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I took the HSK advanced level exam yesterday. I almost didn’t sit for the exam because I didn’t prepare at all. I was reluctant to go but when I thought of the RMB 400 that I had spent to register for the exam, I decided to go. Frankly, I think the date chosen for the HSK exam is very bad. Only a month has passed since the semester began. Like my friends, I’m not really in a studying mood yet. I’m still busy trying to get used to the new classes(International trade law, Guide to thesis writing, Business negotiation, International settlement, Advanced Chinese,etc) that I have this semester after not touching any books during the 2 months summer hols. I think that it would have been better if the HSK exam was around the end of the semester. Anyway, it was a nice experience. I didn’t do well this time but at least now I know what the real exam is like. I’m looking forward to my second attempt next year in April.
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Comments about the exam and the location:

The exam was as hard as I expected. Compared to this exam , the HSK intermediate level exam is a piece of cake.
I took the exam at Fudan University. It is quite near Tongji University. There were too many students in each classroom. The majority were Korean and Japanese students.
During the oral exam, I was wearing a headset and had to talk into the mouthpiece. I could hear everyone talking. The reading aloud part was fine but when it came to answering the 2 questions, it was a bit hard to concentrate because I could hear the people around me saying their replies to the 2 questions. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the guy on my left was done with the exam. He had removed his headset. This caused me to panic a bit. I was only half-done replying the second question. I was perfectly aware that his head was tilt to one side and he was listening to me now that he was done. It was so hard to stay focused like that. Arghh. I think most people were like me. They hurriedly finished the oral exam because they noticed that the people around them were done already. I remember that there was a Korean girl who was still talking by the time everyone was done. I was thinking: “Wow, she managed to ignore the people around her and stayed focused” .

A few tips for next time:

Prepare for the exam! Starting now! Buy HSK books to practice doing mock exams and try to finish the papers within the allocated time. Practice writing essays.( I did poorly in the essay writing exam this time.) I also need to watch TV more often, especially the news.

Bring a mechanical pencil to use for the essay. I had brought a blunt 2B pencil to be able to shade the boxes in the answer sheet fast. I had another extra pencil which wasn’t blunt but it wasn’t sharp either. I had to erase and rewrite many characters(esp. those with many strokes) because they looked horrible.The strokes looked out a tad too thick when written using that pencil I had brought. I wasted a lot of time because of that.

Wear a watch. Or bring a clock. I wore a watch this time but not everyone did that. There was no clock in the room where I had my exam. I guess it might be different for other universities.

Stay focused during the oral exam. Ignore the people around.

hmmm I can’t think of anything else to add to the list for the time being.

I hear that the results will be out in about a month. I’m expecting the worst.
My Japanese classmate Aki and I are planning to go to the bookstores on Fuzhou Road this Thursday. I plan to buy a few books which will help me get ready for the next exam. I’m also thinking of buying some Japanese books. I want to learn Japanese!

Something I want to get off my chest: Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I can’t believe I missed Lin jun jie(JJ Lin)’s Shanghai concert yesterday!

The digital camera I used to go everywhere with is a Canon IXUS 400. I have it since a few years now. It’s only 4.0 megapixels. Compared to the newest models out there nowadays, my digital camera is a tad… ‘ancient’. Still, I love that camera. It has enabled me to capture many events & special moments during the last few years. I have never seriously thought of buying a new one…until now. I haven’t been able to use my camera for 2 weeks now. It keeps showing a ‘memory card error’. I know that the problem isn’t with the CF card itself because I have 3 CF cards and with all 3 of them, there’s still that memory card error. I’ve had a few problems with my camera before but it usually works again after a few days. This is the longest time that it has stopped working. It seems that I really have to say goodbye to my old IXUS 400 now.

It has been raining because of the typhoon. Now the weather is great again. Well, almost. It’s not raining anymore but there’s now a sudden drop in temperature. I slept till almost 11 a.m today (I can’t believe I did that! Argh. Missed 2 classes ) and when I went out during the afternoon, I wore a short-sleeve top. I felt the cold as soon as I stepped out of the building. Brrrrrr. It’s even colder at night. It’s high time to get the long-sleeve tops and jackets out of my suitcase. Most people on the streets were wearing long sleeves…

(I snapped that pic in a hurry and using my phone… My digital camera seems to be ‘dead’. More about that later….)

We were supposed to go running (or rather jogging) together this morning. We had it all planned out since yesterday. He was supposed to come at around 7 a.m and then we’d go jogging for a while, just the two of us. I was really looking forward to it because we’ve never been jogging together. I’ve tried to convince him so many times in the past but he always refused. (He didn’t seem to understand why I prefer to go jogging with him instead of going alone. )

He phoned me at 5:30 a.m and told me that he didn’t sleep at all because he was working on his architecture project. At that moment, what went through my mind was “Uh oh.. he is going to say that he’s going to sleep now and won’t make it….. ” Imagine my surprise when he said that he’ll go buy breakfast later and then come over so that we can eat together instead of going jogging. At 7, he’s here with the shengjian and the doujiang.
Me= Happy
Like most guys, he probably won’t understand it. Some people think that girls need to be showered with gifts to be happy but it’s really the little things they do which matter most.

(And this is the end of yet another unannounced hiatus… I have so many new pics. I’m back to Shanghai since a month already. My last university year.. Yikes )