HSC Croatian Continuers common mistakes
HSC Croatian Continuers · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Writing a summary of the listening passage in English or mixing English sentences into a Croatian answer, even though the question is in Croatian.
Under time pressure candidates revert to the language they think in, and they assume the marker only checks comprehension, not the language of response.
What to do instead
Practise answering in Croatian only, using the question's own verbs (e.g. 'Navodi', 'Objasni') as sentence starters, and leave two minutes at the end to scan for English words.
Listening for individual words and writing them down as isolated points instead of answering the actual question (e.g. listing 'more tourists, new road' when asked why the speaker was disappointed).
Candidates transcribe as they listen because they fear forgetting, so they capture vocabulary but miss the speaker's attitude or the cause-effect link.
What to do instead
Read the question stems before the recording plays, decide what type of information is needed (reason, attitude, sequence), and note only keywords plus a symbol for the relationship, then build the full answer after the second playing.
Missing or misreading negation and modality in the recording, so 'ne treba doći' is answered as 'mora doći' or 'nije sigurno' is treated as a firm plan.
Fast speech compresses 'ne' and clitics, and candidates match the content word ('doći') while ignoring the small words that reverse the meaning.
What to do instead
Train on minimal pairs (treba/ne treba, može/mora, sigurno/možda) and, during the second listening, specifically confirm whether each stated fact was affirmed, denied, or left uncertain.
In reading tasks, lifting a whole sentence from the text as the answer when the question asks the candidate to explain in their own words or to infer (e.g. 'Što se može zaključiti o autorovu stavu?').
Copying feels safe and the copied sentence contains the right topic words, so candidates do not notice that the question targets inference or attitude rather than location of information.
What to do instead
Underline the key word in the question (zaključiti, stav, razlog, posljedica), then write one short sentence that combines the text evidence with the inference, and check that the answer would not make sense as a mere quotation.
Answering reading questions about a text's structure or purpose (e.g. 'Zašto autor spominje primjer u drugom odlomku?') with content summary rather than function.
Candidates read for topic and treat every question as 'what is this paragraph about', having had little practice with function-based questions.
What to do instead
Build a habit of labelling each paragraph's job (primjer, suprotstavljanje, zaključak, upozorenje) while reading, and answer function questions with phrases like 'kako bi potkrijepio tvrdnju da...'.
Inferring meaning of unknown reading words from surface similarity to English (e.g. 'eventualno' read as 'eventually', 'aktualan' as 'actual'), producing a wrong answer.
False friends are highly salient and the surrounding context is processed only loosely, so the first plausible meaning is accepted without checking it against the sentence.
What to do instead
Keep a personal false-friend list (eventualno, aktualan, simpatičan, konzekventan, realizirati) and, when an unknown word appears, test the guessed meaning against the rest of the sentence before committing to an answer.
Writing tasks that ignore the specified text type and audience, e.g. producing a narrative when the prompt asks for a formal letter of complaint, or using 'ti' forms to an institution.
Candidates focus on the topic and word count and treat format as decoration, and they have not internalised the conventions of Croatian formal letters, notices, and articles.
What to do instead
Before writing, note the required text type, reader, and purpose, then apply the fixed frame: formal letter with place and date, address, salutation 'Poštovani', closing 'S poštovanjem'; article with headline and paragraphs; and keep register consistent throughout.
Failing to cover all bullet points or the stated purpose in a writing task, leaving one requirement unaddressed or adding a long irrelevant introduction.
Time is spent on an elaborate opening and on vocabulary the candidate feels confident about, so the last bullet is rushed or dropped.
What to do instead
Allocate one short paragraph to each bullet, tick each one off as it is written, and keep the opening to a single sentence so the required content is completed before polishing.
Case and preposition errors in production (e.g. 's prijatelji', 'u grad' for location, 'zbog kiša' for 'zbog kiše'), and wrong aspect in past narration.
Candidates translate preposition meanings one-to-one from English and choose case endings by sound rather than by the governing preposition or verb.
What to do instead
Memorise prepositions with their case as chunks (s + instrumental, u + locative for place, zbog + genitive), and after writing, check every noun phrase after a preposition and every past-tense verb for whether the action is completed or repeated.
Losing marks through unchecked surface accuracy in writing: missing diacritics (c/c, s/s, z/z), inconsistent clitic placement ('je' not in second position), and comma use before 'da', 'koji', 'ali'.
Candidates treat accents and clitics as typing details and proofread only for meaning, and many have typed Croatian without diacritics for years.
What to do instead
Reserve the final three minutes for a fixed proofreading checklist in this order: diacritics, clitic position, verb endings, commas before clause introducers; practise by correcting five short flawed sentences at the start of each study session.