HSK 4 and 5 Impressions and 2015 Goals
Since studying Mandarin enthusiastically from October 2014, I finally got around to testing my proficiency against mock HSK tests.
For the HSK 4 test, a third year undergraduate Mandarin student should have a relatively easy time to pass the test (测验). As a benchmark for chinese competency comparison, when I was taking the 3rd year chinese level at my school Chinese 100XB (Advanced Chinese), we used the Oh, China! Elementary Reader of Modern Chinese for Advanced Beginners textbook. Although I do have additional training in after-school Chinese School and even AP Chinese (scored a 4), I still felt challenged by the coursework 3rd year undergraduate coursework I was taking in college. If this sounds like you, then you should be smooth-sailing on the HSK 4.
In general, I felt at ease when taking the HSK 4 test, but very challenged on the HSK 5 especially when it came to the writing portion.
HSK 4
Mock test H41001 taken in January 2015
听力 （45 题， 约 30 分钟)
- 第一部分 (判断对错) Mark as Correct or Incorrect:
Score: 10/10 - 第二部分 (选出正确答案) Select the Correct Answer:
Score: 15/15 - 第三部分 (选出正确答案) Select the Correct Answer:
Score: 14/20 - Total Score 一共: 39/45
阅读 （40 题， 40 分钟)
- 第一部分 (选词填空 / Fill in the blank): 10/10
- 第二部分 (排列顺序 / Order the sentences): 10/10
- 第三部分(选出正确答案 / Select the best answer): 12/20
I skipped the last 4 problems and also got 4 others wrong. Compared to the other sections, I felt rushed during the reading section. - 一共 Score: 32/40
书写 （15 题, 25 分钟）
- 第一部分 (完成句子) Complete the sentence. Unscramble the phrases to make a sentence. : 9/10
- 第二部分 (看图，用词造句) Given a picture and a phrase, make a sentence: 3/5
The writing section was a huge sigh of relief because I was expecting to write paragraphs much less a sentence for a given picture. In the test, I wrote my sentence in traditional chinese for the most part and even forgot how to write laugh (笑) in Chinese! No matter, I’m going to be taking the electronic version of the test, so I’m ignoring the fact that I can’t write all the wods I can speak. - Score: 12/15
HSK 5
Mock test H51001 taken in January 2015
听力 （45 题， 约 30 分钟)
- 第一部分 (选出正确答案) Select the Correct Answer:
Score: 18/20 - 第二部分 (选出正确答案) Select the Correct Answer:
Score: 22/25 - Score: 40/45
阅读 （45 题， 45 分钟)
- 第一部分 (选出正确答案) Select the Correct Answer:
Score: 12/15 - 第二部分 (请选出与试题内容一致的一项) Select the item that best matches the exam question:
Score: 9/10 - 第三部分 (选出正确答案) Select the Correct Answer:
I had only 8 minutes and 30 seconds left for 20 problems.
Score: 5/20 - Score: 26/45
I simply ran out of time to complete and left 14 questions blank.
书写 （10 题, 40 分钟）
- 第一部分 (完全句子) Complete the sentences:
Score: 7/8 out for sentence rearrangement portion - 第部二分 (写短文) Write a short passage:
I’m guesstimating that my score for the essay portion is around 1/2. - Total:
Each section amount to 100 points, so the sum is
100 * (40/45) + 100 * (26/45) + 100 * (9/10) = 88 + 57 + 90 = 235
Two independent sources, namely Sara Jaoksola’s “Living a Dream in China” and a stackexhange response to How to estimate your score for an HSK practice exam?, both stated that you need 60% or 180 points out of 300 to pass. With 235, I’m grateful that I passed the mock exam, and I have a lot to work on for the written portion.
Alas, after testing my aptitude against the HSK 5 test, I made the decision to delay my test application form （申请表）for the March 28th test for the October 17th test particularly because I am feeling burnout from studying upwards of 30 words a day via Memrise. Between December 9th, 2014 and January 2nd, 2015, I started out with 271 words in my knowledge base and increased that to 612. That left me with 1888 of 2500 words to learn. The number of days between January 2nd and the March 18th test date was 75 days so that meant my learning pace should be 1888 words / 75 days = 25 words per day. I wanted to give myself a buffer of insurance time and increased the rate to 30 word per day, which would let me complete all the words in 62 days and leave about 13 days for other last minute studying. However, after sticking to 30 words a day for about a month, I realized that it was not sustainable.
Study routine
My study routine has been for the last 2–3 months up until about January:
Weekly routine:
- Memorize 15 words a day. Increased to 30 days. Review all words on the queue. In January, I lowered this rate back down to 15 words a day.
- Writing essays once a week on lang-8 (2–5 hours)
- Italki twice a week (inevitably some weeks my partners were unavailable and needed to tend to life’s other demands)
- Listening to slow-chinese once a day and put the words into anki to review later
Occassionally:
Initially I intended this schedule to take up for at most 1.5 hours a day, with 1 hour spent on learning vocabulary and 30 minutes spent on listening to vocabulary. Initially in October, I picked 15 words a day, because over a 5 month period, I would be able to memorize 2250, which covers nearly enough words (2500 words total) for the HSK 5 test. In December, after making more precise calculations, I calculated that I wanted to increase the amount of words per day to 30 words to finish memorizing all the words before the March 2015 test date and give it enough time to saturate.
However, after learning 30 words a day for the last 30 or so days in January, it quickly became apparent that this kamikaze tactic was draining my motivation. While taking the Memrise HSK 5 course, the software automatically creates a queue of words to review, and I’ve found as of late, if I just miss a day of reviewing vocabulary words, that the next day, I may have ~500 words to review, easily taking up to 4 hours if I were to hunker down and actually review all of the words.
In late January, after starting work, I’ve been reduced to learning at most 15 words on Memrise a day and have yet to publish an essay on lang-8 among my other taks for the weekly routine. The only other thing I’ve been staying consistent with is italki.
2015
Lastly, I wanted to jot down my goals for 2015 and see how far I run with them.
- Read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by June 2015 (with audiobook if possible)
- Read a Giddens Ko book by September 2015 (with audiobook if possible)
- Take and pass HSK 5 by October 2015
- Memorize HSK 5 Vocabulary
- Practical Audio Visual Reader: Based off of the curriculum offered by Taiwan’s Mandarin Training Center, I thought it would be invaluable to learn up to volume three and four. Because the content is in traditional Chinese and wouldn’t match exactly the content for the HSK 5, I will probably start looking into this in November after taking the HSK 5 test.
- Finish 100 intermediate lessons on Chinesepod by September 2015
- Complete all archived lessons on slow-chinese by June 2015
Summary
- In terms of testing, reading is my weakest topic on the HSK exam, simply because my pace is slow and I try to read word for word.
- I can’t write simplified chinese, however, the local Confucius Institute in San Francisco adminsters tests in electronic version, so I have the option of typing out the written portion in chinese.
- With first-time exposure to a full-time job, in terms of my study routine, I’ve only been consistently studying vocabulary on Memrise and practicing on italki
