Chinese
There are no placement tests for Chinese courses. However, before you register in a course, please read its prerequisites carefully. If you are not sure about which course you should take, please contact us.
HSK stands for Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, which means "Chinese Proficiency Test". HSK is a standardized test, which is used to assess the Chinese language proficiency of non-native Chinese speakers. HSK is comprised of the Basic Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK Basic), the Elementary and Intermediate Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK Elementary-Intermediate) and the Advanced Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK Advanced). HSK is held regularly in test centers in China and all over the world. Those who achieve the required scores will be granted Chinese Proficiency Certificates for various levels set by China's National HSK Committee.
The HSK test center in Vancouver is run by the Chinese Language Program of the Department of Asian Studies at UBC, which gives the tests once each year. Participants are eligible to apply for scholarships to study in China's best universities. In 2006, fifteen individuals who took the examinations received HSK scholarships to study in the summer program at the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai.
HSK is the most widely used tool for assessing the Chinese language level of non-native speakers. The number of individuals taking HSK has increased rapidly during the last few years, and by December 2005, HSK had been taken by about a million examinees from more than 120 countries.
For more details about HSK and sample tests, see the official HSK website or the UBC HSK Website.
