The Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, or HSK, is the standardized testing system for students learning Mandarin as a foreign language. There are three sections of an HSK exam. They are listening, writing, and oral. The HSK was first developed by the Beijing Language Institute in 1984 to measure the level of Mandarin Chinese learners across through a set of parameters. If you want to learn Mandarin Chinese and appear for the HSK, you will need to first take up a Chinese language course in Kolkata. After you achieve the basic level of skills, you can appear for the HSK.
The test includes six levels beginning with the basic phrases and common words to a fluent expression of thoughts in both spoken as well as written (Hanzi). The HSK is evaluated by Hanban, the headquarter of the Confucius Institute and candidates who have taken the test usually need to wait up to three weeks before receiving you’re the certificate with the score.
Let us now walk you through some of the best practices with a few tips to pass the exam.
- Practice Speed
Speed is necessary for any exam and in the case of HSK, the scenario is not different either. For the listening sections especially, speed is necessary when there are no repeats and there are no second chances (from level 3 and above). Therefore, it is important for you to pay full attention during the exam. However, in a Chinese language course in Kolkata, you will be able to practice listening and achieve the speed necessary to appear for the exam.
For the reading section, especially for the higher levels, there will be texts to assess your reading proficiency. The texts aren’t difficult to understand, but you will have to work fast through them and if you practice enough reading in your course with mock papers, you will have no trouble in passing the section.
- Practicing Technically
Technical practice is essential to pass HSK. There are two ways in which you can practice for the exam. The first way is to practice a lot of questions that are section specific, and there are mock papers for the HSK exam. Your objective will be to hone your skills and work on your weaker areas.
On the other hand, the second way focuses more on speed, basically the duration that is needed to complete a question or an entire section. This, however, requires a lot of practice and strategy but ultimately this will help you to pass the exams.
- Skipping Some Questions (if you are not sure)
If you do not get all parts of the language, be it listening or reading or writing you might skip a few questions. When you practice question sets in the Chinese language course in Kolkata, you will get an idea of the questions that you need to skip.
Regarding the answers, you will not need to spend more than 30 seconds per question in the reading section, and apart from the final level, no more than 20 seconds writing a sentence, and no more than 5 minutes where you will need to listen to 100 words in Level 5.
- Improve Your Handwriting
Improve your handwriting so that it is understandable to the examiners. Handwriting is an important part of any examination and in language proficiency tests like HSK where you will be writing a completely different script, you need to be careful. If the scripts are unclear, the examiner will not spend much time at your papers.
- Speak Clearly in the Exams
To fetch good marks in the reading section you need to pronounce the words, phrases, and sentences clearly. You will need to focus on the tones too so that your examiners can understand that you can speak the language clearly.
In a Chinese language course in Kolkata, you will get complete guidance and assistance to pass the HSK exams. To prepare for the exams, you will need to have clear concepts on the language and whenever you face any problems in understanding, it is always recommended to clear your doubts with the trainer then and there.
Posted by Harry Mike