I’m moving to Taiwan this August to start a one year programme of Mandarin study at National Taiwan University under. Also, I’ve been lucky enough to have been awarded the 1 year full scholarship from the Taiwan government. Now apparently you have to take the TOCFL level 3 in order to get the scholarship if you’re studying for one year? A couple of questions
A - may have answered my own question here but does this count or language students too?
B- How hard is TOCFL 3? I did HSK3 in Dec and am probably on a HSK 4 level now. I heard TOCFL is super difficult - is it going to slaughter me?
C - any good online resources?
It seems that the TOCFL has changed its level names to Band A/B/C. I don’t know which Band level 3 corresponds to, but here are mock tests that might help: http://www.sc-top.org.tw/mocktest_e.php
EDIT: According to this, level 3 corresponds to Band B1 (High-Intermediate).
The TOCFL Band B houses CEFR levels B1 and B2, depending on the score. If you pass Band B at all, you qualify as B1. If you get a relatively high score on it, you qualify as B2.
The HSK 4 places you under CEFR B2, too (if you have it), so if the measures are all accurate, you’ll need to know Traditional Chinese with some Taiwanese Mandarin alterations at the same level as your Simplified Chinese to pass it.
The TOCFL is mostly an endurance test, I find. Tests like these are less difficult and more geared toward putting high pressure on listening to things that you would occasionally hear on the street and reading things that you would never read in your spare time nonstop for two straight hours.
“OMG, the highest mountains on Earth aren’t along the equator? Fascinating!” (Shoot me in the head!) “Who wouldn’t want to read the fine print to a shitty ice cream coupon?” (Double tap!)
I also received 12 months, and want to be sure of what this requirement means. What the scholarship instructions say is:
[quote]I understand that if my award periods are 9 months or longer, I must submit a TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language; at least the ‘Learner’ level)
score transcripts to the institutions where I am studying within my award period. If I fail to do so, I will lose one month’s stipend. I have to pay the TOCFL application fees myself.[/quote]
So my understanding of this is that we just have to take it at some point within the award period IN Taiwan?
Also, I took level 3/band B and most certainly did not pass- it was pretty difficult. It really is more of an endurance exam, and I had the flu/hadn’t slept for two days when I took it so :s it was a big old mess. The best resources I could find were all the practice tests available, as well as advice to just read random things and watch TV in Mandarin to get used to listening and reading quickly.
Yes, I took it nine months into the scholarship and passed… barely, It was quite tough but after some revision practice, I knew my Chinese was good enough.
Wow, thanks for all the information guys. I spoke to the RO for the UK and was told that you take it towards the end of the year as opposed to when you first arrive (which was what I thought), so that’s me out of panic mode!
Looking forward to seeing what test i’ll be taking in a year then! Seems to be fairly different level wise to what i’d heard. I guess I was looking at information from before it changed, because TOCFL looked to be around HSK 5, but I guess that’s not the case anymore.
Haha. This requirement is going to crush me unless I work my butt off. Right now, I have virtually no knowledge of Chinese (very, very beginner level) and 9 months in I will have to pass a level 3 test? Well, I always did want a challenge.
Well the teachers I spoke to said without any knowledge of Chinese before coming people failed the TOCFL because they just didn’t have enough time to get to the right level. Good luck
Thanks. While I am certain it will be a challenge, I am sort of grateful for it. Now I won’t have to set artificial goals and can learn with this benchmark in mind.