Popup Chinese

posted by Xiao Hu on July 14, 2011 | 5 comments

As Trevelyan had once stated, this new HSK test doesn't challenge the testee much at all.

Even at lower levels I used to get a couple of questions wrong, due to the use of grammatical complexity and the intense similarities between the possible answers. Even at level two you really had to know your stuff about Chinese grammar and also have a decent vocabulary under your belt before you could expect to get through it in under 12 minutes.

And even then perfect scores would be few and far-between.

I will call him...Mini-HSK! (Mini HSK, you don't complete me! You're quasi-cerebral. You're semi-competency-quotient-compliant. You're the margarine of exams. You're the Diet Coke of tests. Just one calorie, not testy enough. )

Here's tonight's top five list. Top five new names for the "New HSK Test"...

And here we go:

Number five-HSZK Test, 汉语水平有障碍的考试

Number four-HMK Test, 汉语莫水平考试

Number three-JDDBDLHSK Test, 简单得不得了汉语水平考试

Number two-HSBCZK Test, 汉语水平不存在考试

And the number one new name for the "New HSK Test"................NYMHSK Test, Not-Your-妈妈's HSK Test!

So, to all Popup-izens, who'd like to throw their hat into the ring and give our beloved, "New HSK Test" a fitting and appropriate new title?

trevelyan on July 14, 2011 | reply

I like the options, but actually meant giving a name to a test that we could produce that would hopefully do a better job than the HSK is doing, especially at the advanced levels. I think if we put something together we could make it more *helpful* at the least.

We're not ready to launch this yet anyway, but it's basically a matter of content creation at this point. So I'm hoping this will be one of the things we can move on this August when we hire some help for the Beijing office.

Xiao Hu on July 14, 2011 | reply

@Trevelyan,

I thought it would be fun to do this as an exercise in Chinese. I also kind of hoped that, through this contest we could bring more focus the HSK Test as a powerful and useful tool to help us improve our Chinese reading and writing level.

With so many great tools on Popup, I have a gut feeling that the quizzes and tests are getting left behind by the majority of users.

The HSK Test gives us a target to shoot for, a finite goal that guides us in our study. We know that we, as Chinese learners have to get our Chinese to a certain standard before we can really consider ourselves successful and competent in the language.

Through this contest, if we happen to produce a usable name or two for your new mock HSK test, all the better.

I can't wait to see what kind of content you guys will start rolling out when the time is right.

I'm certain that it will be more challenging and beneficial than the current, "New HSK Test."

zhan_yalun on August 3, 2011 | reply

Do I need to take HSK if I am going to study in chinese country?

If I were given a certification, do I still need to take up HSK in University?

trevelyan on August 4, 2011 | reply

zhan_yalun,

You'll need HSK certification for admission to non-CSL university programs at universities in mainland China, although it wouldn't surprise me if second or third tier universities are willing to waive the requirement.