Exam and study tips for the HSK5? (and mock exams!)

[liqi]

I'm recently starting my journey to HSK5 after discovering that I vastly underestimated my Chinese level 😆. I'm scoring around 50% on the mock tests I find online, which ain't bad considering I started to pursue it out of nowhere, but also isn't enough to actually pass the test. I can understand most casual content (social media, daily life, modern novels, manhua etc) without many issues, which was a surprise to me because every person with an HSK5 that I've seen complained about still not being able to understand even some kids books, which hasn't been my experience at all. But I want to apply for university which requires an HSK5, and after getting a reality check I started to actively study for the HSK. I'm really more focused on the test itself for now, learning the language alongside is a nice side effect

 

I'm currently using the HSK5 Standard Course books, which are fine, but since this is my first time self-studying for something I don't really know how to use it... 🫠. Currently I preview the words of a new unit and add them into anki, then after a while (usually like 2 days) I read the text and solve the exercises on the textbook and the workbook. But I feel like this isn't really optimal, I struggle quite a bit with grammar and I feel like I'm not using the full potential of the book as I'm basically just cramming vocabulary. As for the test itself, the parts I struggle the most right now is 1) Listening 2) Part 1 of reading (fill in the gaps) 3) Part 1 of writing (reorder a phrase). I don't think there's much to do about improving listening other than to practice and listen more and more, but as for the other two I'm really lost. The fill in the gaps I find pretty hard because the options are usually words with similar meanings or grammar structures that I don't remember or mix up all the time (like the thousands of ways to use 从). Writing the essay is no issue, but I do struggle with the ordering exercise lol, I don't really know what to study there and I realized that my comprehension of chinese structure really sucks 😜

 

Any tips are welcome! Be it study tips, HSK tips or chinese tips. I'm interested in knowing if there's any way to adapt grammar studies and word usage (idk how to word it haha, the 词语搭配 and 词语辨析 sections of the textbook) into flashcards. I really like them cuz they're convenient, words wonders and I'm a big numbers nerd, so I love looking at my stats heh. Places to source practice exams are welcome too! I got the official 汉语水平考试真题集 book, but I feel like i'll run though the 5 exams quite quick. I know there's HSK Mock but 75元 per exam feels a bit expensive for my poor student pocket 🤧. I'm aiming to pass the test before April (which is when uni applications close), I think it's quite doable.... I hope 😄

 

 

[markhavemann]

On 12/15/2024 at 9:20 PM, liqi said:

I'm not using the full potential of the book as I'm basically just cramming vocabulary

This maybe sound counter intuitive but in my opinion cramming vocabulary is the best way to improve your other skills. You can't focus on listening if you don't understand most of the words, you can't read if you don't understand most of the words, and finally grammar is finite and repeating so the structures are reasonably easy to absorb, but you can't absorb grammar structures if you don't understand the words in the sentences.

 

If your main goal is to pass the HSK test then I would suggest getting your hands on as many tests as you can, there are a lot available online. Go through each test first without any assistance. Mark the questions that have words that you don't know, or where you aren't confident of the answer. 

Finish the test and note down your score, then go through it, doing the following:

- Look up and (probably) learn the unknown words that you came across

- Re-read/listen to the questions that you weren't sure of the answer to, try to get the answer with the assistance of dictionaries, repeating audio etc, then check the actual answer. Try to find out what was stopping you from being able to get the answer in the first place (vocabulary, grammar, talking speed?), just noticing what went wrong is usually enough, but make sure to learn new words that seem useful.

- Most important is to finally go through the questions that you thought you would get right but didn't. Ask yourself what went wrong, do the question again and make sure you would get it right if you got the same question again.

 

Basically the most important thing is to know where you want to be (in this case: able to answer all HSK 5 questions), identify the gaps in your knowledge and abilities (by doing the tests) and then bridging that gap (redoing questions, learning vocab, noticing grammar structures).

 

For listening you can also take the mp3 files and use an audio editor to extract any questions that had new words or that you got wrong or were unsure of. Extract each sentence into a separate mp3 file, put these files on your phone or ipod or whatever you use. Listen to these passively throughout the day, adding new ones as you do more tests and removing files that you feel like you have mastered.

 

Since a big part of tests is also mastering the test format, for me doing lots of mock exams was really helpful. Like I said, there are a lot available online and on this forum.

[liqi]

On 12/16/2024 at 12:50 PM, markhavemann said:

This maybe sound counter intuitive but in my opinion cramming vocabulary is the best way to improve your other skills

So, a little update: I did ended up just cramming everything hahaha. I don't think it's counter intuitive at all! I feel like my "language sense" (at least for reading) is pretty good, I just needed to fill the gaps of the stuff I didn't knew. I'm currently cramming 2 chapters of the official textbook everyday, leaving me with an amazing average of 580 anki cards to review per day... whoopsie 😄. But it did super immensely helped! I can totally see my progression both on the test and in real life as well (there's lots of words that I see everyday but never really bothered storing them inside my brain, like 明显，危害，位于，推广 etc)

 

Another thing that REALLY helped was getting a Chinese-Chinese dictionary from pleco, I got the Guifan Cidian. At this level one of the things that confused me the most is how often there's words that have the same meaning but not quite, with tons of hidden nuances that the textbook is awful at explaining (just a direct english translation at HSK5? Seriously Hanban?). The Guifan dictionary includes very useful notes for 近义词 and usually a bunch of examples too

 

The thing that's annoying me the most right now is how inconsistent the study material is overall. The workbook exercises are much harder than the official examination papers, and their difficulty is inconsistent: some chapters are impossible some are dead easy. What I'm currently using the most is the official (I think?) HSK Mock website, expensive but I like having my essays scored and a timer making me anxious lol. But I find those slightly harder than the 2018 official papers book, and I can't find any opinions online regarding it from people who used it before: some people say its easier, some say its harder, some say the official papers are the same, some say its not.... 🫠

 

Anyways, I think I should just stop let anxiety take control and just trust myself, but easier said than done heh. I booked the next exam at the 12th of January (which only happens in 内江 and 宜宾 in Sichuan for whatever reason, there's no HSK5 centers in Chengdu but in 内江 there is... is there any secret large foreigner community there or anything? lol) so I guess I'll see for myself anyway in a while. Even if I'm still a little apprehensive , I'm hyped! Never imagined myself here, yet here we are 😄.

 

The only part of the exam I still really struggle with is writing, I can't for the love of anything get the 完成句子 questions correctly. Which is odd, because they don't seem hard, but turns out that apparently my grammar reaaaally sucks 😅. I bought a grammar book from taobao called 21天征服HSK教程 which explains everything pretty in depth and with tons of exercises, but alas... I still suck haha