Cambridge Uni past exam papers

[realmayo 1,824]

I came across a website with past exam papers for undergraduates studying Chinese at Cambridge University. I thought I'd post the link here in case it's of interest, and it might help answer the question that often comes up on the forums about what kind of Chinese proficiency to expect after studying Chinese for one year, or after a full undergraduate course, etc.

 

I was in fact hunting around for Classical Chinese material, but there's the Modern Chinese exams there too.

 

As I understand it, Part IA would be the exams taken after one year of study, Part IB is after two years. Students then study in China for a year before returning for their fourth and final year, so the Part II exams are those taken at the end of that final year. I think all papers (so both Modern and Classical) on Part IA and IB are compulsory, don't know about Part II.
 

I then had a look to see if other UK universities make past papers available too, but the ones I googled seemed to all need student ID.

 

Here's the link: https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/faculty-library/past-exam-papers

[somethingfunny 793]

Nice find!

 

I'm very tempted to try a few of these. 

 

Only the translation and writing paper seems to require responses in Chinese, which I find a little surprising.  I was initially looking at the 2019 "Contemporary Chinese society" paper and thought all questions had to be answered in Chinese: "To what extent is China's stance on human rights nothing more than a tool of diplomacy for the purposes of the CCP?"  Now that would be difficult.

[Jan Finster 290]

1 hour ago, somethingfunny said:

hought all questions had to be answered in Chinese: "To what extent is China's stance on human rights nothing more than a tool of diplomacy for the purposes of the CCP?"  Now that would be difficult.

 

It may be difficult for the casual DIY learner. However, I would assume they have read and discussed such political topics ad nauseam during the semester. Then, it is actually not that difficult...

[somethingfunny 793]

My point was that I originally thought they had to respond in Chinese to that question (which would be impressive studied ad nauseum or not).  However, I then realised it was an English language response question.

[Luxi 819]

22 hours ago, somethingfunny said:

Only the translation and writing paper seems to require responses in Chinese, which I find a little surprising

 

Strange that they start the BA from 0 Chinese and seem to leave the bulk of the 'heavy duty' learning, including the first Classical Chinese module to year 2, done in Beijing. I'm sure it used to be different. 

 

The Cambridge International A Level Chinese might be interesting for comparisons:

https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/programmes-and-qualifications/cambridge-international-as-and-a-level-chinese-9715/past-papers/

The A level exam I sat in 1990 was not very different from these papers, only a little more 'old fashioned' - but it may no longer follow this syllabus in UK.

 

[realmayo 1,824]

3 hours ago, Luxi said:

leave the bulk of the 'heavy duty' learning, including the first Classical Chinese module to year 2, done in Beijing

 

I could be wrong, but the list of exams suggests they start Classical Chinese in Year 1. Also I understood it was Year 3 that was spent in Beijing.

 

[Luxi 819]

1 hour ago, realmayo said:

the list of exams suggests they start Classical Chinese in Year 1

 

That's how it was some years ago but for some reason I thought they had changed, glad to know they didn't. I must have got mixed up with Oxford.

 

Yes, it's Oxford, just checked and they do their 2nd year in Beijing, though they have to cram a hell of a lot in their first year.