New HSK 5 or New HSK 6?

[theduckopera]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking at taking the HSK again (my last time was in 2009, when I took the old HSK 3) before I leave China in July, but I'm having some trouble deciding which level I should aim for. I've done a few practice exams, but as I've been out of formal Chinese study for a little while my results don't really reflect where I'd be at after a few months of actual work.

My background: I studied Chinese from 2008-2009 at the University of Western Australia, although we only had classes 3 hours a week. In 2010 I studied for a semester at Zhejiang Normal University, before swapping to Beijing Normal University, where I studied for a further year. I was in the intermediate classes there--201 and 202. Finally, I returned to UWA for a haphazard semester in 2011.

Since then I've been working on and off in Beijing as a translator specialising in art and literature, although since everything I do is on the computer I really don't practice the sort of skills you need for HSK very often. I also have a Chinese tutor who comes twice a week but we've mostly been working on speaking. I feel I could regain the vocabulary and the writing/reading-on-paper skills I've been neglecting fairly quickly, but I don't know if it'd be quickly enough.

Does anyone have any advice? A friend recommended I stick with HSK 5 as there's a huge leap between the two but if HSK 6 is possible I would rather just go for it. All thoughts appreciated!

Many thanks,

Sarah

[SinoPhil]

Hi Sarah, do you already know there are HSK test centers where you can do the HSK via computer/internet 网络考试

, not by handwriting characters 纸笔考试? Because I think this might be the solution to your problem, no?

Edelweis explained how to look for HSK 网络考试 centers in this thread:

http://www.chinese-f...put-网络考试-where/

Good luck,

Marco