HSK 4 (panicking!)

[jimmy_p]

So I'm taking the HSK 4 this Sunday in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province.

I've been studying about 3 hours a day for about 4 months and the date is finally close enough to touch.

I have all the practice materials and have saved 2 mock tests for this, the last week, from the BeiDa book. I took one of the mock tests today under 'test conditions' (albeit in Starbucks) and did pretty well but I'm panicking about new words and such.

I know the word list pretty much inside out but it seems like every mock test I've taken they throw in at least 40 new words to confuse you. I'm worried the real test is going to throw up a lot of new vocab and screw up my score.

Has anyone had a similar experience with the HSK (especially level 4)? How did it affect your test?

Also does your mark appear on the certificate? I mean the 'X out of 300' mark, I'm fairly sure I'll pass but it won't be a spectacular one!

Many thanks from a first-time poster, long-time lurker!

Jimmy_P

[BertR]

In case you are talking about the New HSK, there won't be a lot of extra words in the exam (there is a mock-exam that is very representative at http://www.chinesetesting.cn/index.do ). I've never taken the old one, so I can't talk about that one.

[jimmy_p]

Thanks for the reply, I'll be doing that test as part of my last minute prep I think.

And yes, the New HSK 4.

Have you taken it yourself? How did you do?

[BertR]

Last year I took New HSK 4, this year New HSK 5. Last year I had 210 in total on HSK 4 and this year 240 on HSK 5.

As a preparation I looked at the word list at the example exam, and also tried that exam.

[laonuo]

How was the test?

I took New HSK Level 4 last autumn and passed quite easily. I got 249/300 points and this is made clear in the certificate as well.

I went through the 1200-word vocabulary list before taking the exam, and at the time I was familiar with ~90 % of the words. In the test I found no surprises, I think the test was pretty much constructed on the basis of the vocabulary offered. The level of difficulty was similar to that of the mock-tests I found online, only that I ran out of time more quickly.

[jimmy_p]

It went pretty well, I'm fairly confident I passed but not sure how well, probably not well at all considering how unclear the listening was.

No massive vocab surprises, happily, and I had plenty of time at the end of the reading and writing sections to review everything so I'm pretty happy.

Are you doing the level 5? I studied for the level 4 by myself and I've concluded I'll definitely need a teacher for the next level, much too hard to do alone!

Also something I learned at the test center; you can study a Bachelor's degree in China in Chinese with just an HSK 4; I met a Saudi guy there who was taking it for that reason! That completely amazed me, I've no idea how he'll pass that course!

[laonuo]

Well, luckily it doesn't matter how well you pass - it's either pass or fail (you need to get 60 % if I'm not mistaken).

When I took Level 4 the reason why I ran out of time was probably that the people supervising the exam did not notify us about the time that was left. Could have used a warning like 5 minutes before the end... I've been reading Chinese novels ever since, and my reading speed has improved dramatically, so this probably won't be a problem next time around.

I'm not in a hurry to take Level 5. I've studied Chinese for five years in Finland, mostly just self-studying, and now that I finally have my Master's Degree (English as major) out of the way, I'm going to get to study the language in China for real. At the moment I'm familiar with about 80 % of the 2500-word vocabulary list, and I'm pretty good with all the language structure and grammar, so... Perhaps at the end of the first year I'll give it a go, it should be a piece of cake by then.

I would suggest taking it slow and waiting at least a year between levels 4 and 5, but this varies between individuals of course. If you got 100 % at Level 4 perhaps you'd already be able to pass the next level as well...

I don't like the idea of taking courses so as to be trained to succeed in HSK, I prefer studying Chinese in whatever way I find most enjoyable, to learn it so that I can use it in life and later at work, and then try every now and then how well I can do in the test. But Level 6 is still a major goal in the not-so-distant future. And of course I understand that if Level 4 will enable you to study a degree in China then that is the smartest way to reach such a goal.