Should I opt for beginner or intermediate?

[Jizzosh]

Hello everyone!

I am planning on studying intensive mandarin in China for a year and a half at BLCU (I'm applying this week), but I am semi-divided as to how I should go about entering the university. Essentially, I have a working vocabulary of approximately 600-700 words. My question is, should I work my vocabulary up to the 800+ words required for intermediate, even though I'm unsure of what fundamentals they consider important, or should I step back to beginner, ensuring that what I have learned already is correctly applied and that I have the appropriate understanding of grammer and word function?

example: I know the words hong2ye4 or red autumn leaves, and tang2cu4yu2, or fish in sweet and sour sauce, but I don't know the words for "about" as in talking about china, or "to live" as in where do you live? So I'm just kind of concerned that I should perhaps follow their beginner course, even though I'm bound to repeat quite a bit of information, it might be better for a solid basis in the language.

What do you think??

Thank you!

Josh

[xuechengfeng]

I would say go with beginner. I've only done Chinese for a little over a year, which I consider beginning, and we only recently learned those words you mentioned.

And just for your clarification,

To live = zhu4

About = I would say is, guan1yu2