RaichelAnn

My daughter called me and said the Chinese w/listening was nothing at all like the CollegeBoard Blue book practice test or the mini-online test. On the practice test she scored in the 600 range (answered about 95% of the listening correct) and on today's test she said it was impossible. The dialogues were much faster and vocab.by far more complex. She only answered 65 questions and said she had to guess on all the listening questions and didn't recognize a lot of characters. I don't understand how there could be such a discrepancy between an official practice test and the one they concocted for today. She is not a native chinese speaker or Asian for that matter. The test is supposed to be geared toward students with 1-2 years of high school Chinese. If the college board meant to trip up native speakers and reduce the number of perfect scores,well they certainly did their best trying. I feel really badly for her because she is senior and her focus is on Asian studies/Chinese and this score won't help the college admissions chances. Also, a friend of hers took the same test at different site and the proctor allowed them to keep their headsets because she said she went back at the end of the test and listened to the passages a second time to check her answers. This is supposedly not allowed to happen.....

mhakim33

that stinks, i got a 790 on chinese w/ listening, and i dnt even speak chinese, i only speak english. I have a "gussing tutor" who helps me guess... Im shocked!!!! i did so well, for not even reading a question... me?chinese? ha... good luck

peachjelly

I'm a kind-of native speaker (parents both speak Cantonese) but only learnt Chinese from 9 onwards -> Asian languages are definitely very difficult to learn so props to your daughter for doing so well. I only got 770, the curve is so hard (4 wrong), and the grammar/reading is tricky. Worldaverage is 764, second only to Korean.

ipam45

i thought i did great today, i think i only missed one, but i;m gonna say 5 for the benefit of doubt. what is the curve on the chinese test anyways?

RaichelAnn

The average score is in the high 700 range because most people that take the test speak Chinese or have parents that speak it etc. That said, the test should be designed for students that have had 1-2 years of Chinese, not those who grew up in a Chinese speaking household. I wouldn't worry about your score. With 5 wrong you will still probably fall in the 700 range.

amb3r

Aww, I'm sorry about your daughter. So many native Chinese speakers take the test that it's really difficult for someone who isn't Asian to test well, and it's not your daughter's fault. A lot of sat ii languages are like that; a lot of native speakers take the test, making the curve harsh for those who actually learned the language in school. Hopefully colleges will understand that it isn't fair to compare someone who learned Chinese in high school to someone who grew up hearing the language spoken around the house.

peachyogurt

yeah i thought the test was going to be easy but it turned out to be pretty hard. the beginning was so easy and then towards the end there were some trick questions....

xfiona

I did the blue book and the end was nothing compared to the real thing...what a disaster, I couldn't read a thing!

eta: should I retake it next year? I got a 710.
I was thinking I should but I don't know if it will make it in time for NYU ED.

iAppler

The SAT Chinese is not as hard as many people think. You DO NOT have to answer every question to get a perfect score. You can miss up to 2~3 questions on the November 3rd listening test. I got a 75/80 for my listening part and 80/80 for the others and still got a 800/800 as final.

The listening part was not fast, but one has to pay close attention throughout that section.

abestmonky

hi im new to collegeconfidential, but so far i think that the blogs have helped me a lot with my SATs.
i was wondering, can anyone tell me what the chinese test w/ listening is like? i've never done any practice tests and i signed up for the nov test this year, but im an americanborn chinese living in china now. it seems like i shouldn't be worried, but right now my school thinks that if i dont get 800 than im retarded...
thanks

AshlieWly

Hi, I'm also new to collegeconfidential and also taking SAT chinese in Nov 2009. I'm an american-born-chinese who is living in Malaysia (next to Singapore). I can speak, read and write chinese quite well. The SAT listening test is very slow in my opinion (the one offered on the collegeboard website). BUT, as I've never done any real practice test. I was wondering whether the actual test is in any way similar to that offered on Collegeboard? Or is it way way way faster? Is the chinese spoken really that clear, if it is so then i'll be quite ok, i think... and hope.

Abestmonky, u can try out the listening test here:
SAT Subject Test in Chinese with Listening

If u can understand the China chinese when they speak, I'm sure you'll have no problems whatsoever with this, it's wonderfully accent-less.

shmluza

Hey guys, do you have the book satii chinese, the book you can buy from amazon. the one with several mock tests? can you (if you took the real one) tell me how much faster the real test is compared to the recording in the mock tests? i 'm afraid if i freak out i wont be able to understand a thing.

AshlieWly

U can try the link i listed in my last post. The real test will be about the same speed as that. However, u'll have to be careful about the proctor. When i was taking my test, she was reading out the rules to the other SAT subject test takers of different subjects. Although i'm sure she tried her best to be as soft as possible, it was really really distracting and caused me to kinda miss here and there of a few conversations. But, maybe that is just me. I'm easily distracted. XD