Online test: How many characters do you recognise?

[BearXiong]

I found this online test which estimates the number of characters you recognise. I thought it'd be fun to see what some of you guys get. Obviously what it means to "know" a character varies from person to person, but you can at least check you got the pronounciation right on the top right of the test window.

 

I did it twice and got 2744 and 2745, which is actually very close to the number of characters that I've gone through in my Anki flashcard deck. 

[CherrylS]

This seems really neat!

[Tomsima]

1st time: 4710

2nd time: 4943

 

pleasantly suprised there was a whole bunch of characters I didnt recognise. I noticed that in the second half of both tests there were 2/3 characters which appear to have been specifically taken from 離騷 （轗、畦 etc.)

 

I should add that I would estimate my actual usable recognised characters at around 4000, based on 3000 heisig + an anki character deck built around non-heisig characters which is just over 1000. I know an additional few hundred or so just from having studied and read a lot of 楚辭, and I think that skewed the estimate to near 5000, which I personally dont think reflects my actual knowledge

[Apollys]

I only knew a few but it was still rather accurate given the very small sample size (10-15% error).

 

Edit: upon further reflection, I have to add that there were some traditional and some simplified characters.  If they're counted as separate entities, it would seem their estimate was quite far off.  On the other hand, if I go back and uncheck any traditional characters, the new result is also quite far off.  (Quite far off means ~50% error or higher.)

[imron]

11,990, but that was just because I clicked on every character because I was interested to see what the total would be   My real figure based on just ones I know was 4256.

[陳德聰]

Seems quite suspect. The intermix of simplified and traditional characters makes me think perhaps it is more than meets the eye. I think it may actually be some kind of market research into people’s recognition of traditional characters.

 

It’s clearly for Chinese people to share on Weibo, so... the assumption would be that the first half is basically recognised by everyone, whereas there are then added less common and mostly archaic characters and then a smattering of traditional characters.

[Shelley]

It does actually call it self Survey Chinese Characters, so you may be right about it being market research.