Setting attainable goals (BLCU-,HSK-related)

[foolip]

I've taken a Mandarin evening course in Sweden this semester and will be going to BLCU in September if everything goes according to plan. I also have a deal with my teacher to study during the summer. In my imagination, my goal is to get into one of the not-easiest groups at BLCU, but I have no idea how the groups are made. Is this an attainable goal? Also, I'm wondering if it's possible to pass any level of the HSK test after only one year of studying at BLCU. What would be a reasonable goal to set?

[lau]

i believe in 2 years of study (one at home,one in sweden) you might try for 初中级. and in BNU the placement test is remarkably similar to HSK (i'm guessing, it's same in BLCU?), so if you want to get in a high group, try practising during the summer!

[redpixel]

I don't mean to discourage you, but I think you'll find that studying Chinese at a Chinese university in China is not really comparable to studying Chinese at an evening course in Sweden. What you've learned so far will probably be covered in 2 weeks time at BLCU.

The placement test is like lau said basically the same as the HSK. If you want to prepare, try to get some HSK training textbooks and CD's/tapes. You probably need to work on your listening comprehension, in order to be able to understand Chinese spoken at a standard pace and your reading comprehension, which constitutes a large part of the test. Reading comprehension is very important, even for the listening part, since you need to be able to read the different answer alternatives.

My experience taking the placement test (after 1 year of Chinese studies at Gothenburg University) was that it was 80% guesswork There were simply too many new words and my listening comprehension was way too poor. Still, I managed to skip a few months so you should be able to do the same if you're able to study diligently during the summer. Even if you end up doing bad on the test or simply choose to start "from scratch" it's not a disaster, since you'll be able to move up later. In my current class (middle level) there are some people who started studying ~8 months ago, when I arrived in China, and knew no Chinese at the time.

After one year's worth of studies at BLCU taking the HSK test at the mid-level should be no problem.

[foolip]

Thanks for sharing your experiences redpixel. Certainly I understand that what I have learned so far closely approximates nothing. I will look into HSK prep-material and study during the summer as much as I can. You're correct that it wouldn't be the end of the world starting from scratch, but I like to set a goal to motive myself. Is the HSK mid-level the one ranging from levels 3-11? That seems strange to me, who is supposed to take the basic level (1-3) if 1 years of studies is enough for the next level?

[redpixel]

I'm not really sure, if anyone else knows feel free to answer.

According to http://english.china.com/zh_cn/education/hsk/11024962/20041025/11932436.html it seems that the basic level is <3000 words. I'm not entirely sure but I guess that if you study "by the book", not skipping anything, for 1 year in China you might end up with something like that. The intermediate level starts at 2000 words, so you'd probably also be able to take the intermediate test but with a less-than-perfect grade. If you're motivated, however, you should be able to skip a level and learn more than that. 3000 words sounds like an awful lot but in practice it's not _so_ much, since it's words, not characters. After a while you'll spontaneously be able to think of many words containing any given character.

[lau]

初中 HSK is beginner/intermediate, 3-5 being beginner and 6-8 intermediate, the purpose of the "absolute beginner" test is unclear for me as well. but what matters is, that the entrance exam will resemble the 初中 exam. guessing IS an important part of the exam, it's either luck or learning to make intelligent guesses. sometimes when asked to chose what the underlined phrase/words mean, 2 out of 4 answers have much the same 汉字s as the underlined one, and it's mostly wise NOT to chose those two answers, so your guessing success moves from 1/4 up to 1/2. anyways, get a book, you'll figure it out

[roddy]

The HSK exam structure is not ideal - the foundation 基础 exam covers quite a very small range of stuff, with the elem / int 初级 exam covering masses, with the result that the beginner student has to choose between a none too challenging exam, or a very challenging one. I suspect they wanted to come up with something new, but couldn't be bothered sorting out the 初级 exam and instead decided to squeeze in an easier exam at the start.

But don't listen to me, check out the samples and see what you reckon - find the level that seems challenging, and then aim to be able to get a passing grade in it by the end of the summer.