When we are learning Chinese, everyone has a different endgame, but I guess the ultimate goal for most is fluency. How to prove that fluency? The HSK (汉语水平考试) is the Chinese governments answer – more or less like IELTS for Chinese learners. They have recently reworked the test into a more sensible sounding 6 level system, and each of the levels tests different facets of your Chinese language abilities.

Of course, as with all of these things, finding information about it is a bit harder than I think it should be, but after some searching I’ve found a lot of useful resources to help determine my language abilities, and help me to decide what level of the HSK to focus on. In fact, even if you aren’t interested in the HSK it’s kind of nice to see where your abilities fit into the mix.

Test your character knowledge

OK, so now I know that for level 6 I should know 5000+ characters (I think it’s characters and not words) for the test. How on earth do I know how many characters I can recognise?… Well, it just so happens the fine folks over at Clavis Sinica have created a test applet to do just that: http://www.clavisinica.com/character-test-applet.html.

Now, I don’t think testing your knowledge of single characters is the best way to go about testing your knowledge of the language, but it’s certainly better than nothing, and you get some interesting results. I just took the advanced skill level – 36 character test, and it concluded that I know around 2500 characters – placing me around level 5 on the HSK test, which is about where I think I fit in anyway. Pretty handy.

Practice tests

Of course, it would be nice to be able to take some practice tests too – and after some searching I’ve come across practice tests for each of the six levels, and the audio to go with them for listening practice too – please note you can find the answers at the end of each booklet:

• Level 1 test | Level 1 audio
• Level 2 test | Level 2 audio
• Level 3 test | Level 3 audio
• Level 4 test | Level 4 audio
• Level 5 test | Level 5 audio
• Level 6 test | Level 6 audio

Hanban, the people who administer the HSK have also created some online practice tests to try your skills out on – unfortunately featuring only reading and writing (阅读和书写), but these tests are also pretty useful, and it’s nice to see a real score at the end of it. You can check them out on their website.

The verdict

Hopefully you can find where you fit in to the grand scheme of the HSK, and have a rough idea of where you are at, and where you are headed. I personally find it really nice to have some idea of where my hard work is taking me, and hopefully you all feel the same way too. Learning Chinese is a big challenge, but it really is worth it.

Was the post helpful you? What else would you like to know about the HSK or other Chinese language tests? Do you have any useful tips, tricks or resources to share? Please let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed to get updates as quickly as they come.

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