The HSK Exams and CPod

Hi Kyle, I recently bough an HSK book and looked at some HSK Elementary & Intermediate test exams. From what I saw so far there is *no* direct translation to CPod levels. Although the difficulty level of sentences is roughly - Basic-HSK=Intermediate-CPod - Elementary / Intermdiate-HSK = Advanced-CPod being able to "complete every intermediate lesson without much hassle" isn't enough even for Basic test preparation. Vocab: The HSK builds up on a defined vocab base which is not fully covered by CPod Intermediate & UI lessons yet ("French delegation for cultural exchange"). And the other way round. Much of the CPod vocab is not included in the HSK body. Grammar: There is a strong focus on grammar details in the HSK. The currently available CPod Exercises leave you utterly unprepared for those. As long as the grammar guide is not completed and complemented with exercises you have no chance on passing that test with CPod alone. So I conclude that the HSK still requires extensive dedicated add-on preparation.

It's not just vocab, the first two HSK levels rely primarily on reading even though they start with a short oral test and also test your grammar. That's very different from CPod where the focus is oral, except 媒体。 Obviously if you're doing the advanced lessons, you're into reading and writing 汉字 too. The HSK grammar tests are way more elaborate than the CPod expansion drills, but still learning grammar in-context by regularly listening to the lessons will help a lot, the patterns becoming second nature. Then again you have to be able to read fast. I think you can prepare the HSK by learning list upon list of vocab, but equally with daily reading practice of all sorts of material besides CPod lessons.

One thing about the HSK is that its levels are deceiving. Take the Tofel for example. Most universities require around a 600 out of a possible 677 for the paper based tests for admission. An HSK score of 4 will get you into anything other than liberal arts and a score of 6 will get you into liberal arts, the highest being an 11. So what they are saying is that you only need to be intermediate in your level to attend university where as for the tofel you need to get around an 85% to pass. Even if you through out the advanced section you need to get in the high 60's to get a level 6. I assume that means that they either require less of us, or the test is just harder. I am being placed this week for my studying and I guess I will find out what kind of level I have achieved after 3 years of studying on my own.

if you can do intermediate levels without any problems AND you have a good understanding of grammar structures AND your reading skills are pretty good, then you should be able to pass elementary HSK. I did it a few years back after a couple of years full-time study at a Chinese university. Our curriculum was heavily based on reading and writing skills as well as grammar and it pretty much prepared me for the exam. Cpod may get our speaking and listing abilities up to scratch, but it won't get you through the test unless you memorize your characters and make sure you are familiar with quite a number of grammar structures.