How to prepare for the IB Chinese test?

Review the guides

All IB teachers use the subject guide as a bible. Students are graded, lessons are planned, assessments are designed, and lessons are graded. 

The assessment and grading will be explained in the assignment. Before the assessment, you should know what to expect. 

While you don’t have to go through the entire guide, you should learn about these three components:

1. Topics to be covered in the course

All the topics prescribed in the course should be familiar to you. These include health issues, global issues, travel, etc. 

You should check if you understand all the topics covered by your school teacher, since he or she might not have time to cover them all in depth. 

2. How assessments are processed

What is the time you have left to prepare? Do you have time to take notes? Are you able to take notes in paragraph form?  Consult your teacher or use the guide to find the answers: 

3. Evaluation criteria 

In my opinion, this is the most crucial part. Which standard should we use? How will your answer be evaluated? How will it be measured? 

These criteria are largely used to mark papers by examiners. Therefore, you must demonstrate them all. Please note that the graphic below only shows the highest standards. 

IB Mandarin B HL Criteria_oral

Gaining language proficiency

This language needs to be spoken at least fluently to qualify for the highest score. Practicing a lot will give you the best score. Here are a few more tips:

  • Get to know a few useful sentences that can be applied to most situations.  
  • You can store your vocabulary and sentences in Quizlet or other flashcard tools, so that you can review them quickly before the assessment.
  • Your response(speech) to an essay should be written down and modified. If you can do this, you will have a much better speech. Writing it down helps you think more clearly and retain the information better. I recommend that you practice contexts for the topics you think will be chosen this year, especially if you think they will be selected this year, so you won’t have any problems with your memory during the assessment.
     
  • You can improve through tutoring and practicing speeches, so practicing with someone is always beneficial. 

It might be useful to practice with someone you know / a language exchange friend / a tutor. If you have other major subjects and assessments to prepare, tutoring is probably the most efficient method out of all.
In Hudson Academy, parents and students are assisted with IB Chinese tutoring. Now you can build your child’s Chinese skills effectively online with personalized tutoring.