Hi all!

I plan to take the TOP exam once I move to Asia; I don't believe a test actually justifies an inidividual's Chinese level, but it is something (I hope) I can add to my resume. Is it worth learning both the HSK lists and TOP vocabulary on Skritter.

ps: I was thinking why don't all the skritters provide a Chinese translation with every forum post? Silly idea? Good opportunity to practise? Let me know what ya'll think-- I know I'm a hypocrit because my tomato study method (番茄工作法） does not allow enough minutes to tap out a Chinese translation!

Happy writting all!

=D

If you want to be well prepared for the exam, I would recommend using study materials (word lists, mock exams) to prepare for it. If you casually want to see how your level tests, than you can forgo prepping, but I feel that might be a waste of time and money (the exams aren't free and for many of us they require travel or even time of work to take).

I don't know if translating posts is such a great idea, for a few reasons. The primary one is it takes focus off the actual question/topic of the post. Inevitably people will start critiquing and discussing the translation. I think the website Lang-8 is better if you want to practice writing in Chinese and translating.

There are worse things you could do. They're a list of reasonably common words in Chinese. If your goal is a good level of fluency, you'll have to learn them all sometime or another anyway.

I'm currently doing the same thing --- doing hsk 1 through 6. I've been busy on the lists for about half a year now, and I found that until HSK 5 it's quite fruitful to do so. However HSK 6 hsk a lot of very formal and seldom used characters and thus if you haven't studied the words before it might be a major pain in the ass to remember them.

Ps only 800 left for me to finish it :D

I'd also like to add, that you will find vocab on the HSK 5 and 6 that is not on the word lists. I took the HSK 5 last year and there wa s a fair amount of vocab in the reading section that I'd not come across before.

@RmZhao82 - that is very interesting. Were you studying an up to date list?

Yes. The list on Skritter as well as a list I found online and my text book. There was some very technical vocab, chengyu, as well as formal Chinese that I was not familiar with. I think it is a good thing though, as it really tests your ability to read in context which is a skill needed to master any language. As for the HSK 4, which I also took, that was easier. I don't think I came across any vocab that wasn't on my study lists.