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GCSE Chinese Mandarin Help!

Hello there,

I am in need of some desperate advice. I'm meant to be in year 2 of GCSE Chinese, however, due a timetable malfuction last year, I have had a year break inbetween.

I was gonna study as much as I did in Year 1 over summer, but sadly that wasn't the case so hear I am in year two.

Forgotton a lot more than I thought.
The reading isn't really a problem and I think I'll catch up, but my issue, which has always been an issue for me is Writing.

I just can't remember how to write characters to save my life! I've been using an app skritter as I found writing things out over and over again, never seemed to help. It's slowly helping me, but I'm not sure if there is anything else I could be doing or tips to help.

Currently in class we're up to Unit 2 in Easy Steps to Chinese Book 2, and are following the edexcel exam.

I've been using Memrise for vocabulary and HelloChinese for grammar.

Is there anything else you think I could be doing?

I've got my first writing controlled assesment in November, and I'm so not ready. Really panicking here!
Regards,

Samuel
Original post by SamuelC96
Hello there,

I am in need of some desperate advice. I'm meant to be in year 2 of GCSE Chinese, however, due a timetable malfuction last year, I have had a year break inbetween.

I was gonna study as much as I did in Year 1 over summer, but sadly that wasn't the case so hear I am in year two.

Forgotton a lot more than I thought.
The reading isn't really a problem and I think I'll catch up, but my issue, which has always been an issue for me is Writing.

I just can't remember how to write characters to save my life! I've been using an app skritter as I found writing things out over and over again, never seemed to help. It's slowly helping me, but I'm not sure if there is anything else I could be doing or tips to help.

Currently in class we're up to Unit 2 in Easy Steps to Chinese Book 2, and are following the edexcel exam.

I've been using Memrise for vocabulary and HelloChinese for grammar.

Is there anything else you think I could be doing?

I've got my first writing controlled assesment in November, and I'm so not ready. Really panicking here!
Regards,

Samuel


Konichiwa. (lol my chinese is so amazing)
Original post by SamuelC96
Hello there,

I am in need of some desperate advice. I'm meant to be in year 2 of GCSE Chinese, however, due a timetable malfuction last year, I have had a year break inbetween.

I was gonna study as much as I did in Year 1 over summer, but sadly that wasn't the case so hear I am in year two.

Forgotton a lot more than I thought.
The reading isn't really a problem and I think I'll catch up, but my issue, which has always been an issue for me is Writing.

I just can't remember how to write characters to save my life! I've been using an app skritter as I found writing things out over and over again, never seemed to help. It's slowly helping me, but I'm not sure if there is anything else I could be doing or tips to help.

Currently in class we're up to Unit 2 in Easy Steps to Chinese Book 2, and are following the edexcel exam.

I've been using Memrise for vocabulary and HelloChinese for grammar.

Is there anything else you think I could be doing?

I've got my first writing controlled assesment in November, and I'm so not ready. Really panicking here!
Regards,

Samuel


Btw do you have to learn pinyin as well? It must be hella deep learning chinese...
It's September? You have so much time. I got an A* and im Pakistani. The content is simple, just study - the grade boundaries are quite high though as most applicants are Chinese.
Reply 4
Original post by Jang Gwangnam
Btw do you have to learn pinyin as well? It must be hella deep learning chinese...


Indeed you do!
Reply 5
Original post by notespad
It's September? You have so much time. I got an A* and im Pakistani. The content is simple, just study - the grade boundaries are quite high though as most applicants are Chinese.



Yeah I know, but I'm already a year behind, as I didn't catch up over summer. I stupidly thought it would stick. November doesn't seem that far away, I don't even know if I can write my 30 characters, let alone 200!
practising doing it over and over again is the only way to improve.

Take it line by line, a sentence with 15 characters...do 5 at a time. Learn the stroke orders.
Reply 7
Original post by sulaimanali
practising doing it over and over again is the only way to improve.

Take it line by line, a sentence with 15 characters...do 5 at a time. Learn the stroke orders.


I'll try that, thank you!
yeah :smile: good luck..literally what I did was...in school I made mutliple rough drafts.
Then, I got lined paper and rewrote with ink pen (very neatly) using every other line, each sentence spaced out to make it legible and easy to remember.
If it works, colour code certain phrases by underlining them (such as if u were introducing yourself, underline 'Wo jiao ...' as 'My name is...'.).
The colour coding works by underlining to help with memory and u can keep certain things certain colours such as imperatives/reasons/adjectives/verbs/conjunctives etc...

It took me a long time too!
Try using the radicals to help you remember meanings or try to make figures you can remmeber or shapes out of the Hanzi.

If you know the conversion of english to chinese, learning the pinyin shouldn't be too hard!
Remember, being able to write 30 (for the moment at least) correctly (accuracy, punc and grammar wise) is better than writing mumble-jumble whish washy 200 characters.
Reply 12
Original post by sulaimanali
Remember, being able to write 30 (for the moment at least) correctly (accuracy, punc and grammar wise) is better than writing mumble-jumble whish washy 200 characters.


I see, you're right. I'm probably panicing over nothing.

Thank you so much!
Reply 13
Hey I did Edexcel GCSE Chinese like 5 years ago and got an A* :smile:

My advice is to practice making sentences and writing them out, using popular conjunctions and phrases like:
-yue lai yue (something)
-ying wei
-ru guo
-suo yi
-chu le... yi wai
-you yu
-sui ran

I just listed a few that you could use (my mandarin is kinda bad now). Basically using conjunctions like that will increase the complexity of your writing answers.

As for reading, I think a large portion of the exam is multiple choice with some written questions for which you don't have to write in mandarin. Same goes for listening, though I might be wrong because I did the old spec GCSE.
Original post by SamuelC96
Yeah I know, but I'm already a year behind, as I didn't catch up over summer. I stupidly thought it would stick. November doesn't seem that far away, I don't even know if I can write my 30 characters, let alone 200!


I would advise doing past papers!! The format was usually similar. I learned a lot of new stuff when doing a past paper and then I reused a lot in my actual exam.

Practice practice practice and it'll get easier!
Quizlet is very useful to use for studying Chinese, and doing past papers is also good. That kind of revision worked well for me, I managed to get a A* which was good. Although, what I found the most helpful was getting a private tutor, this helped a lot with controlled assessments, although I know this can be expensive. For the writing controlled assessments, write out about 2 sentences, memorise them, then move onto the next one and repeat. That worked for me.
haha i did my gcse in mandarin last year..had the same problem forgetting how to write some characters. Still managed to get a high ums mainly through writing it out over and over until it's stuck in your mind!
Reply 17
Thank you all very much, going to take all of this on board.

Regards,

Samuel
Lol I’m sorry to disappoint but konichiwa is Japanese!

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