trevelyan on March 15, 2010 | reply

Hi Rizzo,

I hadn't heard of (or taken) the test myself, probably because I've never been to Taiwan. Asked a friend down there what he thought about it, and he had this to say:

I haven't ever taken that test, but I have heard quite a bit about it and one of my friends took it. It was made by 師範大學, with pretty similar goals as the HSK had. From what I understand, almost all language schools in Taiwan offer this test now, but I've never heard of a university requiring it for a foreign student or any actual use for the accreditation. I think people wrote quite a bit more about it on forumosa.com

Will see what else we can find out about it. If there's interest and we're capable, there's no reason not to put some materials online to help people prepare for the exam.

--dave

jstoehr on March 15, 2010 | reply

I'm currently in Taiwan and I know about the TOP test. Unfortunately, I haven't taken it yet. It is supposed to be similar to the HSK, with the big difference being the traditional characters. You can't even take the HSK here, so the TOP is the standard. They regularly promote it at language schools here also.

My mandarin teacher has prepared many people for the test, and has been teaching it for years. Are there any questions I could ask for you?

By the way, I'm also from Milwaukee! It's a small world, I'm really missing Kopps custard over here.

rizzo on March 16, 2010 | reply

Thanks for the feedback - and allow me to express my surprise at meeting someone else from Milwaukee on Popup Chinese. I'd be happy to provide any updates on our fine city if you'd like to contact me.

It is my understanding that the TOP test is available in Simplified or Traditional characters - only because there is a checkbox for the preferred character set on my registration form.

Also, I did locate this graph comparing HSK to TOP levels - kinda cool I guess

http://www.sc-top.org.tw/english/LR/test4.php

I will post back after I have taken the exam and let you all know what I think. I'll also let you know my results if you all promise not to laugh too much. Well, OK, even if you laugh at me plenty.

Now back to Reading Passages Excercise #1.

-rizzo

Echo on March 16, 2010 | reply

@rizzo,

Good luck on your test! 加油! If you have questions about Chinese language itself(like grammar, vocab etc.), you can leave us a comment on the site. We don't know very much about the test, but maybe we can help with the language :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com

rizzo on March 24, 2010 | reply

Well, my registration and test fee have been received just in time. Why do the HSK and TOPS tests require a copy of my passport? That seems odd. In the US I can buy a house, car or even a firearm without much more than a signature, but to take a language test I need a passport.

I'll post back to let you know what I think of the test.

xiaoma on March 31, 2010 | reply

Hi jstoehr, if you want to take the HSK in Taiwan, I believe TLI offers it.

globalliberationarmy1 on April 1, 2010 | reply

Hello there, allow me to dump some stuff here that I ran across.

SCTOP

http://www.sc-top.org.tw/download/800Words_Beginners.pdf

http://www.sc-top.org.tw/download/8000_Basic.pdf

mock test (different, perhaps older)

beginner

http://www.huayuworld.org/?p=2137

basic

http://www.huayuworld.org/?p=2523

more mock tests (probably the same)

http://www.iqchinese.shawbiz.ca/03-07.htm

and of course the main website for sctop has those mock tests. This is what I could drag up after about an hour of searching.

rizzo on April 5, 2010 | reply

After taking the (only available) mock test, it seems to me that the TOP differs from the HSK in that the vocabulary is narrower in scope, but requires a more precise comprehension of each word and phrase than does the HSK. The multiple choice answers in many cases only have subtle differences separating right from wrong, or right from not quite as right.

I did find a vocab list on YellowBridge

http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/fc-engine.php

I do like the practical focus on the test - reading comprehension taken from actual, or at least realistic looking, documents and adds.

I still maintain hope that the HSK will be offered in Chicago before too long.