Jump to content
Chinese-Forums
  • Sign Up

HSK: Difference between lists A and B


yingguoguy

Recommended Posts

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?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Click here to reply. Select text to quote.

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...