HSK reading section strategies

[dnevets]

I'm taking new HSK level 5 next weekend, and just did a couple of practise tests. I suspect my biggest problem is going to be the reading part - I couldn't actually get through all the questions within the time limit... I only managed to get through 37/8 of the 45 questions :-/

The thing is, I didn't actually find the text to be particularly difficult. I could certainly read 99% of it with very little hesitation, and at (what I thought was) a reasonable speed... So is the answer simple - I just need to read faster (skim?), or do I need better exam technique? For example, does anyone just read the questions and 4 possible answers first, then go into the text to specifically seek the info that is needed?

[歐博思]

My reading class teacher at Qinghua suggests the method at the end of your post. If one knows what information to pay special attention to then skimming becomes much more effective.

[Dani_man]

The method of reading the questions before is indeed helpful, yet only in the third section of the reading part of HSK5. But note that sometimes they can ask something like: 作家想告诉我们什么？or: 课文的道理是。。。 Then you might need to reach the end of the paragraph to see where the concluding remark is.

I didn't find it helpful for the two first sections (yet for the first section I've found out that I'm automatically keep on reading the passage even after I finished all the 填空, which is a complete waste of time you can move on to the next one of course).

Good luck! please come back and share how it was, I'm taking it soon too.

[dnevets]

Did new HSK 5 today. I did a little more reading practise over the last week or so, since my initial post up there, which really improved my scores on mock tests.

For parts 1 and 2 I read through the passages and then the answers. I found that with part 2, you can pretty much just skim the text to get the general gist and that is enough to choose the right answer; I didn't seem to need to read it slowly and digest every hanzi. For part 3, I give the text a super-quick skim, then read the questions, then dive back into the test to seek individual answers. Doing it like this I could get through all 45 questions within the time limit, although I'm sure my answers to the final few were a bit sketchy :-) Talked to the other guys after the exam, they agreed the reading time limit is a bit slim, I don't think they managed to get right through to the end.

[Dani_man]

Hi thanks for reporting on your exam.

Can you tell which mock exams you've tried? Were they those of HanBan? And did it reflect the actual level of the exam?

Also, how difficult were the sentences you should put in grammatical order, in the first section of the writing part?

Edited May 30, 2011 at 06:04 AM by Dani_man

[dnevets]

First section of the *writing* part! They were fine, I'm certain I got 6 of the 8 correct, the other 2 I'm not totally certain about... The difficulty was exactly as in the mock tests I did, available free of charge here: http://www.chinesetesting.cn/godownload.do

You'll notice that in that section there are always 1 or 2 sentences with 把 or 被 in the grammar, so make sure you know how they're used!

I'd say that the difficulty of all parts of the exam were exactly as in those mock exams, so they definitely make good prep material for the real event. Just make sure that when you use them, you time yourself properly and stop when the time is up - if I hadn't done this I would've never realised how tough the reading part was! Good luck!

[Vuong Moc]

Hi guys

I also took HSK level 5. Reading questions first is demanding. My other experience is: read more, no matter what materials. The more you read, the more you feel familiar with the words, and it'll cost you less time even to "skim" the text. Even when you know all the words, it also take you some seconds to "recognize" and "Translate" them into your mothertongue...so my tip is: read more to make sure that whenever you read HSK text, you'll spend least time to recognize the words...Certainly, you cannot recognize all words, but even with the popular ones, it makes difference.

[doraemon]

I remember that when I took HSK 11, the reading was needless to say, insanely demanding. My technique was to read the questions first, look at solutions, and then skim out the relevant sections in the text. When I find it, I then read a few sentences above and below it just to confirm that I haven't been lured into a trick question.

A lot of the time, I never even really got the gist of the text (especially if it's really long), I just focused on what was useful, and everything else was redundant. The technique quite well for me, but it still takes some practice to master effectively.

[Dani_man]

Hi dnevets, thanks for elaborating on this matter. Crossing fingers!

[Dani_man]

Yet another reading strategy method:

Presonally, and others too as I figured out, don't make it to the end of the reading section in the 40min time. Throughout the mock exams I've found out that some texts in the third part of the reading section (where you have to read a long passage) are much longer then others. My suggestion is to start with the shorter ones first - a real time saver in some cases.

[ohad]

Can someone recommend an online HSK5-level-readings/articles website ?

Just browsing the news is no help as it of a much higher level