After living in China for 2 years, and using Skritter to study for almost the whole time, I just passed the HSK 5.

I can't think of any higher endorsement than that. Skritter works.

Congratulations! That rocks.

Going to do anything particular with your HSK 5 result, or just wanted the challenge?

Congratulations!

I am planning to write the HSK4 later this year and have been Skrittering like mad. Are there any other resources that you found useful in preparing for the HSK?

Atdlouis this is great. Congrats! I wonder if I can even think of HSK level 3 in two years living in India with a full time job and just skritter and web to learn Chinese.
next HSK 6?

Well done! What do you think was the biggest benefit to your Chinese from taking it?

Congratulations! Did they stick to the words on the official list?

Wow, well done! I like those success stories, serves as a motivator for my self. No more excuses, I have to try this my self now. Do you mind sharing some more info about your preparations, how the test felt, type of questions etc?

if you do it regularly skritter works for sure.

details would be interesting. how many hours a day did you write? how many words is your present stats?

good job! well done! keep up the good work!

Congratulations! It sounds like you worked your butt off!

@ Nick: I was really just taking the test for the challenge. But I am entering law school now, and it makes me feel better to be able to put an HSK 5 score on my resume, instead of just "speaks Chinese."

@ LeChuan: I didn't target my study for the HSK. I just stuck to my NPCR textbooks, "Common Chinese Patterns 330", some Chinesepod lessons, and young adult books like "大宇 神秘惊奇". All of the study was in my spare time; I never took a formal Chinese class. There is a book put out by Hanban that with five different practice tests. I did two of those, and then got bored and didn't do the rest. But that was helpful.

@Sandeep: I would love to take the 6, but I think I'm going to wait until next year. I'm entering law school now, and I want to focus on that first.

@Byzanti: I don't think my Chinese benefited from it really. I never targeted my study for the HSK, never crammed vocab lists or focused on practice tests. I just did the same study routine I developed from 2 years of self-study in China.

@Zeppa: Wish I could help you, but I've never looked at an HSK vocab list! I don't learn words very well from lists, so I thought it wouldn't help me very much just to memorize words that way.

@learninglife: My stats are public, but just in case they aren't, here are my stats right now. Characters are all simplified - I've never learned traditional.

Character writings: Added 2311; Learned 2254
Word Writings: Added 4945; Learned 4813

Joined 11/10/2010, studied on 372 different days, for 365 hours. But 11/10/2010 to now is about 650 days - so you can see I skipped a lot of days. I would study in streaks; for example, I haven't Skrittered much in the past 4 weeks because I've been couch surfing and just couldn't find the mood. But I just moved into my dorm, and I can already feel the urge to study again.

My goal would always be to do an hour. 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes at lunch, and 20 minutes in the evening. I hardly ever was that precise, but that was my goal anyway.

@Mandarin boy:

Preparation: I just used Skritter, and Anki flash cards I made with the text book "Common Chinese Patterns 330". I highly recommend this last book, and I will gladly share the cards I wrote with anyone who has bought this book. The book consists of sample sentences for 330 different grammatical structures in Chinese - I typed up the entire book over the course of a year, and now study the cards every day. I'm up to structure 153, and it has already taken my Chinese to a whole new level, and I have almost 200 structures to go. I plan to finish this book by in a year, learning 2 structure patterns a week. Seriously can't recommend it enough.

Test feel: Someone on the Chinese-Forums wrote a great write up describing the test, and it matches my experience. http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/37311-new-hsk-level-5-computer-exam-%E2%80%93-preparation-tips/

I'll add two things: the listening was overwhelming. I was sure I failed the test because of it. And for the writing section, I had to describe a picture, but I wasn't exactly sure what they wanted: was I supposed to describe what I saw? Or was I supposed to make a story about the picture? I just described what I saw, using simple sentences. Both the listening and the writing were low scores. Here's my scores for reference:

听力 73.0
阅读 92.0
写作 71.0
总分 236.0

You have to score at least 60 points in each section; the minimum total score must be 180.

@jww1066: Thanks!

Thanks a lot for all this information, most useful. Your book recommendation I did check out immediately and it looked very promising so I ordered it.

Mandarinboy, if you use Anki, I can send you the deck I wrote for the book. Just give me an email address

I use Anki as well so that would be most welcome. You can mail me at mathias dot mj dot Johansson at volvo dot com. This is most welcome.

"I just did the same study routine I developed from 2 years of self-study in China."

I'm impressed! From what I saw of some of the other students for the very short period I did do formal study, a lot of it seemed to be understanding the minutiae of the HSK words. IE, here's a list of 4 words that'll fit into this sentence, choose the best one. Seemed tough.

Hey atdlouis,

could you also send a copy of your Anki-Deck (Common Chinese Patterns 330) to me? E-mail is: dermokk at gmail dot com.

Thanks a lot!

someone could send me the same at sandeep dot chandi at gmail dot com.

Louis, please also one list for me at:
dandycore at yahoo dot com.

thanks a lot! and good luck with law school!

Louis you are going to Law School in China? US? which ?

Louis I'd appreciate that Anki deck also:
brian点n点jackson（at）gmail点com

@ Nepumuk, Sandeep, learninglife, & icebear. I'll send send you all e-mails, but could you let me know that you've all bought the book? I literally typed up the entire book verbatim, and since I've fallen in love with it, I decided to not upload it to the Anki database. I don't want to detract from their book sales. It's a reasonable price - $19.95 on Amazon. Totally worth it.

Here is a sample card:
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Question:
A: 不行，你快告诉我，这到底是怎么回事？
B: 人有时候还是糊涂点儿好，____什么事情都要一清二楚__。

Hint:
A: Do tell me, what's the matter?
B: It's better to be ignorant sometimes. There is no need to know everything clearly.

Answer:
A: 不行，你快告诉我，这到底是怎么回事？
B: 人有时候还是糊涂点儿好，何必什么事情都要一清二楚呢。
何必～呢
表示没有必要这样做，常用于劝说对方。
Used often in persuasion to indicate that there is no need for something.
- - - - - - - - - - - -

The structure is highlighted in bold red in Anki, so it stands out. In this case it's 何必 ... 呢.

I already ordered one Amazon along with a bunch of other books.

Louis, and me please!

louis of course i will buy it!
but i ll get the cheaper version in chinese amazon for 27,65 rmb.

cheers!

You can get it in bookshops in China as well for 28 RMB. Or if you are not in China via e.g http://www.chinabooks.com/home.php?cat=165 for 15.96 US$

My source for the book is abebooks, but I got the only affordable copy - one from China on that site is about 65 euros.

hi zeppa, what is your email? Also, on Amazon.com the book is only $19.95.

Post from the US to Germany would not help there. OK, probably still cheaper but I can't be bothered with not knowing how many months it would take to arrive.

margaret dot marks at gmail.com

hey, i was actually meaning to ask you for your anki deck for this book a while back. You mentioned it a couple months ago and I bought the book on the strength of your recommendation, but haven't been able to work up the motivation to type everything in. I'll forward you my receipt so you can confirm everything's kosher ;) This should be within the fair use doctrine, as I'm sure they'll teach you in law school soon enough.

My email address is dbkluck在gmail点com.

Good luck with law school. It's lots of fun. Only bummer is that when you graduate, you have to spend your days working with lawyers, which is really not fun...

Yes, I'm a legal translator and solicitor - US law school I know only from films like The Paper Chase. Not sure if this falls under fair use, but it's surely OK if one's bought the book.

Congrats! That is amazing, getting to HSK5 after 2 years. I passed HSK5 last December (听力 89 阅读 70 写作 76 总分 235) and it took me 1,5 years part-time study in Finland and 1,5 years full-time study in China to get there (3 years in total).

The book you mentioned, Common Chinese Patterns 330, sound very interesting and useful! I think I will take a look if my local bookstore has it. Grammar is one of my weakest links and I really need to improve that for HSK6 which I maybe plan to try this December.

And about Skritter, it totally helps me to pass my 综合 exams and that is the only vocabulary I add to Skritter.

i ordered my copy of the book yesterday on taobao in beijing. looking forward to get it tomorrow. it was only around 17 kuai!
the seller said its a real one, not a copy ...

hi adtlouis, can you send me the stack also: bernshausvaltwies at hotmail dot com
I've ordered the book right now from Amazon China: 23 RMB plus 7 Rmb postage.
Thanks a lot

hi adtlouis
Could you please send me the anki files as well to jenkinse24 at yahoo dot com dot au. I have bought the book ($43.45 in Australia and that was some months ago.) It is a wonderful book and I applaud you taking steps to see that the authors do get some return for their efforts even if it is grossly overpriced here.

Congratulations on your your HSK results.

atdlouis,

Congratulations! That is a very impressive achievement!
At what level would you say it makes sense to tackle Common Chinese Patterns 330?

What NPCR volume should one be on or have finished for it to be meaningful?

just got the book. smells a bit like glue...
but the price is really good. so i will just hang it out for airing and then start to use it: common chinese patterns 330 !!

just had a first look at the book. the used words in the chinese example sentences are pretty easy.
it also says in the foreword: for learners in the first years as well as the more advanced ones.

i wouldnt recommend it to a total beginner though.

hi atdlouis

Have you reconsidered your generous offer to share you anki cards for "Common Chinese Patterns 330"?

Hi adtlouis!
When you have time, I would be very happy to receive the Anki files too at bergers28 at wanadoo dot fr. I bought the book in Paris (for the 中国通: at the Phenix, boulevard de Sebastopol) and paid the "modest" sum of 35 euros).
Thank you very much !
Francoise

I've had a change of heart about the Anki deck. Because information travels on the internet so easily, it could be uploaded to the shared decks on Anki, and available to people who haven't bought the book. I really don't want that to happen, so I won't share it with anyone further, and I've asked the people I've given it to not to share it. They said they have respected that decision. I am only motivated about protecting the authors and not detracting from their sales.

I still highly recommend buying the book; the Anki deck isn't necessary to use it. There is no pinyin, so you must have a good grasp of Chinese by the time you use the book. I started it after I finished NPCR 1-4. I study it through close reading - analyzing every word I didn't know, trying to understand every character. It is slow going, and I will probably finish the book in a year, which would be 2 years of study. For every 10 pages, there are about 60-70 words I don't know, and about 8-10 characters I don't recognize.

To give more detail, it is a book of structures. Structures are used to link thoughts to create more complex sentences. You could communicate the same ideas in very simple sentences, like a beginning student, but these structures allow you to connect several thoughts together to sound more fluent.

Hey mate I have also purchased this book and would love the deck it sounds great. congratulations on the results mate. kirkwood23@ hot mail点com。 谢谢你的帮助

Jared, atdlouis has decided not to share the Anki deck for the book further out of concern for protecting the authors' rights--I hope you will understand.