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

[suMMit]

Got my HSKK speaking result(took a month). It's out of 100, and 60 is pass. At least I passed, but not too excited.

[7800]

I took the HSK5 (on paper) yesterday and the listening part was simply absurd, I couldn't understand shit. I was expecting a 80/100 from all the mock tests I took, but I don't think I'll get anything above 50. The reading part was normal, I think I did really well, and the (hand)writing wasn't hard but it was a challenge because of the time limit.

 

So far all the tests I'd taken were very similar to the practice ones available on the official website, and I almost aced HSK4, so I really wasn't expecting this much of a difference.

[working dog]

On 8/22/2023 at 2:25 AM, 7800 said:

So far all the tests I'd taken were very similar to the practice ones available on the official website, and I almost aced HSK4, so I really wasn't expecting this much of a difference.

可能你需要精读几篇听力材料。有时候你能听懂，但是问题并不是你注意力关注的点，而是需要推理一下。可以尝试把听到的关键信息记录一下，对照问题再分析是不是会更好？

[Lu]

On 8/22/2023 at 5:30 AM, working dog said:

可能你需要精读几篇听力材料。

Hi Working Dog, welcome to the forums! Great to have a native speaker weigh in. Please make sure to post mainly in English -- many members here don't know Chinese very well yet, and we want everyone to be able to understand the discussion.

[working dog]

On 8/23/2023 at 3:26 AM, Lu said:

Hi Working Dog, welcome to the forums! Great to have a native speaker weigh in. Please make sure to post mainly in English -- many members here don't know Chinese very well yet, and we want everyone to be able to understand the discussion.

Oh, I'm sorry. I will post message in English next time.

[7800]

On 8/22/2023 at 2:25 AM, 7800 said:

I took the HSK5 (on paper) yesterday and the listening part was simply absurd, I couldn't understand shit. I was expecting a 80/100 from all the mock tests I took, but I don't think I'll get anything above 50. The reading part was normal, I think I did really well, and the (hand)writing wasn't hard but it was a challenge because of the time limit.

 

I got my certificate in hands just an hour ago, and luckily it seems like the website is up again

 

 

Since the highest global average for this one test was on the 听力部分, I'll need to find a new excuse as to why I couldn't understand the recording. Maybe I should try saying that the audio was too loud? 
70/100 is ok, but I only got that much because I'm good at taking tests. My actual understanding of the listening part was appalling. I might not have been able to understand a single word on some exercises, and I'd never experienced anything close to that.

 

阅读 was quite easy, I read all the texts at normal pace and had to wait for a while to start the writing part. Reading is definitely the skill I exercise the most.

My score on 书写 was kind of a mystery to me, because it had been a long time since I had last written Chinese by hand, and I didn't have the time to practice. I intended to take the online test in November, but I sent an e-mail to the C.I. near me and they said they would only hold a 纸笔 test in August. My strategy was to write a simple yet "perfect" text. The marking scheme requires  内容与图片相关 or 5个词语全部使用 ，无错别字，无语法错误，内容丰富、连贯且合逻 for a high score, so I ignored the "rich content" part and focused on the other ones. I wasn't sure whether they'd like a text whose vocabulary was clearly below HSK5 level, but it seems like they did. This is the only section where I'm not below my test site average, the few other people taking the test with me were all Chinese-born, so I'm VERY happy with my writing score.

[Pomelofruit]

Reviving this thread as I prepare for HSK6 later this year, having passed HSK5 in September last year (Sep-23). Wish I'd found this forum sooner!

 

For background, I'm ethnically Chinese and speak Chinese with my parents at home, but grew up outside China. To prepare for HSK5, I took lessons with That's Mandarin school in Beijing (we recently moved to Beijing for my husband's work) following the standard coursebooks.

 

Here is what I wish I'd known, and a reflection on the (web-based) exam itself.

 

HSK5 consisted of both the 'written' exam (listening/reading/writing) as well as the HSKK oral exam. On the day, the exam room was laid out with desks that had computers, headphones with in-built mics and a keyboard on it. We left all our belongings (including water bottles!) at the front of the room.

 

'Written' web-based exam (HSK5): the exam strictly follows the timing and order i.e. you do the listening part first, then reading, then writing. What this means is you cannot do the writing section quickly and give yourself more time for reading (the toughest part of the exam).

For each section, you can go back and edit answers within that section, but you cannot flick between sections.

 

For me, as I grew up in a Chinese-speaking household:

• Listening section: comprehending the listening section was fairly easy but the hard part was reading all the answers in allocated time
• Reading section: it was tough - in past papers, I'd always struggled to complete all the questions and the exam was no exception, I ended up guessing the last two sets of multiple choice questions. It's both speed and comprehension, with quite a few 'additional' words thrown in that aren't part of the syllabus
• Writing section: fairly easy for me due to the low character count, and no requirement to write "fancy/formal" Chinese. Keep it simple and grammatically correct.

 

Oral exam (HSKK Advanced): this is where it got interesting for me. My teachers all said I'd have no problem with the oral exam as I am a fluent speaker due to my background. However, this was my lowest scoring section by far - I scraped a pass (61)!

 

Reflecting on it, I think this is due to several factors:

1. As the oral exam covers both HSK5 and HSK6, the 'read aloud' section often contains characters I don't know

2. Some of the discussion topics (especially the second topic!) are more abstract and requires vocab that I didn't have

3. I know everyone is in the same room, but I was really distracted during the oral exam by the other test takers. As everyone repeats / answers questions at the same time, I found it very hard to concentrate. It didn't help that we were told to shout into the microphone (the mics weren't v sensitive) so there were 30+ people shouting out their answers. I genuinely think it'd be helpful to practice the oral exam with several channels of TV/radio on in the background, at a loud volume.

 

Hope this is helpful!