HSK= Horribly Stinky...Koala

Sorry that was the first thing that started with the letter K
Anyways, so yesterday I took the HSK, Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi. Its the Chinese equivalent of the TOEFL and honestly after taking it, I feel like I know nothing and my almost 3 years of studying Chinese have all been for nothing.

There are 2 tests, a lower and a higher one. I took the lower one with Brent and Sanghoon and none of us prepared for it. My reason behind it was that if I wanted to take the HSK back home, I'd have to fly to San Fransisco, Houston, or New York to take it not to mention the higher exam fee. Here I can walk down the street and give it a shot.

On the lower test, the lowest you can score is a 4 and highest is an 8. People who want to study at a Chinese university have to score at least a 7. On the higher test you can score from 9-11. To work in China you need to score a 9...which is...optimistic...
There were 4 parts, listening, reading comprehension was broken in 2 parts, and grammar.
All parts were super difficult and there were so many characters that I didn't know. The characters I DID recognize, I couldn't put together to make coherent sentences so basically I guess on 95% of the test.

I won't know what I really got on the test for another month and a half, but I'll be back home by then so someone will have to pick it up for me. But honestly If I really want to find out how "well" I did on that test, I should just ask a magic 8 ball.

All in all, I think it was a good opportunity to test my reading and writing out in the real world. I asked some other people who have taken it before, and they said that after studying prep books for the HSK they felt that they had learned a lot more. When I get back home, I'm not planning on taking any more Chinese classes at school, but to do some self tutoring, I might just study for the HSK in case I get a chance to work out here.