Taking the HSK? Already taken it? Report in here!

[milin]

As I already expected, my scores on the HSK level 5 written exam of 2 december 2012 were even worse than those in may. In may I scored 41, 41 and 44 points on listening, reading and writing, and this time 39, 39, and 40 points, so a total of 118 (where 180 is required).

Until now I mainly focused on reading, and I *can* read the level 5 texts, but not fast enough. Regardless how much time I get, I would probably never pass the listening and writing section.

So now I'm going to start studying the New Practical Chinese Reader books, and starting from scratch. Since I already have a vocabulary of 10000 words (about 2000 characters), I don't have to worry about learning words, but can concentrate on grammar, speaking and listening. I have 2 Chinese students who are helping me with the speaking parts and some of the exercises (like translation to Chinese).

In addition, I have started reading the texts of the level 6 exams, and I don't think these are much more difficult than the level 5 ones. Since they use a lot of level 6 words in the level 5 exams, I want to learn as many as possible before (in may) I'm going to have my 3rd try at level 5. It's not very probable that I will then already be able to pass, but I want to see if there is any progress.

[XiongNu]

Taking the HSK tomorrow at fudan university in Shanghai, done about 6 practice tests in total. Pretty nervous because if I fall below 60 in any category, I'll fail the whole thing right.

My practice tests marks have been

Listening/Reading

74/74

74/62

70/58

72/76

76/62

XX/70

It's kind of terrifying that I got 58/62 in those recent mock tests. It's that select the right words part, sometimes I ace it and sometimes I bomb pretty hard. I just need to keep my fingers cross tomorrow that the odds will be in my favor! A part of me just wants to delay it and sit it in June/July but I don't wanna have wasted the fee..

[XiongNu]

Well I took the HSK6 today, not entirely sure I passed based solely on the listening section which is surprising since I never got below 70 in any of my practice tests. I think my vocab was holding me back at times from not fully understanding all the possible answers.

阅读 section felt good and the pick the right vocab selection seemed pretty easy, with a lot of the options often being flagrantly wrong, certainly easier than all the practice ones I did in my sinolingua practice book. Readings were fine but some weird questions as usual. Writing was so much easier than the one that was done in March (looking at the previous tests on the website) and was about a fish who granted wishes but took everything back when they wished for too much, I'm annoyed that this morning I even looked directly at the chengyu 适可而止 but it didn't come to my when I had to write the title of the written essay.

Except for one guy there, everyone else was Korean and Japanese. I looked enviously at the Japanese dude's characters beside me, they really do have a big advantage when it comes to writing. It doesn't help that I hold the pencil vertically either, my characters are ugly as sin.

Oh well, if I pass I'll be happy and if I don't I'll simply take it again in June!

[RoyT]

I just came took HSK level 6 exam as well..and what should I say? The listening was much, much harder than expected, I did fairly good in all the mock tests, once even got a 96 score (worth mentioning that the mock exam were all 真题), I was really shocked how many questions I had to guess. I'll be extremely happy if I'll get above 70! Oh, and of course, my table shaking a few times during the exam wasn't really helpful too (I took it in Sichuan university, we had some pretty rough morning here). I do agree the writing part was much easier than expected, the reading part was relatively OK too. Overall, I really fear I got a terribly low score on the listening part, hence not passing the whole exam...let's hope for the best!

Unfortunately, I *must* pass the exam as I'm a MTSCOL student, if I don't pass it I won't get the scholarship for next year, so overall it was a very, very stressing day for me. I hope Hanban will be kind enough and consider the unusual conditions this exam was taken in, but then again, who am I kidding?

Most of the exam takers were actually Chinese, most of them coming from Xinjiang, the rest were my classmates, mostly are Asians as well.

@XiongNu

May I ask, how much did you get in your last try?

Wishing everyone good luck!

[XiongNu]

So you found the listening part hard as well? Yeah, it sure was difficult in parts! Especially that story about the flying bird being shot down or whatever the hell happened.

This was my first time taking any kind of HSK! Good luck with your results.

[Don_Horhe]

I took the New HSK 6 yesterday, previously I had only taken the old one in 2010 and got an 8. This time I took the exam without specifically preparing for it, I only did 2 mock tests on the day before.

The listening was definitely not a walk in the park - at more than one instances I simply couldn't understand what was being said, and context was my salvation in these cases. I also had to guess 2-3 answers because I missed a few specific details.

In terms of content, the reading section wasn't difficult, but the 50 minutes are way too little. I did this section backwards, starting with the passages and finishing with the error identification part. The time ran out just when I was starting to read the 9th group, so basically 9 and 10 were also picking lottery numbers.

I was most worried about the writing, as I haven't written anything by hand for a very long time, and I'm way behind schedule on Anki (I test myself on recognition only, but also write the words/characters by hand as I go along). Luckily for me, I found it to be easy enough and I snugly fit into the 400字左右. The title I picked was 知足常乐, but now that XiongNu mentioned 适可而止, I think it's more appropriate.

Overall, it was not as bad as I had imagined. When I did the first mock test, the time for the reading section finished when I still had another 12-13 questions to answer, but I had read everything carefully and didn't skim over the reading passages. The second mock test was better - I did it backwards (I read about this approach here on the forums) and instead first reading the whole passage, I directly looked for the answers to the questions by using keywords.

[JustinJJ]

I sat HSK 5 in March. I thought the reading was quite intense; lots of vocab outside of the vocab list, lots of time pressure.

听力：90

阅读：77

写作：79

总分：246

I sat HSK 4 last December. I think the big difference (difficulty-wise) between HSK 4 and 5 was definately the reading section. From what I remember in 4 the text pretty much stuck to the fairly limited vocab list, but in 5 the reading section was much broader.

听力：93

阅读：93

写作：77

总分：263

[scorpionyc]

Hi,

I took the HSK 4 written yesterday. Unfortunately it was a bit harder than I expected and I had trouble hearing the 听力　since the volume was raised and the recording was fuzzy. I remember thinking the sentence ordering in the reading part was easy, and the pictures that you need to write sentences about weren't too bad - but I only started writing 2 weeks ago so for me I just got lucky I hope I pass!! Anyone else take the May 12 test?

[johnk]

I did HSK 4 on Saturday 11th May at SOAS in London. HSK4 seems to be a sticking point for me. I am not particularly confident of passing.

For what it is worth, there were 8 people doing the HSK4. The thing I noted was that there was no time allowed to transfer the answers from the question paper to the computer marked form they use. In previous exams I took at SOAS, we were always allowed 5 or 10 minutes to transfer the answers.

Also there was no clock in the room, so pacing the different sections of the exam was difficult. I rushed through some sections and finished too early.

Now that HSK4 is over, I am taking it easy for a few months. :-)

[guomubai]

I did the HSK level 6 last week, on Sunday May 12th. I think I might have done worse than the last time I took it (last fall, barely passed)

I didn't do anything to prepare, just like last time. I have been doing an internship in Shanghai, and it's not the most language intensive environment. Oh well.

[xuefang]

I took HSK6 on 12th May too. It was the first time to take level 6 and also try the computer exam. I have no complaints about the computerized version, it worked all really well. Just remember to pay attention to the time on the right top corner!

I didn't really prepare specifically for HSK, I was supposed to, but in the end I just didn't. I took HSK5 in Dec 2011 when I got 235 points and thought it was time to try the last level.

Listening was a bit more harder than I had thought. In reading I magically had enough time, but it's hard to say how many points I will get. I did the other reading parts first and then left more than 10 minutes for first part "find the incorrect sentence" and checking my answers.

Writing was ok cause you can type on the computer exam. You're not supposed to make any notes about the article (a story) you read, but I saw a student next to me cheating on this and making some notes. I might have forgotten to write some important parts to my essay and I used really easy language.

I think I could pass, but I don't dare to promise that. Lets see!

[addeGG]

Now the results is out for HSK on April 20, I got 183 points on HSK5, pheew.

[Don_Horhe]

I passed level 6 with 234, although I was expecting a somewhat higher score.

听力 82

阅读 80

写作 72

[XiongNu]

First time I took the test and I passed thank goodness! I was so worried about the listening section

听力 71

阅读 73

写作 71

Congrats Don Horhe and addeGG!

I plan to take it again eventually and it would be awesome to get 260+

[tooironic]

I've just registered to take HSK6 in Melbourne in September this year, wish me luck! After the exam I'll post on here about how it all went. I've been slowly making my way through mock exams, and have enlisted a tutor, so here's hoping everything goes smoothly.

[RoyT]

So after anxiously waiting for a long time, my scores are finally out...and I passed level 6!

My scores:

听力 71

阅读 68

写作 77

It probably means I'll have the scholarship for next year as well, so a double celebration for me!

Congrats to everyone who passed!

[hiten]

I just passed HSK4 written. My 写作 is really bad

听力 89

阅读 86

写作 59

Total score 234

[Don_Horhe]

Congrats to everyone! Of those who have taken both the old and new HSK, do you find the old version more difficult and at the same time more, shall I say, adequate? I haven't taken the 旧版高级, but judging by 初、中级, I think it tests one's knowledge much better, insofar as that is possible by a standardized test.

[Baron]

I took the HSK6 and the Advanced HSKK on the same day. I had no idea they were separate exams, otherwise I wouldn't have tortured myself that much on one day. The reading seemed harder than some of the mocks, and it didn't feel there was enough time. The writing was easier than the mocks, the story had a fairly predictable plot. The grammar was about the same level of difficulty.

HSKK though... first listen to long paragraphs about weird stuff then repeat it. I didn't know if I should make notes in Chinese (slower to write) or English (slower on the brain due to translation) so I didn't write any notes, and promptly forgot what the topic of the passage was. Several times. Lesson: do practice tests, many of them.

The open questions were a bit off-putting, one was 'what's your dream and how will you achieve it?' or something like that. Lesson: practice of talking about personal issues into a computer is required. Better alternative would be just make up some rubbish answer.

99% chance I've failed HSKK

HSK6...50/50 chance of passing

[CZY]

Took the HSK on May 12th too, anxiously waiting for results as my scholarship here depends on it...since 12th June is a national holiday here in China I am not expecting them to be on time.