I'm a highschooler at BLCU, need advice FAST

[MPSRuo]

Hi, I'm a high school student at BLCU. I was admitted because I'm 18 and a rising high school senior. When I say admitted, I mean that in an almost innapropriate manner. I enrolled in the 4 weeks chinese language program to get a feel for the language and explore the country for cultural reasons. I plan to study the language for the next 9 years of my life (1 year of high school, 4 undergrad, 4 grad school) but I digress.

The problem is that I mainly used this program to see china and learn basic chinese and intonations. I got the cultural gift that I wanted from this visit but my so called "class test" is tomorrow and to be honest...I'm not prepared in any way. I went to class, listened and took notes but I'm honest enough to admit that i didn't put as much dedication as I could have. In short...BLCU doesn't matter to me.

Then, as I sit here in my dorm room going over some phrases, the question hits me: If i were to say..pass the exam, what use would it be for me? Will this piece of paper be of any use in terms of college acceptance? Or is it literally worthless considering I don't plan to attend college in china. In other words, should I just fail the test.... or is it worth busting my skull to pass it for some use?

Thanks

-B

[anonymoose]

Sorry, I can't answer your question, but...

If you are dedicated enough to say you will spend the next 9 years of your life learning Chinese, why can't you put the effort in to try and pass your exam anyway? If you fail, you fail, but at least you'll have learnt something in the process. If you can't be bothered to do that, are you sure you want to commit yourself to 9 more years of Chinese study?

[girlwonder]

I understand that you went to China to see it, learn the culture and soak in the atmosphere.. but really, did you have to do the one-month course to see China? If you just wanted to go and see it and pick up basic Chinese, you could have just gone as a tourist.

Just like the previous person said, because you've already had the classes and whatnot, you should at least make the effort to do the best you can. What's the point of sitting there thinking "hm, shall I just not study and fail?"? You may as well do the best you can to see how much basic Chinese you've picked up, to see what you've learnt.

And if you're not as keen about passing this test, what makes you think that it'll be any different if you do Chinese as an undergrad?

I don't mean to sound harsh or anything, but I just think you should just get on with it and do the exam and do the best you can.

[Xiying]

Does it go on the transcript? When applying to undergraduate and graduate institutions, you must submit transcripts for all (accredited) university courses taken, no matter the reason, and sign statements affirming this. Given that this is abroad, you may get away with this though.

[Lu]

You took the course, listened, and took notes. Maybe you could have worked harder than you did, but you took the course seriously. So you probably learned something in the process, you learned some Chinese. This test is a good opportunity to go over all you've learned so far again (fuxi), this way you'll remember it better. I'd say just study for it and see how you do. Anything you learn in the process is helpful. If you fail it won't matter, so no need to overdo it (no studying until 4 in the morning or something), but as you took the class and will take the exam anyway, might as well do as good as you can.