HSC Chinese Continuers (NSW) study guide
HSC Chinese Continuers (NSW) · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
HSC Chinese Continuers is a New South Wales Higher School Certificate course and external examination for senior secondary students who have already studied Chinese as a second language and want to keep building it. It suits candidates who can handle everyday written and spoken Chinese but are not background speakers of the language; the syllabus is designed for learners with prior formal study rather than for students raised speaking a Chinese variety at home. The HSC Chinese Continuers (NSW) study guide has 6 sections and about 1,822 words.
01The Individual: Identity, Relationships and Daily Life
The Individual domain asks you to talk about yourself and the people immediately around you: family structure, friendships, school life, hobbies, health and wellbeing, and personal aspirations. In Chinese, this means controlling self-reference and kinship terms (我, 我家, 独生子女, 父母, 祖父母, 表兄弟姐妹), age-appropriate register (您 for elders and teachers, 你 for peers), and aspect markers (了, 过, 正在) that show whether something happened, has been experienced, or is in progress.
306 words, about 2 min02The Chinese-Speaking Communities: Culture, Festivals and Customs
This domain covers the cultures of Chinese-speaking communities worldwide: festivals (春节, 中秋节, 端午节, 清明节), food and table customs, traditional values (孝, 面子, 关系), education expectations, and the diversity of communities in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and diaspora cities such as Sydney. You need vocabulary for festival activities and foods : 拜年, 红包, 团圆饭, 饺子, 月饼, 粽子, 扫墓.
289 words, about 1 min03The Changing World: Technology, Environment and Global Issues
This domain deals with contemporary issues: technology and social media, environmental protection, urbanisation, education and career change, health, and globalisation. You must be able to describe trends, give opinions, and discuss advantages and disadvantages in Chinese.
253 words, about 1 min04Listening and Responding: Strategies for Chinese Audio
Listening tasks test comprehension of spoken Mandarin in conversations, announcements, interviews and messages. You must recognise tones in context , numbers and times , names and places , and speaker intention (requesting, suggesting, complaining, apologising).
325 words, about 2 min05Reading and Responding: Comprehension of Chinese Texts
Reading tasks present notices, emails, articles, advertisements, diary entries and short stories. You must locate specific information , infer attitude and purpose , understand text type conventions , and respond in Chinese or English as instructed.
310 words, about 2 min06Writing in Chinese: Text Types, Structure and Accuracy
Writing tasks require you to produce a coherent text of a specified type and length: an email, letter, diary entry, notice, speech, article or short story. You must control text structure , register , connectors , tense/aspect markers and character accuracy .
339 words, about 2 min