You registered for the HSK and start to feel nervous as the test is drawing nearer and nearer? Or you consider your Chinese acceptable, but you believe that you are a horrible test taker? Here are some advices and test taking strategies to succeed during the HSK. This post is not about the preparation work before the test, but rather the strategies to use during the test! I will focus on the elementary-intermediate HSK, but most of it also applies to HSK basic and HSK advanced. I personally believe that a test can never fully measure a person’s ability or knowledge and in the end it’s all about beating the test. So the most important strategy you need to learn is how to beat the test. But enough ramblings…moving on:

Some request in advance…

Please know the directions for the different components of the HSK from your practice tests. This means that you know in which order the different parts (listening, grammar, reading) come and what type of exercise it is on one glance. So during the actual test, you don’t lose valuable time reading through the large box of directions or listening to the unimportant explanations plus examples. They are really not important and just like in your practice tests and it is much smarter to focus on the coming questions.

Listening comprehension 听力理解

This part exists in all 3 tests and always comes first which is of advantage. When you ripped open the booklet and turned to page 1 听力理解 the teacher will usually explain, check and help quite a while and then it will take quite another while until the sound works and the directions and examples were played through. I found it very helpful to use this time to look through the possible answers of each question and brainstorm what the question could be, because you will listen to the text and corresponding questions only once and only the answers are already in your booklet. Then I’d note down my anticipated questions in a very brief manner, often just one keyword.
For example:

A. 两点钟　　　B. 四点钟
C. 五点钟　　　D. 七点钟
=> scribble 时间 above it, so that you know in advance that you have to pay attention to the time in the text.

Or:

A.高兴　　　B.愤怒
C.悲伤　　　D.后悔
=> jot down 感情 or 态度 and watch out for attitudes and emotions.

This is the work you do while the others are still busy reading and listening to the directions. Once the test starts focus completely on the text that is being read *at that moment*. With this I mean stop thinking about the previous question that you didn’t understand and couldn’t solve. It’s over, too late, let it go!

Another helpful strategy to do while listening is taking notes. At the beginning it is not necessary when the texts are still very short, but when the texts grow longer and you have several questions to one text it can be a benefit. You don’t have to note everything down, just focus on *Association*. With this I mean that you try to associate the answers and your anticipated questions with certain information mentioned in the text, because they often ask for specific facts. Take my previous example:
You may hear something like this in the text:

女：已经七点了，怎么老王好没有来啊？他平常四点钟下班，五点钟能到家。现在这时候我们一般都开始吃饭了。
男：别着急，他今天两点钟给我来了个电话，说有人请客，回来要晚一些。

A. 两点钟 -> 来电话　　　B. 四点钟 -> 下班
C. 五点钟 -> 到家　　　　D. 七点钟 -> 吃饭

老王家里一般几点钟开始吃饭？

With your notes it is a breeze to answer this question.
However, maybe you have a very good memory and note-taking only takes away your focus. Just experiment and find out what works best for you!

Grammatical structures 语法结构

I always found this part the easiest in the text, but this is probably because I am of Chinese origin and have a relative good feel for the language. This part requires you to insert a word at the right place or pick the most appropriate word for the blank. In this part my technique is the exact opposite of the reading part. I first read the give text and try to think of an appropriate word on my own and then I look at the given options. Most of the times the word I thought about before is one possible option and I pick it without further hesitation. The given options often differ only very slightly in their meaning and are perfect to confuse you. So my advice is to be confident enough to listen to your first thought and don’t try to rethink all options over and over again. This just makes you insecure and crazy.

Reading comprehension 阅读理解

The reading part in the HSK is very similar to the reading part in the SAT from the US. It also starts with short and easy passages that I suggest you to work through as fast as somehow possible. The longer passages need different approaches depending on your reading speed and reading skills. You have two options:

  • Focus on the questions and skim the text for answers
  • Focus on the text and answer the questions afterwards

The previous one is better for people who cannot read fast in Chinese yet. Most questions require specific bits of information from the text, so it is fairly easy to skim for these, especially when they are numbers. The drawback is that some question require an overall understanding of the text, but if you are short of time just skip them first and do them in the end.
The second option is better for people who read a lot in Chinese and thus already have a higher reading speed. It takes time to get there (just read tons of books or websites) but once you read fast you will find it really effortless to answer the questions and have no pressure of time at all.

Comprehensive part 综合填空

In the elementary-intermediate HSK the first half of it is multiple-choice and the last 15 questions require you to fill in the blanks. I highly recommend you to do this first, because too often you know which character you have to fill in, but you forget how to write it. In this case you can look out for the character in the multiple-choice part or you might be lucky that the writing of the character recurs to you.

I hope these advices will help you through the HSK and I welcome any questions or comments!

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