...so I'm only in this to play the game. That said, HSK aside, I do genuinely want to improve my ability in the language.