With today's Advanced HSK exam we're pleased to introduce a new feature that makes preparing for the HSK easier than ever before: the errors in our find-the-mistake questions will now be highlighted in red on the answers page to make it clearer what exactly the problem is. To make life even more convenient, if you enable "on-click answers" on the quiz page, we'll highlight the problems for you in real-time as you take the test.We've made these changes in response to requests we provide more detail in some cases on why answers are correct and incorrect. And so we'd like to hear what you think. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on this feature or on ways we can further improve please let us know. We'd love to hear your ideas anytime at service@popupchinese.com.
HSK Advanced
said on April 15, 2009
One extra feature worth mentioning: added support for the Excel file format (.xls) in our vocab import tools. If you have vocab you've been keeping in Excel files for whatever reason, you can import them into your online wordlists now just like any other file.
orbital
said on April 16, 2009
This is a big improvement. Definitely makes these exercises more useful to me at least. I'd previously run the gauntlet with a few, but found it daunting not knowing why I was getting them wrong. Would be better if you could add a quick write-up explaining why things are wrong as well, but at least this puts me in the ballpark.
menglelan
said on April 16, 2009
好玩极了！泡泡中文的高级考试都是你们写的吧？
imron
said on April 16, 2009
Agree with orbital on both points.
menglelan
said on April 16, 2009
>>Would be better if you could add a quick write-up explaining why things are wrong as well<<
这个建议非常好， 希望泡泡中文会采纳。
trevelyan
said on April 16, 2009
thanks for all the feedback guys. we were digesting everyones thoughts and ended up playing around with a couple of approaches. this one seemed to work best because it kept the feedback right on the test/answer page instead of requiring people to click elsewhere to get an answer. I'll see what we can do to provide more details on why specific answers are correct/incorrect. we've got something to work with now at least.
trevelyan
said on April 16, 2009
>> 泡泡中文的高级考试都是你们写的吧？ @menglelan - we pay people from BCLU to help us develop the test content. We go to the source here because our major concern is getting materials that are dead-on in reflecting what is tested and thus helping people better prepare for the exam. It's a tight community.--dave
barrister
said on April 16, 2009
I'll third imron and orbital. Like the idea of keeping things tight. Would be good to get a bit more feedback on exactly why things are wrong too.
toneandcolor
said on April 16, 2009
I wonder if lessons could have an optional "commentary" tab or something that could include things like the short write-ups about correct answers mentioned above.
gnotella100
said on April 17, 2009
Great improvement. Even without explanations, you can at least focus on what you need to learn instead of thinking "well, there's something I don't know in there, but I don't know what it is."
Gail天堂的声音
said on April 17, 2009
@gnotella100,
yeah, sometimes i also have the same problem in english. Dave is so great...
trevelyan
said on April 17, 2009
I think 应该的 is the suitable response here. We'll see what we can do to find ways of offering more information on why answers are incorrect, etc.
wangna_1
said on April 17, 2009
where is my homepage? Who knows? Please tell me. Thanks.
trevelyan
said on April 18, 2009
@wangna_1 - your home page is the front page. Once you've signed in, this page will only display lessons you have bookmarked (or new lessons from shows you're subscribed to). You can change the shows you're subscribed to by visiting your profile page, here:http://popupchinese.com/users/profile
tribur
said on April 18, 2009
Hi guys! I'm new to the site and this is my first time posting. I signed up last week because I am taking the HSK April 18, a last minute decision and I needed to do some hard-core cramming. So far, this site has worked out really well for that purpose. All I can say is: more, more, more! the more questions, the better.
I have a few quick questions regarding the format and evaluation procedures of the exam itself that I'm hoping you can help me with:
Originally I had signed up for HSK Advance, but then I heard that you have to get a pretty high score on that one just to get the certificate and my胆子 withered accordingly and I switched to Intermediate. Now, however, I'm not sure what a "high" score means in HSK-land. Every time I get less than 12/15 on these practice tests, I get really, really worried but exactly what percentages correspond with what number scores?
Also, I'm assuming that for Intermediate all questions weigh the same and there is no subjective grading involved as with Advanced. Is this the case?
My final question is, the test center said it takes 1-2 months for the grading center in Beijing to release scores. Since I'm now taking Intermediate and there are no short answers or other subjective tasks to be graded, is it likely that I'll get my score back closer to the 1 month mark? I'm taking the HSK because I'm applying for grad school and a government scholarship which has a deadline of May 20.
tribur
said on April 18, 2009
Sorry! I just thought of another question.
For the listening parts, how similar are the recroding speeds and lengths that you have here to those of the actual test? It sounds like you try to approximate as perfectly as possible the set-up of the actual exam. No background noise, people talking over one another or heavy accents, right?
Echo
said on April 18, 2009
@tribur,
Hey, welcome !
First of all, you need to let us know which level HSK test you are taking ? There are three: basic, elementary and intermediate, and advanced. Since the type of questions for each level are not quite the same, esp.for elementary and intermediate, and advanced -- these two levels tests are quite different. I would suggest you to focus on the level your are taking.
Second, for each level of tests, the standard of score is different too. Usually, if you get 70% for each section ( listening, reading, grammar ...) you can get level 7 certificate, which is an upper intermediate level. You can get one certificate anyway, but the level of the certificate depends on your score.
Yes, it takes 1-2 months until you can get your certificate. I would suggest you talk to HSK center and explain your situation to them, and see if there is any way can solve the problem. Usually, you should have taken an earlier test if you have this kind of situation.
Last, our speed of listening parts are almost the same to the actual test. A little bit faster though because we shorten the space between questions.
tribur
said on April 19, 2009
I took the Intermediate today and it was surprisingly easy. I almost cried when I realized how short the listening exercises were going to be! However, better safe than sorry, as far as Im concerned: Better to have an 8 than to risk not getting a 9 and not getting the certificate. The people at the center where I sat for the exam told me that all HSK scores are available online 30 days from the time of the exam and that a print out of the web page is enough to apply to programs in China, so Ill make any deadlines.
Echo
said on April 20, 2009
@tribur,
So glad to hear that you have solved the deadline problem :)
加油！
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
icy_day
said on October 14, 2010
Hi, the idea of the new feature is great. However, I have just attempted the questions from this "find-the-mistake" exercise and the feature doesnt seem to be working - the errors weren't highlighted in red on the answer page and I still dont know why my choice of answers was incorrect.
Any idea what happened? Have you guys decided not to have this feature anymore?
trevelyan
said on October 14, 2010
@ice_day,
The feature is still supported. Have you clicked "on-click answers" in the right-hand column? If that doesn't work, please let me know your browser and OS and we'll test over here to fix any problems.
That said, it may be a good idea to change our default preferences so this feature is enabled by default. The idea is to let people choose between getting corrected right away, or treating the test as something closer to the real thing, and only seeing the corrections on the following page.
--david
icy_day
said on October 14, 2010
Thanks, David. I was using IE6 which seems to be the problem. I have downloaded Google Chrome and now the feature is working fine.
Cheers
