Even students who've studied Chinese for years tend to find the Advanced HSK test quite challenging. The presence of these find-the-mistake questions are one of the major reasons why. Instead of being asked to identify a missing word from a sentence, students are instead expected to identify the portion of a longer passage that has a problem in its grammar or word usage. There is still a twenty-five percent chance of being right through random guessing, but that shouldn't be a comfort to anyone looking for certification.

And don't forget that the clock is ticking. As with all of the other multiple choice questions on the HSK, you are expected to complete each question in just over 45 seconds. That gives you approximately 12 minutes to complete these 15 sample questions. Good luck!
 said on
October 11, 2009
I was just slaughtered by this test. And why not start from the beginning. Why on earth is 往往 wrong in question one? And I got question two correct, but through a combination of blind guesswork and process of elimination. Why is 时间 wrong there?

 said on
October 11, 2009
@ysaliera,

I'll punt on all these questions to Echo. I find the advanced tests pretty difficult myself, especially these find-the-mistake exercises. Good questions.
 said on
October 11, 2009
@ysaliera,

往往 is usually used to describe some rules in general, but not specific matters in the daily life. For instance, 坚强的人往往能走过难关。In Question 1, you can use 常常 instead of 往往. About Question2 , you can't say 缩小时间,but you can use 缩短时间 instead.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
October 11, 2009
@ysaliera,

加油!honestly HSK advanced is some times really tough.

别灰心,以后会慢慢好起来的啊。

加油加油!
 said on
October 14, 2009
Without giving anything away, why is the answer in question 12 what it is? I had thought it was the section before it; the function word there still seems slightly strange to me in that context.
 said on
October 14, 2009
@Brendan,

哈哈,这个题的答案是正确的。

如果你认为这句话的关联词语应该是“不管……还是……”的话,那你一定没有注意到下面这一点:大众口中的汉堡包已经不是新的事物了。你注意,这里有“大众”既然已经被大众化了,所以不是新的。

虽然在语法上“不管……还是……”是正确的,但是在意思上说不过去。

所以,正确的关联词是“即使……也……”,这说明,量子物理学是新事物,汉堡包是旧的。。。
 said on
October 14, 2009
A-ha! Makes sense; will have to bone up on less common usages of 即使. Thanks for the explanation.
Mark Lesson Studied