HSK2 from scratch

[gertux456]

Hi,

I'm planning to take the exam HSK2 in June 2019 and have 2 questions:

1. Which textbook series is better Discover China (Publisher: Macmillan Education , 2010) or Developing Chinese: Elementary Comprehensive ( by Rong Ji Hua , 2011) for my goal?

2. What's the HSK level of these textbooks?

2.1. Discover China 1 is HSK1, Discover China 2 is HSK2,...?

2.2. Developing Chinese: Elementary Comprehensive I....HSK1, Developing Chinese: Elementary Comprehensive II... HSK2, ...?

 

 

disclaimer: I will not use just the texbook for my training.

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[agewisdom]

http://www.sinosplice.com/learn-chinese/chinese-textbook-reviews

https://www.hackingchinese.com/using-chinese-textbooks-to-improve-reading-ability/

 

Hope the above links help. The authors are pretty experienced, so their opinions should be pertinent.

[fabiothebest]

I would suggest Developing Chinese, New Practical Chinese Reader or Integrated Chinese. Elementary level should cover up to HSK 2 in general, anyway make sure to study the HSK 2 wordlist and all the grammar points. Please note that those books don't follow 100% the HSK syllabus. Specifically for HSK I would recommend HSK standard book 1 and 2 (and their workbooks eventually). Also take a look at Chinese zero to hero, it's great if you self study and don't have a teacher. It helps filling the gaps.

[mungouk]

I found this "test by audio“ memrise deck for HSK 2 to be very helpful when learning the vocabulary.

 

https://www.memrise.com/course/276923/hsk-2-test-by-audio/

 

The StickyStudy App for iOS is better designed UI-wise and  includes all HSK levels. 

 

I started from scratch with Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 1 textbook when I began, but that doesn't specifically address what HSK level you're working at (it's around HSK 2-3).  If you use the standard textbooks then they are much clearer about level.  The IC textbook is a bit more accessible for beginners and better laid-out I think.

 

(Once I'd passed HSK 2 I switched to using the standard textbooks.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fabiothebest]

3 hours ago, mungouk said:

The StickyStudy App for iOS

I must try StickyStudy, it isn't free anyway, so I'll have to decide whether to purchase it or not. I used Memrise a lot and lately I'm using Skritter for practising writing. I feel like I prefer Memrise for studying and reviewing, while Skritter works more for reviewing for me (with Memrise I memorise faster and I sometimes need to write characters by hand before I remember how to write them on Skritter, unless they are simple ones made of just a few strokes. I also like using Pleco for seeing stroke order and hanzicraft for character decomposition and for seeing the most frequent words containing a particular character). Besides although they both have an app, I prefer the web version.