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How to effectively study for the HSK

I studied for only one month for the HSK3

What is the HSK Exam ? 

The Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, mostly known as HSK, is a Chinese proficiency exam; currently there are 6 levels, but next year there will be up to 9 levels.

How long do you have to study for the exam? 

I would recommend you to study  for several months, if you usually don't have a lot of time, because it can be quite time-consuming, but if you are up to the challenge, or you are in an emergency It's possible to do it in a little over a month.

As I mentioned before, it's possible to only study for a short time and have good results, but in my opinion you will need to have some previous knowledge, because learning the basics of a language takes time and practice, in my case I had already been studying Traditional Chinese for 2 years, but the curriculum I had been using was quite different to the HSK, but I already knew a lot of the grammar and some vocabulary.


Resources:

First, I looked up some PDFs for the HSK 3 standard book and workbook.

Then I used the following YouTube channels: LichaoChinese for the explanations of the readings, ShuoShuoChinese and ChineseEdieG for grammar explanations. Language Endeavor for the listening of the Workbook, and finally I used Carly LetsSpeakXYZ for the answers of the workbook. 

Besides all of that, I also used the following websites and Apps: ChineseGrammarWiki for grammar explanations and different examples, Mandarin Bean for HSK practice tests, as for Apps I used: HSK Study and Exam for practice tests, but mainly to practice the writing section, HSK Exam and HSK3-online test I also used them for practice tests, Pleco as a dictionary, and finally I used Anki to review the vocabulary. 

My biggest tips for this exam

The thing that will help you the most is the workbook because it has the same format as the exam, the only difference is the amount of questions. Every time you make a mistake in the workbook add it to Anki so that you can review it later, also if you don't recognize a character or don't remember its pronunciation also add it to Anki, you will do the same with practice tests and every night or every morning practice your Anki deck.

Take at least 6 practice tests I know that it seems like a lot, but with those and the workbook you will be able to create a strategy and realize which are your common mistakes, for example: in my case I had the problem that sometimes I took the listening too literally, there were times that the audio said "Everyday I read book" and then the question was: Does he like reading? And I used to think he doesn't like reading because they didn't mention that, and as you can imagine I was wrong, so I started to see some patterns in this case I realized that if they mention that they did something every day, it usually also meant that they liked it, so that's the reason you need to practice a lot.

Finally, when you are taking notes from the book, don't waste your time by writing everything, the only thing that you need to write are the grammar points with their explanation and 2 examples.


My experience and the schedule I used to study 

To be honest it was quite stressful to study so much in such a short time, I was constantly nervous, but it was all worth it because I was able to score 288 points, also I chose to do the online version because I was not confident in my abilities to write simplified characters.


My schedule:

Day 1: Do a practice test, so you can know your level.
Week 1: Finish 5 lessons of the Standard book and Workbook, first do a lesson in the standard book and then do the same lesson in the workbook, also I omitted some parts from the standard book, I only answered until the part where you describe images, at the end of the week do a practice test.
Week 2: Finish up the lesson 10 in both books and do another practice test.
Week 3: Finish up to the lesson 15 in both books and do another practice test.
Week 4: Finish up to lesson 20 in both books and do another practice test.
Week 5: You will do at least one practice test every day and use the HSK app to practice the part where you struggle the most.
Finally, remember to review the vocabulary every night in Anki.

It's important to mention that I still believe that should study for several months so that you can really acquire the knowledge, and be able to use the grammar structures, and truly learn the language, the schedule I added is mainly used to pass the exam, but I believe that an exam score does not equal the amount of knowledge you have, I did this because I have been studying Chinese language for quite some time and I take Chinese classes with a different curriculum, so this schedule is not my main method to learn Chinese, it was just the way I prepared for the exam.
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