Even foreign ESL teachers, who are themselves native English speakers, say they find the reading comprehension section of China's CET 6 test quite challenging. Photo: IC

Merely seeing the letters "CET" gives many Chinese students a headache. 

The College English Test (CET), a national exam designed to assess  university students' English proficiency, was formulated in the 1980s and today is taken by millions of students each year. The two levels of the test are Band 4 and Band 6, both of which are held twice a year. This year's first test is happening on Saturday, June 18.

Jennifer Wang, a college junior majoring in administrative management, is among those who will be taking the upcoming CET 6. In preparation, she bought all sorts of practice books and spends four hours each day studying at the library.

"Every part of the test is difficult," she said. However, she finds the reading part the most difficult. "The sentence structures are very complicated, the vocabulary is hard, and worst of all, the 10 questions account for a big percentage of the points."

She sometimes wonders whether native speakers would be able to pass the test. "I would not be surprised if they couldn't get a full score, as it's a test made by Chinese people," she said.

That got Metropolitan thinking - what would native speakers think of the test? We talked to some to find out.

How do native speakers fare? 

"I'm not sure if it's A or D. I re-read it a couple of times… Some of the options are meant to throw you off. I think A? Oh, I don't know."

Chris Nordlof, who comes from New Zealand, was looking at Section C of the reading comprehension part of a sample CET.

Nordlof, an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher in Beijing who teaches children under 11 years old, said that, even as a native speaker, he is not confident that he would be able to get everything right on the test.

"I think I would pass the test," he said. The test he was looking at was the CET 6 from December 2015. The test contains four parts - writing, listening comprehension, reading comprehension and translation from Chinese to English.

Among them, he said that the last part of the listening section was likely one of the most difficult for many students. In this section, test takers listen to a passage that is read out loud three times, and must fill in the blanks with the exact words they have just heard.

Nordlof said that even if they're able to discern the words, they might not be able to spell them correctly. Among the words and phrases were "eternal, diminishing, absolute, succeed, on a vast scale, and as regards."

He added that to pass the test, students would need to speak and understand at the level of a 15- or 16-year-old in New Zealand.

All in all, Nordlof had a relatively positive impression of the test, pointing out that the materials featured recent information, the vocabulary was up-to-date, and the directions were clear.

 

In preparation for this Saturday's CET, students are advised to read intensively. Photos: CFP, IC

Reading under pressure

M. Nicole Anoh, an American who has been living in China for about five years and currently teaches English to students between the ages of 7 and 9, looked at the same sample test.

She guessed that the most challenging part for students would be the time limit.

Arguably, the most high-pressure section, time-wise, is the reading part, in which test takers have 40 minutes to complete three sections. Among them, is one in which test takers must read a 15-paragraph passage and then match statements below to their paragraph of origin.

"That section alone would take up a big chunk of the 40 minutes," Anoh said, adding that this particular format is new to her. "For non-native speakers to do this, that's a lot."

Chinese students' one saving grace, she said, is that they're trained in test taking.

"The Chinese school system is so focused on exams, so it could be something they are able to deal with."

But there are some questions that confuse even native speakers. Anoh, for example, got one question wrong in the multiple-choice section of the reading portion.

As a teacher, though, Anoh said this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. "Even native speakers get thrown off [by the other options], but that's the whole point. Test makers do that on purpose to see how you analyze things," she said. "That's why it's really important to do critical thinking. It's not meant to trick you, but you are tricked." 

Though Anoh pointed out that some of the questions might throw off native speakers because of cultural differences, she added that even aside from that difference, she wasn't confident that she would be able to score 100 percent without taking several practice tests.

Teachers often tell students to start out by eliminating the most unlikely answers, Anoh said, and then analyze the remaining options.

Anoh concluded that the test was appropriate for those with "intermediate to fluent" English, adding that to do well, students would need fluency equivalent to that of an eighth or ninth grader in the US.

Though she said the translation part seemed generally straightforward, it could prove tricky for those who begin translating on a literal level.

How the CET stacks up

Generally, Anoh has a high opinion of the CET, saying that many of the questions, especially in the reading comprehension section, are reminiscent of US standardized tests.

"It seems whoever made these tests looked at some tests outside of China," she said.

"[The reading comprehension part] is appropriate because it's about usage, and you have to go back and analyze the data. While a lot of test takers get their data without really thinking, a test like this makes sure that you go back to the information and actually critically analyze it."

In the sample test, for example, the writing part asks test takers to write a short essay of 150 to 200 words about the impact of social networking websites on reading, based on an illustration in which a man tells his friend that his favorite book is Facebook.

Anoh said she thought the materials were quite up-to-date and "pretty funny," adding that having the students think about the impact of social media is "definitely a good idea."

However, she spotted some issues as well. "The passage is so dry," Anoh said. The whole time she was doing the reading part, she said she was thinking to herself, "Why am I reading this? What does this have to do with my life? Why do I need to worry about this?"

But she also acknowledged that the CET is not alone in this respect, and that this was an issue with many tests.

"People who design the tests really want to see how much you are paying attention and what you can do with different types of reading texts that are given to you," she said. "They won't just put interesting things all the time."

The formats of some sections can also present a challenge. Nordlof, for example, said he'd never seen the kind of format that he found in Section A of the sample test's reading portion, which requires test takers to select the correct words for 10 blanks in one passage.

He therefore thinks that without practice, a lot of people from English-speaking countries might not be able to get a perfect score.

Anoh had a different opinion toward this section, saying that the list of words, which included "assume, previous, bias, relay, desperate and shift," were "pretty easy."

In that sense, she said, the section doesn't fulfill its mission to determine students' abilities. Most of the tests that she took as a student in the US that aimed to test one's vocabulary would go further by requiring students to determine which word best describes a passage.

The key to passing the test

Even with a good deal of preparation, students like Wang still struggle with many aspects of the test. She recalled that educators advise skimming the text, but said that she has trouble understanding what's going on at just a glance.

Among the most challenging parts of the test, both Wang and the teachers agree, is that students must absorb a lot of material in a short amount of time, and the fact that not all the wrong answers are obviously wrong.

As such, Anoh suggests those who are preparing for the test "read heavy materials, go online and read the news" in order to familiarize themselves with the vocabulary, which is better than trying to memorize a dictionary or a list of words. "Wake up in the morning and try to do 20 to 30 minutes of reading, something dense, something boring."

Another complaint among many Chinese students is that the vocabulary they must memorize for the test generally isn't used in real-life conversations. According to the official website of the CET, which is superintended by the Ministry of Education, Band 6 requires students to know 5,500 words and 1,200 phrases, while Band 4 requires 4,500 words and 700 phrases.

After reviewing the test himself, Nordlof said it was a valid complaint, because much of the vocabulary was more academic than conversational.

While the test takers have to know these words to pass the exam, Nordlof recommends also reading the news and books. "It helps you get exposed to a lot of different words," he said.

As for the listening portion of the test, Nordlof suggests preparing by watching TV shows, which provide 20 to 30 minutes of intensive listening practice.

Suggestions aside, he sympathized with the difficulties that Chinese students face when studying for the CET. As an expat who has been living in China for two years, Nordlof is no stranger to the stresses of learning a second language. Though he's been studying Chinese since he moved here, he hasn't yet worked his way up to taking the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, or Chinese Proficiency Test)  because, he said, he's "terrified with tests."

 "I feel for people who have to learn a new language. It is very hard."