Preparing for HSK6

[maggieh]

Hi folks - I'm planning to take HSK6 in December and I wonder if you have any tips on how to prepare.  I have a Chinese lesson once a week, but my teacher has not helped anyone with this exam before.   I'm wondering how best to use my time with him.   Before summer I looked at some of the 语病 type questions with him, but these seem to have been created by some sort of satanic Chinese pedant - he wasn't doing much better than me!   The vocab doesn't look particularly difficult, but there's just so much text to get through.    So far my strategy is to transcribe one Chinesepod dialogue each day and do the usual Skritter/Anki kinda thing.   But that's just what I normally do - nothing specially targeted at the exam.   Well this is a long post - but basically.. .  any thoughts anyone?    Practical working strategies  targeting the HSK6?    Many thanks...

[Basil]

Not sure, I'm planning to take it this year too. Though with my schedule, looks like I'm going to have to wing it. I can barely remember how to write anymore...

[prateeksha]

When I took HSK 5 a couple of years ago, I bought a 模拟试卷 book and did the practice tests from that book. While the marks obtained in practice tests might not guarantee similar results in the real exam as well, I think they are the best practice tool available. This one is particularly good.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Stimulated-Chinese-Proficiency-Included-Edition/dp/7561928785/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409315788&sr=8-1&keywords=hsk+level+6

 

You could also look for couple of free sample papers on Hanban's website itself. 

http://www.chinesetest.cn/gosimexam.do#

and

http://www.chinesetest.cn/godownload.do

 

I personally feel that trying to memorize words from the recommended vocabulary list is not a constructive strategy and vocabulary should be gained as a part of overall learning process. 

[xuefang]

I did HSK6 last year and here are few of my recommendation on how to prepare:

 

1. Do a mock test from start to finish with the actual time limits, copying the test situation as well as possible. See which section is your weakest and wich you are doing allright already.

 

2. Go over your mistakes with your tutor. Find the reasons why you made those mistakes, was it because of lack of grammar, vocab or other skills?

 

3. Get a studybook for HSK6, usually separate books for listening, reading and writing. Start from the section that you got the lowers score. If your low score was because of the lack of vocab, use a SRS flashcards software to learn words.

 

4. Do regular mock tests to see your progress. Use your tutor to help you figure out why you made certain mistakes. Your tutor will also help yout to check your mistakes in the writing section.

 

5. Besides this read and listen and write as much Chinese as possible. Watch tv series, movies and news in Chinese. Read anything in Chinese without checking the dictionary all the time, train your reading speed. Write short stories in Chinese or keep a diary.

 

6. If possible, do the computer exam where you can type your writing section.

[maggieh]

Xue Fang : That's so helpful, thank you so much.  Yes, I must kickstart all this by doing a past paper and time myself.   I've got a book of simulated test papers - as mentioned by Prateeksha - but I have been reading through the texts at a leisurely pace, which is rather missing the point.  Unfortunately I don't think we can do the computer writing in Hong Kong, only the handwritten paper.     Thanks for your replies,  I don't know anyone else doing this here, so it's good to have the support of an online community. 

 

[xuefang]

Maggieh, as you will do the paper exam, I would add practicing hand writing to that list. If you are a slow writer or often forget how to write characters, start from copying essays for example. If your hand writing is good, you can go straight to writing summaries of essays/stories. Just make sure you have enought time to write your piece. Also think of a method how you will memorize the article given to you in 10 minutes and when you start writing make an outline of the basic things first like who, what, where etc.

[mokushiroku]

I agree with the above poster. I'd also like to add something:

 

If you're practicing using Chinese on the computer and want to both type faster than your friends AND practice your writing while typing, try switching your input method to WuBi, which requires you to remember how to write the charaters instead of requiring you to remember how to say the characters.

 

I use something even more rare, called "Cang Jie," which pieces each character together by traditional radicals. It can let you type both traditional and simplified Chinese. But you'd probably want to stick with WuBi because it's more popular.