The title asks a portion of this thread: do the HSK exams still have written components? If not, can you request a written component? Can you request a traditional (character) version? Finally, where can you take an HSK exam?

I DID google most of these questions, but it gave me ambiguous information at best. So I thought I'd ask the Skritter community ;) Feel free to attach useful "google" links =D

Thanks in advance!

Yes, there is a writing component. The speaking component is separate. As far as I know, it is only available in simplified Chinese. Where are you located? There are HSK testing sites all over the world, although in some places tests are only offered a couple times a year.

This page should have a lot of the information you are looking for: http://www.chinaeducenter.com/en/exams.php

Also, check this page (official site for testing): http://www.chinesetest.cn/index.do

It depends on where you take the exam. Where I live in China you still have to hand write, but I also know from a friend that he did his HSK in another city where it was taken on the computer. He passed HSK 5 with ease that way..

Seeing Danny's answer, perhaps I misunderstood the question. More and more testing centers are offering computer based tests. In China, you definitely still have the option to hand write, depending on where you want to take the test.

In other countries, it may be more limited, but if you use the above links to pick your location and desired testing time, you'll get a better idea what's available. I'm from the U.S. and there are NO testing sites in my state, the nearest one (last time I checked) was several hours away. The test is only offered twice a year there and I think computer based is now the only option. A lot will depend on where you are located and how far you are willing to travel.

Thanks all!

I'm a little disappointed that you can't recommend a traditional test: why am I learning 繁體字 arrrgg...

I have a related question: how strict are they when they're grading? How perfectly does a character have to written?

I am aiming for the HSK 5 and in Switzerland we unfortunately don't have the option of computer based tests, so I'm gonna have to write them blasted things by hand. Because my handwriting isn't the tidiest (still legible though) I suspect that I can get away with the odd hook missing, but how much further can I take it? Will they be super strict and consider missing the small slash 恐 in/under the 几 wrong or will they still let that sort of thing pass as correct? It's not that I mess up every character like that but it does happen every once in a while...
Does anybody have any experience?

I think it's hard to say as there isn't a lot of information on how they grade, at least that I've found. I tried to find some info in the past by didn't come up with much online.

As for traditional Chinese, I think there is another standardized test offered for that. If you check out the blog 'Hacking Chinese' the author, Ollie, mentions having taken it (I believe he took it in Taiwan).

Might be worth a short break to a surrounding country that has a computer test to avoid writing ... I know I would.

HSK has traditional version and the Taiwanese TOP can be done in simplified or traditional, so depends where want certificate issued out of

That is excellent! Now I'm wondering if its worth getting BOTH certificates (TOP, and HSK)?

Personally, I want to hand write my test. I guess its an ego thing, but I wanna tell myself all my skritter years paid off for a framed HSK 6 parchment on my wall.

Hi Klooste

yes, I think Taiwanese TOP: http://www.tw.org/tocfl/ is a choice for you - it is computer based, and use traditional.

P.S I am also drilling through these lists now in Skritter

Offtopic. Even if in Taiwan regularly (on streets, etc) terrible local pinyin (like Hsieh, Chih) is used, these tests use Hanyu Pinyin :) Ehh... double standards...

@rolands I was curious about your comment about "local pinyin". Based on this it looks like a disaster:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language_romanization_in_Taiwan

Disaster is just a mild word to describe that. To tell more - NOONE here in Taiwan till now ever could explain the logic to be used for these. My wife's sisters husband, who graduated Taiwan National University (best one here) told, that one of professors at that time told him, that "just memorize that, do not try find logic"
In Taiwan for a years I am here - even when you drive on National Highway 1 - you would see for example city 屏東 written as Ping Tung, and then just going of the highway, and find already Ping Dong (try to drive, if you are foreigner.So it is apparent, that even a people who are making street signs have no clues what the correct way of writing it is. Companies and factories with Ta instead of Da for 大 is another story and so on. Street signs, aaagrh - before i started learn chinese, caused special trouble, how on earth then search them in google maps for example? Then few years of skittering, and here I am, looking at characters only and enjoying my life here in Taiwan. But each time I see something written by these "pinyins" - i get irritated. Sorry for that much text - but that is painful topic... :)

just as an illustration to my words:

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news/2002/05/02/26043/Mismatching-street.htm

Very old article, and most issues covered that article are not present already (I think), but go out to country side, or smaller cities and have a fun with this.

The mention of the use of the t's and d's in TW's pinyins brought up one of the many differences in the pronunciation between Chinese and English. This problem is largely due to the fact that the English d is different from the Chinese d. The same is true for the letter t. In English, the distinguishing characteristic between a t and a d is whether it is voiced or not. But in Chinese, it's about whether it is aspirated or not.

東 and 大 both start with a voiceless and non-aspirated consonant. So when one tries to transcribe one of these characters, and if he has an English mind, he will choose the English t because of the voiceless consonant. But if he uses his Chinese mind, he'll choose the Chinese d instead because they are non-aspirated. In Chinese, the t is reserved for the aspirated characters.

So, remember that in Chinese d is voiceless and t is aspirated.

@ pts

This is really valuable input, now I will use this in my next discussion here in Taiwan for a pinyin's :)
thanks

P.S But then still, why Tung for 東 and not TOng? Same for Taichung - clearly, when you hear Zhong 中 - how then one can come up with U sound instead of O?

This is because characters only end with ong but never with ung. In this kind of situation, where there is no need to differentiate between two similar sounds, people tend to gloss over their pronunciation. So, both ong and ung can be heard, yet no misunderstanding will be introduced because of this impreciseness.

I've read books written by different authors that mentioned that in the process of standardizing the pinyin, the reason ong was chosen instead of ung was not because ong describes the sound more accurately but because u had been used too heavily. Since both ong and ung are equally correct, ong was chosen to lessen the burden of u.

Also, in Taiwan, the zhuyin for ong is ㄨㄥ. It uses a ㄨ(u) instead of a ㄛ(o).

Of cause, now that pinyin has been standardized, one should only speak ong instead of ung, and indeed people are moving towards that standard.