HSK or A Level (a UK exam)

[choisum]

Does anyone know if the HSK or A Level (a UK exam) is more difficult?

[Geiko]

This thread might help you, and maybe this one and this one too.

[choisum]

Thanks for the pointers Geiko, I took a look a both of those threads and then I took a look at the Edexcel GCE A Level specification. From the spec, it looks like the A Level is more rigorous in an academic sense, though I *guess* the language components between the two *might* be similar.

[ChTTay]

AS-Level and A-Level appear to require studying "texts" and poems... Looking at the meaning behind them etc

Also, at AS level you must translate Chinese to English as part of the course. At A level I believe you must translate English into Chinese.

I'm not sure HSK and A level are very comparable.

[choisum]

Yes, this is similar to what I was thinking and yes HSK and A level have different purposes so might not be directly comparable. I guess someone with A level would find HSK a straightforward course, which is worth doing since HSK might be more recognized in China.

[hedwards]

IMHO, this is a relatively big problem with uniform language assessments the Europeans use one system, the Americans have another and the Chinese have their own as well. And I'm sure that there's plenty of other ones out there.

 

My recommendation would be to consider to whom you're wanting to present the results and use that. If it means achieving a lower level in the short term, you can always do the harder one later on after you've earned the credential you need.  I suppose you could also do the harder one knowing that passing the easier test shouldn't be as much of an issue, but it all depends on how much time you want to spend taking tests.

[Demonic_Duck]

Bear in mind you're also comparing one test to six. Asking "is this test more difficult than the HSK" is essentially meaningless, if it's relevant to make the comparison at all you need to decide which level you're comparing it with. That said, I would be very surprised if A level was equivalent or greater in difficulty to HSK6, in fact I think even a lot of fresh university graduates in Chinese would struggle with HSK6.

 

Then again, I'm not familiar with the A level, have never taken any HSK tests, and my degree was nothing to do with Chinese, so you can take what I say with a pinch of salt.

[Michaelyus]

Full disclosure: did OK at AS, but poorly at A2 (even after retake), under the Curriculum 2000 (as reformed in 2003) specification. Not the current 2008 reform one. Have not taken any HSK exam before.

 

The British GCE A-level is not really equivalent to a test of linguistic proficiency. But the level at which it assesses linguistic ability is way below HSK 6: GCE A-level is pegged to CEFR B2, with the AS is meant to be at B1. Perhaps it is fairer to compare HSK5 with A2.

 

Having said that, as the A-level is an academic qualification, the A2 is quite content-heavy, although the AS also has defined areas of vocabulary.

 

The HSK appears to me to be much more vocabulary-heavy, although the A-level has no defined vocabulary list.

 

The A-level is a relatively leisurely set of papers, but the amount of text you are expected to write leads to a lot of checking back and forth. The HSK appears to require a lot more speed and exam skill.

[choisum]

Hi Michael, Are you thinking that A Level is below HSK level 6 because level 6 requires a much larger vocab?