Assessment and reporting in Chinese Beginners
Assessment for Chinese Beginners provides information to support learning and reporting of performance. Find out about assessment requirements and the structure of the HSC exam.
School-based assessment requirements
Schools are required to develop an assessment program for each Year 11 and Year 12 course. NESA provides information about the responsibilities of schools in developing assessment programs in course-specific assessment and reporting requirements and in the Assessment Certification Examination (ACE) rules and requirements.
Schools are required to submit to NESA a grade for each student based on their achievement at the end of the course.
Teachers use professional, on-balance judgement to allocate grades based on the Common Grade Scale for Preliminary courses.
Teachers consider all available assessment information, including formal and informal assessment, to determine the grade that best matches each student’s achievement at the end of the course.
See ACE (Assessment, Certification and Examination rules and requirements) for further information.
Assessment programs must reflect course components and weightings
The course components and component weightings for Year 11 are mandatory.
| Course component | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Listening | 30% |
| Reading | 30% |
| Speaking | 20% |
| Writing | 20% |
Schools may determine specific elements of their assessment program
Schools have authority to determine the number, type of task and the weighting allocated to an assessment task. Schools may also follow the sample assessment programs provided by NESA.
Sample assessment program
NESA’s sample Year 11 formal school-based assessment program for Chinese Beginners includes:
- 3 assessment tasks, including:
- a formal written exam.
The recommended weighting for any individual task is 20% to 40%.
NESA requires schools to submit a school-based assessment mark for each Year 12 candidate in a course. Formal school-based assessment tasks should reflect the syllabus outcomes and content. The mark submitted by the school provides a summation of each student’s achievement measured at several points throughout the course.
A school’s program of school-based assessment includes both mandatory and non-mandatory elements.
See ACE (Assessment, Certification and Examination rules and requirements) for further information.
Assessment programs must reflect course components and weightings
The course components and component weightings for Year 12 are mandatory.
| Course component | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Listening | 30% |
| Reading | 30% |
| Speaking | 20% |
| Writing | 20% |
Schools may determine specific elements of their assessment program
Schools have authority to determine the number, type of task and the weighting allocated to an assessment task. Schools may also follow the sample assessment programs provided by NESA.
Sample assessment program
NESA’s sample Year 12 formal school-based assessment program for Chinese Beginners includes:
- 4 assessment tasks, including:
- a minimum weighting for an individual task of 10%
- a maximum weighting for an individual task of 40%
- one task that is a formal written exam with a maximum weighting of 30%.
Formal written exam
This task may assess a broad range of course content and outcomes. Schools may choose to replicate the timing and structure of the HSC exam.
If a school includes the externally assessed oral exam in conjunction with the written paper, the combined weighting of the tasks should not exceed 30%.
HSC exam specifications
The external HSC exam measures student achievement in a range of syllabus outcomes.
The external exam and its marking relate to the syllabus by:
- providing clear links to syllabus outcomes
- enabling students to demonstrate the levels of achievement outlined in the performance band descriptions
- applying marking guidelines based on criteria that relate to the quality of the response
- aligning performance in the exam each year to the standards established for the course.
Exam questions may require candidates to integrate knowledge, understanding and skills developed through studying the course.
The exam will consist of a written paper worth 80 marks and an oral exam worth 20 marks.
Written paper (80 marks)
Time allowed: 2 hours and 30 minutes plus 10 minutes of reading time.
The stimulus texts and the writing tasks will relate to the topics as listed in the syllabus.
Monolingual and/or bilingual print dictionaries may be used.
The paper will consist of 3 sections.
- Candidates will be required to demonstrate their understanding of spoken text.
- There will be approximately 10 questions phrased in English relating to Objective 2 requiring a response in English.
- Each question will be based on an aural text in Chinese.
- Each text will be read twice. There will be a pause between the readings and a longer pause after the second reading to allow candidates to answer the question.
- The total time for one reading of all the texts will be approximately 8 minutes.
- The texts will include a range of text types.
- There will be a range of question types such as short-answer questions including those which may require the completion of a table, list or form, and objective response questions.
- Questions may contain parts.
- There will be no more than 13 items in total.
- There will be at least one item worth 5 marks.
- Candidates will be required to demonstrate their understanding of written text.
- There will be approximately 5 questions phrased in English relating to Objective 2 requiring a response in English.
- Each question will be based on a written text in Chinese.
- The total length of the texts will be approximately:
- 750 words
- 800 characters
- 1500 ji
- 1600 ja.
- Questions may contain short-answer and objective response parts.
- There will be approximately 12 items in total.
- There will be at least one item worth 5 marks.
This section will consist of 2 parts.
Part A (10 marks)
- There will be 2 short-answer questions, worth 4 marks and 6 marks, phrased in English requiring a response in Chinese relating to Objective 3.
- Questions will specify the audience, purpose and context of the response.
- Questions may include stimulus material in Chinese.
- The total expected length of the 2 responses will be approximately:
- 125 words
- 150 characters
- 250 ji
- 300 ja.
Part B (10 marks)
- There will 2 questions relating to Objective 3 phrased in English and Chinese requiring a response in Chinese.
- Candidates will be required to answer one question.
- Each question will specify the audience, purpose and context of the response, and will require the same text type.
- The expected length of the response will be approximately:
- 125 words
- 150 characters
- 250 ji
- 300 ja.
Oral exam (20 marks)
Time allowed: approximately 5 minutes.
The oral exam will consist of a conversation between the candidate and the examiner. In the conversation, the candidate will respond to the examiner’s questions, which will relate to the prescribed syllabus topics from the perspective of the personal world.