Writing the HSK Level 3 Chinese Test

I don’t know what possessed me, but I just (a couple of weeks ago actually) did a day trip over to Vancouver to write the HSK test, Level 3.  HSK stands for Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (汉语水平考试) and is the Chinese Government’s standard test for Chinese proficiency for foreigners.  There are 6 levels, so you might expect Level 3 to represent about the halfway point in learning the language.  However each level roughly doubles the amount of vocabulary and grammar of the previous level.  Roughly:

                Level 1 = 150 characters (along with associated words and grammar)

                Level 2 = 300 characters

                Level 3 = 600 characters

                Level 4 = 1200 characters

                Level 5 = 2500 characters

                Level 6 = 5000 characters

Level 3 is the minimum level you need to use for university credit (either to enter a university in China or apply for “equivalency” for a Chinese language course).  Level 4 is the minimum level you need to consider working in China (and more likely Level 5).  I’ve now achieved Level 3 after about 2+ years of study.

There are 3 sections to the HSK Level 3 test, which covers Listening, Reading and Writing.  (Speaking is a whole separate test – the HSKK, of which there are only 3 levels.)  There are 40 questions in Listening (answering questions about a spoken dialog), 30 questions in Reading (answering questions about a written dialog) but only 10 questions in Writing (rearranging characters to make a sentence, and filling in the missing character in a sentence).  I thought this third section would be the easiest (and therefore studied it the least) however when I got my marks, I got 97/100 in Listening, 93/100 in Reading, but only 64/100 in Writing L  Very disappointing.  However that gave me an overall score of 253/300, which is not bad.  (A pass is 180/300.)

I told my Chinese teacher Valarie about my disappointing score in Writing, and she is now giving me writing assignments almost every class!  Maybe if you’re lucky I’ll post some of them on my blog J

Here’s the first – Planning my next Chinese holiday!

我的作业：我的旅行计划:

     上次中国旅行我去过很多地方。比如北京，洛阳，西安，昆明，桂林，等等。我也在几所学校学汉语。
     下次我先去上海。上海是中国最现代的地方。有很多新的建筑，也有很多古迹。如果上海比较贵，我不要在上海住很长时间。上海附近有苏州，杭州。“上有天堂，下有苏杭。”  我想去太湖游泳。
     我下来想爬黄山。“爬黄山以后不用爬别的山。”  黄山上有宾馆。虽然很贵，但是我要呆那儿几天。
     我想去成都呆几个星期尝一尝四川菜。四川菜非常辣，但是上次去中国我对辣的菜习惯了。（我习惯了吃辣的菜。）现在，我觉得在加拿大中国菜没有味道。我也听说成都有很有名的茶文化。我很想吃四川菜喝四川茶。成都附近有很有意思的小村庄。我认识一个英文老师跟我看很多照片她拍了。（我认识一个英文老师。她给我看了很多她拍的照片。她给我看了照片。她给我看了她拍的照片。）
     我也想再去西安。我要再爬华山。上次我坐索道到西峰，下次我要都自己爬。我觉得华山是中国最漂亮的地方。当然，中国最好的中文老师（Valarie）也住在西安。
     我想在中国的学校学几个星期汉语。中国是非常好学汉语的地方。有很多机会用汉语。上次我认识很多新的中国朋友。下次我想看他们－需要去洛阳，郑州，西安，桂林，也别的地方。我觉得下次中国旅行需要一年多！
      去中国以前需要办签证，买机票。在中国我打算坐火车去什么地方。坐火车也有很多机会见面新的中国朋友。
     这是我的下次中国旅行计划!