HSK: Difference between lists A and B

[yingguoguy]

I'm just starting to think about doing the HSK foundation in May, and have been looking at roddy's word lists. As I understand it, the words you will see are:

Foundation: A and B (1 and 2 in roddy's database) about 3000 words

Beginner/Intermediate: A,B,C about 5000 words

Advanced: A,B,C,D about 8000? words

So what's the difference between A and B? Obviously list A is more basic and I really should know all the words on that list, but why the seperation? Do some parts of the test only contain A words (please say listening! please say listening!), and then other harder parts of the test contain B words?

[roddy]

The difference between them is that A list words are the more common, taught first, and therefore 'easier' than B list words. But in terms of the HSK exam I've never seen reference to them being used seperately.

I've never actually checked this, but thinking about it they might (perhaps should) use mainly A list words at the start of each section, and then introduce B list words as the section progresses and it gets 'harder'. I don't know if they do this, but you could have a look at a paper and see if you can spot any pattern.

[yingguoguy]

Okay, thanks Roddy. I hadn't seen anything about them being different on the exam either, but just wanted to check I wasn't missing anything obvious. I haven't started in earnest, but I'm having some problems with the grammar section simply because I don't know the words. I've got 4 months to plug the gaps. I'll get some HSK books from Wangfujing at the weekend, and see what they say about it. If I have to know all 3000 for the listening though then I've got serious problems.

[roddy]

If you're having specific problems with listening, then I heartily recommend the excellent listening course I'm always heartily recommending on here. Search for 'Excellent Listening Course' on here and it should come up.

You don't have to know all 3000 words for the listening, but obviously more is better. But I reckon you'd do better with 1000 words and lots of listening practice than 3000 words which you learnt by burying your head in the dictionary and not doing any listening.

Roddy

[yingguoguy]

Thanks for the tip, I'll look out for those when I go shopping at the weekend. My problem is that I'm coming to Chinese after having learned Japanese, so while I know (nearly) enough characters to bluff my way through the written sections, there's a lot of very basic characters which I don't even know the pinyin for, let alone be able to hear it in a sentance. Hopefully some effort with a good listening course will sort this out, and improve my conversation skills as well.