HSK simulated test books available in the UK

[Arlo_]

Good news for anyone studying for the HSK in the UK. Chinesebookshop is now selling simulated tests books published by Beijing Language and Culture Press (all HSK levels).

When I was living in China I bought several HSK4 practice test books and found BLCP was the best. So I'm pleased to have a chance to buy the Level 5 book here.

By the way, I have absolutely no connection with Chinesebookshop.

http://www.chinesebookshop.com/english/series/simulated-tests-of-the-new-hsk.html

[Guest realmayo]

Wow I never knew that company existed.

Terry Pratchett in Chinese!

http://www.chinesebookshop.com/english/translated-books/fiction-books.html?p=2

[hanyu_xuesheng]

The books from Beijing Language and Culture Press shown in

http://www.chinesebookshop.com/english/series/simulated-tests-of-the-new-hsk.html

contain many words that are not in the official lists. I found working with these extremely frustrating.

I prefer the books from Peking University Press:

http://www.cypressbooks.com/proddetail.php?prod=9787301086612

They contain only the words from the official lists.

[Arlo_]

@hanyu_xuesheng

"I prefer the books from Peking University Press"

That's interesting. I bought practice books from these three publishers:

Beijing Language and Culture Press

Beijing Language and Culture University Press

Peking University Press

My reason for thinking BLCP is best (for Level 4) are:

--- All the books contain words not in the official lists, but the BLCP book is to be closer to the downloadable 'real' practice tests than BLCUP or PUP.

--- The BLCP has more tests (10) than BLCUP (eight) or PUP (5).

--- BLCP gives reasons for the answers (at the back of the book), while the others don't.

--- PUP allows a very short time between the questions in the listening test, less than half what it should be. I had to spend time with Audacity changing the gaps to what they should be.

--- The sentences in the first part of the writing test (the ones you have to write in the correct order) in the PUP are far too long, making it very difficult to finish them in the allowed time.

I've only done the Level 4 test and can't comment on any other levels.

But thank you for posting the link. I will probably also buy the PUP level 5 book anyway. You can't have too many HSK practice test books ;)

[XiongNu]

But the tests don't only have words from the official lists right? At least not in level 6, there's tons of non-list words in there.

[Arlo_]

Level 4 seems to stick to the official lists. When I took the test last month, it didn't contain any words I didn't know.

I don't know about the higher levels.

[milin]

Even the downloadable official Hanban test exams contains lots of words that are from a higher level, or are in no level at all. But both the PUP and BCLUP tests are worse than the Hanban exams, and BCLUP is by far the worst. I've checked levels 4 and 5. By the way, my books of BCLUP contain 10 tests. I've described my experiences with the mock exams on this web page:

http://home.hccnet.nl/h.dalmolen/En/China/HSK.htm#testexam

[mokushiroku]

Anything particular you guys are looking for in an HSK guide? We just went live with our level 3 and 4 guides and would be interested in hearing what you think.

You can check it out on hsktests.com

Feedback is welcome. Levels 5 and 6 will be coming soon.