80 character limit on the writing section of HSK5

[Milkybar_Kid]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm currently practising writing Chinese for the writing part of the Level 5 HSK exam, however I always seem to go over the 80 character word limit. So far I've written compositions that vary in length from 95 - 107 Chinese characters.

 

Does anyone know how strictly this 80 character limit is enforced? Is 80 characters the absolute limit with no space provided for any more?

 

Many thanks

 

 

[curry]

I don't know about the computer-based exam, but when I took the HSK 5 on paper, there was a grid for each of the passages you are asked to write. Each grid had 96 boxes in which to write the characters, so you can't go too far above the 80 character guideline.

 

Best of luck.

[陳德聰]

As far as preparing goes, you should probably review pieces you have written before and find out what your average character per sentence amount is. Then you can ballpark how many sentences you need to have in your written portion and budget appropriately when you're thinking of what to write.

 

If you keep it to one "thing" as in one thing you want to say about the topic per sentence, then you can keep it short and sweet.

[imron]

there was a grid for each of the passages you are asked to write. Each grid had 96 boxes in which to write the characters, so you can't go too far above the 80 character guideline.

 

For practice, here's a grid with exactly 80 characters on it:

 

8x10.pdf

 

*disclosure, I own/run the site that generated this file.