A stepping stone to world-famous schools! Chinese children are taking the A-level Chinese exam, it is too bad not to learn!

Do you want to take A-level Chinese?

Which universities in the UK recognize A-level Chinese scores?

Is it so easy to get A* in A-Level Chinese?

These problems not only plague domestic high school students, but also Chinese families in the UK are very concerned. In order to get into G5, they will never let go of any opportunity for bonuses. So, how much do you know about the A-level Chinese exam? What are the points that parents must know? Today, Xiao Wukong will take you to understand systematically.

01 Talk about A-level Chinese

A-level (General Certificate of Education Advanced Level) is a British high school curriculum and a university entrance examination course for British students; and A-level Chinese is an optional subject in the A-level exam, and it is also a relatively simple subject.

Initially, the basic idea of A-level Chinese was to encourage more people to understand Chinese culture, literature and language.

Through systematic Chinese learning, children can have certain advantages when choosing a school, and have a better resume in future job hunting.

As more and more people learn Chinese in the UK, and many British universities accept students to apply for degrees with A-Level Chinese, this elective subject has gradually become popular.

There are four themes within the scope of its proposition, namely: the changes of contemporary Chinese society; Chinese culture; the evolving Chinese society; and the impact of the reform and opening up in 1978 on China.

The exam is divided into 4 parts: Reading and Writing, Essay, Text and Prose.

Reading and Writing: Write two short essays with a combined word count of less than 750, mainly examining students’ vocabulary, grammar, sentence analysis and other related knowledge points. The question types are generally synonyms, antonyms, and sentence making, and the difficulty is equivalent to that of Chinese in the third grade of domestic primary schools; the difficulty of the last open question will be slightly greater.

Essay: The topic involves many fields, from China’s reform and opening up to interpersonal relationship, from science and technology to medical care to environmental protection, etc.; the question method is similar to the IELTS writing topic, and the overall difficulty is equivalent to the composition of the fourth grade of primary school.

Text: The difficulty increases. Lu Xun’s articles, Cao Yu’s drama “Thunderstorm”, Ai Qing and Xu Zhimo’s poetry collections, contradictions, and Ba Jin’s works will all become the objects of investigation.

Prose: To examine whether candidates can translate English to Chinese proficiently, it is not only necessary to translate words and sentences, but also to express the meaning of English with Chinese language habits.

This is a language course for students whose mother tongue is not Chinese. The difficulty of the course is the same as that of a common second language, so it is highly recommended for Chinese children to choose this course!

At present, most schools in the UK accept A-level Chinese scores, such as Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Bristol, University of Manchester, KCL, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Glasgow, Liverpool and other universities.

But when you actually apply, you still need case by case. For example, popular Buiness-related majors basically do not accept A-level Chinese scores, while science and engineering and other majors depend on the school.

Moreover, if Chinese is one of your three main subjects, then the A Level Chinese course should be at the same pace as other courses, that is, it must be taken in the same year as other subjects.

Therefore, before choosing subjects, parents must understand clearly in advance, and communicate clearly with the school in advance about the requirements of their children’s target schools and related majors for high school subjects.

02 Several misunderstandings in A-level Chinese learning

During the learning process, A-level students always make some mistakes when preparing for the exam because they do not understand the key points of the exam, cannot change their British thinking, or have too little practice.

Recite the textbook

The first common misunderstanding is to only recite textbooks. In order to memorize these Chinese vocabulary, many children often choose to memorize the entire textbook by cramming.

The importance of textbooks is undeniable, but the exam format is still somewhat different from textbooks. Exam formats vary widely, and textbooks often only have some instructions.

The correct way should be to review the past Chinese test questions, and to clarify the similar conceptual knowledge in the next test by brushing the questions, so as to pass the test better.

Write a thesis

As well as memorizing textbooks, A-level students also like to cram past writing papers.

Be aware that the topics of papers change each year, and examiners may also use publications for reference when grading and grading exam papers in order to avoid the same problems. If you happen to cite a very well-known article, it may be considered plagiarism by them and you will fail the exam.

Therefore, you can memorize some commonly used writing methods or a good beginning and ending, but it must not be memorized for the whole article and used directly in the exam.

Write too few words

This is also a mistake that many students often make. Although there is no problem with the content structure, the content is vague and the expression is too simple. It ends in a few sentences, and the final score will not be too high. Therefore, in the A-level Chinese exam, the writing content must be enriched, with rich materials, full of emotions, and appropriate expressions.

This is also the reason why it is necessary to increase the reading volume of extracurricular Chinese books for children. As the saying goes, “It’s hard for a smart woman to cook without rice.” If there is no ink in the stomach, writing will naturally become a problem.

03 How to prepare for A-level Chinese?

Although Chinese children have certain language advantages, the proportion of A* in the A-level Chinese exam is still quite low. Don’t be unprepared for the exam and take it lightly.

When preparing for A-level Chinese, we need to pay attention to the following points:

① Practice regularly every week, do some relevant exercises according to the test preparation stage, and be sure to stick to it. At the same time, set a small goal and try to achieve it every week.

②Extensive reading of literary works. The A-Level Chinese exam will involve the appreciation of some literary works. Candidates are required to read a large number of famous works in their usual studies to cultivate their humanistic qualities.

③Practice more real test papers over the years, and summarize the question types and answering skills.