Is Cfa Exam Easier Than Mocks
Geralyn
Most people here seem to say that they find the real tests a bit harder than the mock tests. There's a very long thread where people have posted their experiences and comments: Taking the HSK? Already taken it? Report in here!
know this is a bit irrelevant but I wanted to know how is mock test compare to the real examination in term of difficulty? I took mock test in chinesetest.cn one three times and I've done pretty well but I got no idea about the actual difficulty of real examination.
Last month, I did all of the mock tests available for download on chinestest.cn. I felt that the listening part was more difficult today, not only because of the Technical Difficulties I went through.
As soon as I get my results, I'll post them here so that we can all have a look at the test diagnostic report and get to know what that actually is.
That questionnaire is really annoying. They should at least give you the option to say "I'll do it later" (or never).
Fortunately you only have to do it once. But their data will surely be nonsense though, because so many people will give any old answer just to get rid of it.
Here we can see some information that we also get in the real HSK score report, but a lot more visual. We've got tables, bars, and a bell curve that most likely doesn't accurately represent how people's scores are distrubuted. Looks pretty nice, but the gaussian doesn't make sense to me.
Then, we're presented with this chunk of information. It's interesting to see how the HSK vocabulary is divided, but I'm still trying to undestand how the graphs and tables work. You see, item number 9 on the left, 经济, has only gotten a single question in the whole test for itself, but the report says it amounts to 0% of the test score (maybe I got it wrong ?) and the graph says I got 80% of those questions right, which probably makes no sense (maybe that's one of the written questions and I got it almost right ?). I once again believe this is not the best way to present these data, because some items have 40 questions while others have only 1, which means some questions impact the graph area a lot more than others.
On the end of page 1, we've got a short description of what I'm supposedly able to do with my Chinese skills (on the left), and I think it's actually somewhat accurate, at least a lot more accurate than "can discuss a relatively wide range of topics in Chinese and is capable of communicating with Chinese speakers at a high standard". On the right, the report says I've got a firm grasp of astonishing 0% of the test's grammar despite my score of 275, and advises me to learn more. The only thing I can say about this is that I indeed did not use any of those patterns in the last 5 questions, which are the only ones where we've got to write stuff 100% by ourselves on HSK 4, and maybe that's also why I got only 24/40 on the last 5 questions.
At last, on page 2 we're shown 2 appendices:
Overall, I think the report is fine, but data could be presented in better ways. I believe this also contributes to that "HSK 4 Writing" post, where we've discussed how the questions are evaluated: try to use the new grammar points, they seem to matter a lot.
Thanks, @mungouk. Now I'll do my best to improve my speaking so that it doesn't fall too far behind. I haven't had many opportunities to talk with Chinese people this year, so there's this gap I need to get rid of.
You'll get a lot of people just using it like Twitter/facebook, and lots of messages from people... but out of perhaps 40 or 50 people, I now regularly talk to a handful. It's possible to find really good people to learn with in that, I found.
@PHOU KIETHSENG was asking about how difficult the real exams are compared to the mock tests...
I'm not sure how accurately we can answer that, given that it it's very subjective, and it depends on:
I particularly needed to focus on the timing aspect for the reading, because I just wasn't reading/doing the questions fast enough (40 questions in 40 minutes). Hence that other thread on Tactics for HSK 4 Reading Section.
Flash forward to yesterday and I am at a loss for words. I counted about 25 MCQs on Government and NFP and the SIMS were out of left field. Either completely new topics, or a bank reconciliation but with new areas not covered at all in Becker. I left of course feeling like I failed and that I had to guess on most of the SIMS. I ran out of time on my last SIM and had to guess on most of it. Another SIM I am pretty sure I got completely wrong.
Yeah that is my plan regardless of what comes back. I guess what worries me most is such material inconsistency from Backer. Any other Becker students out there that felt the Actual exam deviated a lot from the material in the Mock Exams?
I posted in the FAR Q3 thread, but dude I am in the same boat as you. I studied my butt off for months and reviewed just as much as you using Becker. I knew the entire Becker book SO well and its questions. I took FAR last week, but the MCQ was not so bad (I say this bc i understand Becker's MCQ well). Pretty good mix of Gov't and NFP and other things.
With that being said, I'm on the same boat as you since we don't get our score for another 2 months, have you done any other sections? I'm so afraid to start another section and then find out I failed FAR, that I would have forgotten most of the material. I don't know whether to just continue reviewing FAR here and there and take it as soon as we get the score back or start another section
I got a 73 and an 81 on the Becker mock exams and I feel the exact same way as you both (regarding the SIMS). I'm assuming if most of us feel this way that's a good sign and we shouldn't be as worried.
I took the test last Monday and had the same experience as you. The MCQ weren't that straight forward. I couldn't tell if my test got harder or not but in the second testlet I had narrowed my choices to two answer and had to block out extra info given. I was able to reconcile one of the SIMs and I had 20 minutes for the last testlet and I left 2 SIMS mostly blank. Didn't get my research question. I scored 67 on Mock test 1 on Becker.
REG: 79! July 15, 2018 at 5:59 pm #1885369 JaneParticipant I genuinely 100% believe I failed FAR during Q2, I was so ready to start studying for it again after taking reg this quarter. I walked out of the test in a state of shock, I knew the book in and out! After the second testlet I was already sure I failed. Definitely bombed a couple of sims. Absolutely felt incredibly defeated and went home and cried to my parents and had them take me out for ice cream.
So, just sit tight for now and wait until you get the score would be my word of advice. It was my first cpa exam so I didn't believe it when people told me if you feel like you bombed, there's still a chance you passed. After getting my score I realized there really is a lot of truth to that!
Thanks @Jane, It is definitely nice to hear the words of encouragement from everyone! I plan on taking AUD next and begin a weekly Becker class in a week. I also think I will study an hour or so of FAR every week just to stay on top of it just in case.
Took FAR this past saturday, i thought the MCQs were very much like Becker questions which i had been using. The SIMs on the actual however were way longer than what i had expected. I had done the mock exams and the SIMs were way less time consuming and easier than actual, not even close to representing what the sims were like in the actual. The Sims were way different than the mocks, after the mocks I thought if the Sims were like this, would be happy. Unfortunately, they werent and were very long.
Really glad I found other people who had the same problem this quarter. I took FAR on Monday (July 16th) and found the multiple choice questions weren't too bad, but SIMs were horrible in the way that they were really long and overly confusing. The SIMs I also felt were on topics Becker had in the course but didn't go into as much detail on as some of the other things. I got 77's on both Becker mock exams and finished with about 30mins left on both the mock exams. The actual exam I ran out of time during the last SIM.
REG - 85 (Q1 2019) July 19, 2018 at 8:35 am #1889856 CPYAYYYParticipant If it makes you feel any better I got a 51 and a 65 on FAR mocks. Ended up with an 82 and I was positive I failed. It's a waste of energy trying to figure out if you failed or not. Trust me, I've stressed out far too many times (no pun intended) and then got passing scores. There is no way of gauging how you did on the exam.
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