mungouk Posted July 6, 2018 at 04:26 PM Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 at 04:26 PM 大家好！ If anyone else like me is cramming for the HSK 3 on 14 July you might be interested in the Coursera HSK 3 prep course. https://www.coursera.org/learn/hsk-3/home/welcome It's meant to be 7-10 weeks, but if you blaze through it you might be able to complete in a week. I've been enjoying it because (a) it's fairly high quality content (apart from a few typos in pinyin) and (b) it's different from the HSK 3 "standard course" text book and therefore a bit of fresh air. The pacing is good and presenters speak clearly and with good audio. Except for the dialogues featuring students which are in echoey classrooms and have the audio level set way too high! (NORMALISE the audio people!) Annoyingly after the "3 week" point I got hit with a paywall asking me to sign up for a 7-day trial, which I think is a new thing. (I've done Coursera MOOCs in the past and not seen this before.) You can cancel within 7 days if you can set yourself a reminder, or pay USD 49 to continue. Anyway despite the gripes I think it's worth a look if you can avoid having to pay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungouk Posted July 12, 2018 at 01:59 AM Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2018 at 01:59 AM Update to add: I'm now in Shanghai, behind the GFW, and having trouble completing this course. Coursera.org is accessible OK, but the video content, which seems to be hosted on cloudfront.net, isn't loading most of the time. I've also tried through a VPN, and switching browsers in case of cookie issues, all with no luck. For those who can access it, the first 6 "weeks" (Part 1 linked above) are going through vocabulary, grammar and dialogues and Part 2 is 4 "weeks" on testing strategies and mock tests. I managed to start Part 2 without completing Part 1, so you might be able to begin with the tests and skip Part 1 completely. Anyway I'm going to have to bail out and cancel my 7-day trial subscription now. US $49 a month is pretty steep. I guess nobody is going to be willing to pay for a certificate just to say they completed an HSK prep course, when what really counts is the certificate for passing the exam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luxi Posted July 12, 2018 at 09:06 AM Report Share Posted July 12, 2018 at 09:06 AM If you cancel your subscription, will you still be able to audit Part 2 and see the exercises? You'll miss the teacher's/TA's feedback, but I'm sure you can do them on your own. You can always ask questions here. Have you tried downloading the video lectures to watch offline? That's what I used to do with moocs taught from China, they were painfully slow in the early days. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungouk Posted July 12, 2018 at 10:11 AM Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2018 at 10:11 AM I didn't take part in the forum activities as I was just using the content to review vocab and grammar, and to get a slightly different angle from just doing mock tests. I'll find out tomorrow whether Part 2 is still accessible, but I doubt it. In theory you could download all the videos, but then you wouldn't have access to the mini quizzes/tests (which are all pretty simple actually). 48 hours to go! I should get on with another mock test... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flickserve Posted February 9, 2021 at 11:45 AM Report Share Posted February 9, 2021 at 11:45 AM Lucky I found this. I was wondering about the 49USD. Give credit card details for free enrolment Yup, enrolment is free, to continue you are charged. Classic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mungouk Posted February 9, 2021 at 01:27 PM Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2021 at 01:27 PM Well, this was more than 18 months ago. The business model might have changed again since then... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flickserve Posted February 9, 2021 at 03:10 PM Report Share Posted February 9, 2021 at 03:10 PM I just went on the site today. They give 7 days free trial, for which you have to enter credit card details first. This is the free enrolment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunnySideUp Posted February 9, 2021 at 04:12 PM Report Share Posted February 9, 2021 at 04:12 PM There should be a free audit version - just means you won't be getting a certificate at the end (and possibly some assignments not graded, but I haven't gotten that far yet). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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