|
HSK Exam Torture
Sunday, May 15, 2005-12:45 PM
My anxieties about the HSK exam this morning extended far beyond what would be considered rational. Of course I was worried about how I'd do on the test. But my fears didn't end there.
Since I didn't do well on the practice exam and didn't find much time to study, I figured doing well on the exam was out of the question anyway.
I was more worried that I wouldn't be able to find the room. Or I might come too late. Or I might come to early. Maybe I'd forget my passport. Or I'd forget a pencil.
Natasha and I walked together to Jinan University to take the exam. I engaged her in conversation the entire way to avoid thinking about my of any more things that could go wrong.
When we arrived at the building, there was tons of students. I knew they must all be fluent in Chinese. No one except me would be stupid enough to sign up for this exam.
On my way into the exam room, the administrators checked our passports and exam certificates. When the woman returned my exam certificate, I took it and tried to take her name list as well. I was so absent-minded I didn't realize what I was doing until she said, "This isn't for you."
The room had space for around forty or fifty students, just about every seat was taken. there were only three non-Asian faces in the room.
The exam had 170 questions (all but the last fifteen or so were multiple choice), took two and a half hours, and was divided into four sections.
From the get-go I was confused. The first part was listening. We listened to an audio tape played on a boombox with the volume jacked just about all the way up.
The speakers spoke clearly, but every time their voices were raised, the sound become distorted and broke my concentration.
The next two parts, grammar and reading, were also difficult. My reading was so slow and so poor, I decided it might be more advantageous of me to "try to get inside the head" of the test writer instead of just focusing on the questions themselves
Even when I was confident I knew an answer, I would become overwhelmed that perhaps I had just succumbed to a trick question.
I was almost afraid to look at the last section. That was the non-multiple choice section. We had to fill in blanks in a short article with single Chinese characters.
Surprisingly, this was one of the easiest sections of the test. I was pretty sure I knew what just about every character they were looking for was. I wasn't always so sure how to write that character, though.
The least I've gained from this experience is what it's like to take a test, a difficult test, that you're not completely prepared for. I've given lots of tests to students and have them returned with nonsense and ridiculously low scores. Now, the tables have turned.
|
