Chinese Degree Exams

[shuoshuo]

We've talked a lot about scholarships, student finances and whatnot. I'm curious to know what your exam experiences have been like? Those of you who have to do exams in Chinese (even if your first language isn't Chinese), how's that going?

Even if I've studied in China before this is my first year taking exams in Chinese. I won't lie, I feel as though my nose is just right above the water...it is far from easy. I'm in a liuxuesheng class, but most of them are Chinese students with a foreign passport. Our exams are made slightly easier than exams made for locals, but they're still quite tough.

Our exams require a lot of memorizing, my Chinese friend suggested that I should memorize the books (what?!). It is definitely getting easier though because I know a lot more words now.

Anyone else going finding this a bit of a challenge? Any tips?

[eshton]

No doubt, doing exams in chinese is extremely difficult. It's normal for you to feel like you won't manage. In the four semesters I've been doing here, I've never met an exam that was easy (mind you I did finish 2 years of study before coming to China). The biggest problem I encounter is the description of the questions, not knowing or misinterpreting one character can completely change the answer to a question. Indeed many exams are memory recall exercises that forces one to cram a textbook or two. I have a course this semester called 数字逻辑电路与系统设计 which basically will be a memory recall of types of fundamental circuits.

Personally, I have a 2 part approach to exams: part one is to remember the necessary equations/example problems, part two is to read the text and filter tidbits of information into what I call a exam knowledge base. This information becomes my exam knowledge, I apply what I can in the exam and hope for the best.

Until, chinese education is more intuitive and less rote learning, this will be the pain of studying in chinese.

[anonymoose]

I've done medicine exams together with local students.

 

I'd say the main problem is time. My Chinese writing is not bad. Usually I don't have a big issue writing down answers in Chinese. But I read and write slowly compared to local students, which means it is often difficult to finish in time (or, if I do finish in time, most of the locals already finished and left long ago).

 

As others have said, Chinese exams tend to focus on memory skills, and this is all the more so with medicine, which is heavily reliant on memorisation anyway. The way to memorise lots of stuff is just to go over it several times. But again, reading slower than locals means that it is difficult to get through everything even once, let alone several times.

 

So I'd say speed of reading and writing, for me anyway, was the main challenge in preparing for and taking exams in Chinese.

[rezaf]

The most important thing is 重点. It is important to attend all the classes because the teachers usually mention the key points as they teach. Of course some teachers give some 重点 at the end of the semester which makes it a lot easier. There is also all those previous exams and 重点 gathered by the students from the previous years. After I get all the 重点 that I need I usually start from 名词解释 to warm up my brain then I start memorizing the 问答题/简答题 and since they are boring I memorize parts of 填空题 in between. After that I usually study for the 选择题 which is usually the easy part. The last thing that I do is going over everything several times which I usually start 5 or 6 hours before the exam(熬夜 if necessary)

I have also felt that my writing speed is not as fast as it should be comparing to Chinese students but there is nothing I can do about that.

[eshton]

Sadly, this is not the case in my university. None of the lecturers give out 重点内容, they simply drone on, content to complete all the notes they made or borrowed. 

[rezaf]

I guess it depends on the type of program. For programs like medicine or TCM that are mostly about 死记硬背 it would be unimaginable to pass the exams without any clues. The worst case scenario would be not having any 复习资料 from the previous years and in that case you can only rely on your own notes. At the beginning when I was all about learning, I would listen to the teacher carefully and would use my brain to think in the class but after a while I was all about picking up clues and taking notes about anything that might be related to the exam.

[eshton]

Lol, I tried listening to my teachers also, deciphering characters and learning new words, but after 2 months it got bothersome and I felt like wasn't learning anything. Now if I'm in a class that interests me,I'll find an english text to study from, if not, I do the bare minimum work to pass.   China has changed my educational focus.

[shuoshuo]

The powerpoint presentations or "ppt" also give out clues. Some teachers are kind enough to outline the 重点 in red so you get an idea of what might pop up in the exam. For Biology-related subjects I find it useful to memorize diagrams as well, it makes the whole memorizing process easier (and in the event that I experience a mind-block during the exams, I will literally illustrate the answer, and include keywords, instead of writing down a whole paragraph).

@Eshton - I also try to find English material, especially if the subject is completely new to me. But I only go through the English material briefly because there just isn't enough time to learn everything in both languages.

Nonetheless, I'm having a wonderful time and I'm loving the challenge.