Official HSK 7-9 Sample Tests Released

[markhavemann]

I saw a post on Reddit saying that HSK 7-9 sample tests have been released here.

 

Looks interesting, maybe not as difficult as I thought it would be. 

 

 

[7800]

I still find it hard to believe they really thought it'd be a good idea to add a translation section

[becky82]

Quote

 

全部考试约 210 分钟。

 

 

This translates to "The whole exam is approximately 210 minutes."  I.e., 3 1/2 hours.  My word.

[markhavemann]

On 11/1/2023 at 1:38 PM, 7800 said:

I still find it hard to believe they really thought it'd be a good idea to add a translation section

At first glance I thought it was really cool, but considering that most people who take this test, as well as the people grading it, probably aren't native English speakers, it starts to feel a little unfair and unreasonable.

[7800]

On 11/1/2023 at 3:57 AM, markhavemann said:

At first glance I thought it was really cool, but considering that most people who take this test, as well as the people grading it, probably aren't native English speakers, it starts to feel a little unfair and unreasonable.

This official notice about the HSK（七—九级）that is supposed to take place now in November states "本次考试翻译部分均为外译中，翻译材料提供英语、越南语、泰语、日语、韩语五种基本语言，具体以报名时提供语言为准。考生报名时须选择一种语言。", which means that the translation test can be taken in Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, or English.

 

There are some options, but it's still quite unreasonable in my opinion, many people will be at a disadvantage. It's as if they only cared about a specific type of test-taker. Maybe they'll add one or two languages to that list someday, but that's it.

[sanchuan]

On 11/1/2023 at 7:57 AM, markhavemann said:

the people grading it, probably aren't native English speakers

This is a very good point. One also wonders what they know about translation as a discipline, whether they expect a one-to-one translation of all the keywords and, more broadly, what criteria are used to determine that one translation is better than another. I fear test-takers will end up approaching this section based on what they expect examiners will expect of them, which might create a vicious cycle where clunky but safe 欧化中文 becomes the recommended gold standard.

 

On a different note, are all the answers, essays and translations meant to be hand-written?

[vellocet]

On 11/2/2023 at 2:03 AM, sanchuan said:

On a different note, are all the answers, essays and translations meant to be hand-written?

My buddy who took HSK 4 said they had special computers that only accepted one character at a time input.  So writing 什么 would require writing "shen", choosing the correct character, then "me" and choosing the correct character, instead of just writing "sm" like you would any ordinary pinyin input.