HSK level 5 traditional characters?

[limelicious]

Hi everyone,

I will be taking the level 5 exam in December. When I registered on the chinesetesting.cn website, I specified in the "notes" section to provide me with a test paper in traditional format. However, after reading through their websites, can someone please confirm that there are traditional formats available?

If there is, does anyone know where i can find mock exams in tradition characters or good textbooks/ prep materials.

And if there isn't.....

How hard is it to learn simplified once you know traditional and,

can I still write in traditional in the written portion or is it now using a pinyin/keyboard format?

Thanks!

[WestTexas]

I've thought about how hard it would be to learn to read traditional/simplified if you didn't already know the other, and I'm not sure it would be that difficult. I would focus on the standard changes that appear a lot (for example, stuff like that seen 话/話 or 視/视). Then I would go down a list of the most common characters and memorize all the ones that look very different in each style, for example, 让/讓 ,为/爲, 医/醫. After that, you can practice reading simplified a bit.

I never study or read traditional, but when I was in Macau I felt like I could still understand the captions on the historic sites just from knowing the standard radical changes, a few really common traditional characters and using context. So I think it's doable that you can pass HSK 5 in December if your other skills are up to par.

[jkhsu]

I would advise against taking the HSK 5 in simplified characters if you haven't had much exposure to them. The main reason is that I think your time is better spent preparing instead of trying to learn simplified in the next couple of months. I have been learning both at the same time with an emphasis on simplified and I can tell you that my reading speed with traditional characters is much slower than with simplified.

[edelweis]

That thread may be of interest:

http://www.chinese-f...racter-version/