What would you say is the hardest part of the Chinese exam?

[Bluntashell]

Hey guys, what would you say is the hardest part in the Chinese exam? I am not afraid of studying, but I believe a heads up would do. Plus, what areas do I have to concentrate on so that I pass with flying colors? 

[Miya]

For me, I really really suck at Pinyin so that's the hardest for me. I can never get the tone marks right on my exam  :bored:

But for most people, I think writing the characters correctly is the hardest. For Chinese, it's not only important to write the character correctly, but stroke order matters a lot too. I had a few classmates who could never get the stroke order correct and they really suffered from that during the exams.

[BWL]

Written exams are always a pain. The order of strokes is essential in order to write Chinese characters, so even if you can read, if you write the wrong part of the characters first, it is technically still wrong.

[Bluntashell]

For me, I really really suck at Pinyin so that's the hardest for me. I can never get the tone marks right on my exam  :bored:

But for most people, I think writing the characters correctly is the hardest. For Chinese, it's not only important to write the character correctly, but stroke order matters a lot too. I had a few classmates who could never get the stroke order correct and they really suffered from that during the exams.

Yeah, I will agree with you that getting the stroke order can be a little bit of a challenge, especially for a person like me who is not so "artistically" gifted.  But again, is there a way for the examiners knowing that you have used the incorrect stroke order as long as the character is correctly represented?

[linguaholic]

Yeah, I will agree with you that getting the stroke order can be a little bit of a challenge, especially for a person like me who is not so "artistically" gifted.  But again, is there a way for the examiners knowing that you have used the incorrect stroke order as long as the character is correctly represented?

They are able to see whether you used the correct stroke order or not. Especially if you write fast, the character always "blurrs" in the same way. If the stroke order is not natural, they will definitely notice it. However, as far as I know, stroke orders of characters are NOT part of the HSK. There is a writing section but I doubt that they care much about stroke order there.

[pandandesign]

I remember when I took the Chinese knowledge exam in high school, the hardest part was the written exam. I would have to write a short story in Chinese, which I wasn't good at it because it had been a long time since I learned to write in Chinese. Most of the words I had forgotten due to my focus on my second language, which was English. I still remembered my Chinese knowledge exam, which what made me to practice my Chinese once again.