Taking two HSK's at the same time

[wushijiao]

I have a few questions about the HSK’s.

1) Is it possible to take both the 初中 and the 高 in the same month? According to their website, the actual test are on different days 4/23, and 4/22 respectively. I haven’t read anything on their website that suggests that one can’t do this.

2) Is there anyone out there who is thinking of taking the 高? I’m thinking about it. I figure, if I start this very moment and work as hard as possible, there is realistically only a 5% chance that I could pass. But, assuming I work as hard as possible, there is probably a 70% that I could pass it in October. I took the 初中 in December and got a 6, just 3 points away from a 7. I didn’t do any practice tests, and very little specific preparation. Nonetheless, the listening section (and the test in general) was shockingly much harder than I had expected.

In any case, I had originally planned to just take the 初中 again, just for fun really, but then I figured I might as well take the 高. What do I have to lose besides the entry fee money and my dignity when I get the humiliating results? I think doing the test (and failing) would certainly point me in the right direction for re-taking it and passing in the fall. But then I figured, I might as well take both at the same time. Has anyone else considered this?

I’m also intrigued by the theory that Jive Turkey’s teacher posited in this post:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/5001-anyone-taken-the-hsk-advanced

[roddy]

I see absolutely no reason why you couldn't do it, there are no qualifications required for taking the exam, and unless you register for both at the same time I doubt they'd even notice.

I mutter about taking the advanced from time to time. Perhaps we can bully each other into doing it?

[wushijiao]

Perhaps we can bully each other into doing it?

Hehe. Why not (except for the obvious fact that, at least I, can’t really write)? Didn’t you almost get an 8? I think you’d certainly be in a good position to pass.

If nothing else, I think the skills needed for the 高 are exactly the skills I lack. Studying for the test might help in making my Chinese less sloppy and crude.

I’d also wonder about whether or not the 初中 is getting slightly harder. Of course, it’d be almost impossible to really know without the data. I’m just wondering because one of my friends who is fairly solid in most areas got just a 4, and the grammar section really killed him.

[roddy]

Yeah, my skills are similar. That's why I should take it, and it's also why I don't want to.

Had your friend done much HSK-specific prep? As with all exams you could really know your stuff, but if you haven't seen a paper before it would be easy to mess up.

Roddy

[lau]

I'm trying to get enough courage to try taking a 高等. I somehow thought they have it in the end of may, untill news of april HSK reached me. Got me more scared than I was before.

I have a few HSK preparation books, the only part I am sometimes doing now is the 综合 thingy cause it's kind of fun - getting the answers, checking them, and then having a pleasant feeling: hey, its 5 correct guesses out of 10!!! (compared to 4 out of previous 10) quite miserable, I know, but i still hope i might either a) manage to improve my chinese in, what, a month or so? or B) be really really lucky on THAT DAY.

the plan is, if i fail, then there might be a nice 初中等 in july or something... cause all that matters, as far as i understand, is getting either 6 or 9 (for masters degree). i mean, if i ever get a crazy idea of applying to a university in china, i would need one of those.

[imron]

I was thinking about taking the advanced this October with the idea that 7-8 months would hopefully be enough time to get me up to that level. Currently I would rank myself at the high end of intermediate and though I've not done the intermediate exam, I score reasonably well on the practise exams I've done (under exam conditions) and figure that as I eventually want to do the advanced, there's no point doing the intermediate as the qualification will be superceded once I've done the advanced (haha, assuming I would pass ).

Anyway, I guess the reason for wanting to take it was really to give me something to aim towards, as well as give me the motivation to improve my Chinese beyond just 差不多 for everyday life. With this in mind I asked my school to hook me up with lessons from a Chinese teacher (I work at a foreign languages college, and there are quite a few Chinese as a Second Language teachers here). When I was going through my requirements and what I hoped to achieve from the lessons, the teacher asked me if I was more interested in passing the advanced HSK, or in improving my real-world ability to use Chinese. Not to imply that preparing for the HSK wouldn't improve my Chinese, but just that the advanced HSK is hard enough for some native speakers, and he wanted to know if the classes should focus more on techniques for passing the exam, or on things that would improve my real-world ability to communicate.

So I chose the latter, which probably makes the classes more interesting, but now I probably wont take the advanced exam this October. I'd like to do it eventually, but now that I've got Chinese lessons, the main reason for doing the exam (ie. to give me motivation to study) no longer exists, because the lessons themselves (including the preparation and homework) are providing me with the kick up the backside needed to get me moving.

[wushijiao]

but now that I've got Chinese lessons, the main reason for doing the exam (ie. to give me motivation to study) no longer exists, because the lessons themselves (including the preparation and homework) are providing me with the kick up the backside needed to get me moving.

I think having something to work towards is what it is all about. 　 The 高 is well designed to fit my current needs. Right now I want to refine my Chinese, in grammar, writing, tones…etc, all of which the test emphasizes.

Anyway, I’ve taken 1 1/2 practice tests, and here are a few impressions.

Listening

This section doesn’t seem too bad. One thing people have complained about on the 初中 is that they’ll give you 10 seconds of random dialogue without context, and you have to make sense out of it. It seems like the advanced test might be a bit better in this respect, because if you understand a particular conversation, you are likely to get the 3-5 accompanying questions right. Of course, it works the other way, and you can miss all of them. The news/journalistic questions (25-40) seem challenging due to the speed.

Reading

Dear God this is fast! 　In the 初中 I finished the reading at about 45 minutes out of 60, with plenty of time to re-check answers, and I got a band 8 on that section. In the Gao’s practice tests, I was speed reading and scanning as fast as possible and still barely able to keep up. The multiple choice questions (16-40) look at bit easier than the 1-15 “write the answers in characters” questions. Personally, my writing will need to get faster and more comprehensive in order to do well at all on that first part (i.e. fill in any).

Grammar

Again, the speed of this is amazing. However, with lots of practice tests and knowing the format, this part should become easier.

Writing

The open-endedness and airy-fairyness of the topics seem a bit puzzling to me. One was “爱是…..”, for example. This section will be by far the most challenging to prepare for. Perhaps, like others have suggested, one can memorize a few different essays and then hope to have a topic close enough to connect with the test’s prompt. I might think of using that strategy.

Speaking

I’m not too worried about this, except for my tones.

I would be very appreciative to hear any advice from other people who have taken this test.

[lau]

do it chinese-style! find the sentence in the text and copy it out. noone is asking for creativity and/or answering in your own words in this country ;)