HSK 6 and TOCFL Level 6 (Advanced Fluency) both correspond to C2 level in the CEFR, but they differ in difficulty, test content, and focus:
- Difficulty: TOCFL Level 6 is generally considered more difficult than HSK 6. In terms of listening test samples, students tend to score lower on TOCFL Level 6 than on HSK 6. A score of over 70 on the HSK 6 listening part roughly corresponds to the listening ability level of TOCFL Level 6.
- Test Content:
- HSK 6: Tests are divided into listening, reading, and writing sections, with a total of 101 questions and a test time of about 140 minutes (including 5 minutes for filling in personal information). The listening section has three parts with a total of 50 questions; the reading section includes multiple-choice questions and fill-in-the-blank questions; the writing section requires candidates to read a 1000-word narrative article and then缩写 it into a 400-word short text within 35 minutes.
- TOCFL Level 6: Also tests listening, speaking, reading, and writing abilities, but there are differences in the specific test forms and content. For example, in vocabulary testing, nouns account for the largest proportion in TOCFL Level 6’s test option vocabulary, with a focus on grammar functions, and most of the vocabulary is related to social life. In contrast, verbs are the majority in HSK 6’s test option vocabulary, mainly testing word meanings, with a focus on things and situations.
- Focus:
- HSK 6: Emphasizes the comprehensive application ability of Chinese in academic, professional, and social scenarios. Candidates are required to master at least 5000 commonly used Chinese characters and advanced vocabulary, be able to accurately distinguish the subtle differences of synonyms and polysemous words in different contexts, and be proficient in using complex sentence patterns.
- TOCFL Level 6: Places more emphasis on practical communication abilities, examining candidates’ communication skills in various social, work, and academic scenarios.
