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Where to Start On Website

Hi @Constance_Fang @Fiona and the ChinesePod team, my question is this: I’ve been learning Chinese for the past 2 years, and I’ve been self studying as well as a Chinese school. I’m almost done with New Practical Chinese Reader 2 and about to start the 3rd book. Taking HSK 3 in April of 2018. I don’t know where to start on this website however. I would assume that I’m intermediate but some vocab in the newbie & elementary sections I haven’t even come across yet and there are a ton of lessons and I don’t know where to start. The tests seem a little difficult to me as well to where I can’t even finish them. Is there a more structured way of finding where I am? It all just seems so overwhelming. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Have you tried the placement tests and the level tests?

Depending on the topic you will find some lessons even at easier levels to have more specialized and lower frequency vocabulary. I suggest listening to 5+ episodes of the newbie, elementary, and intermediate levels to see what level you can understand a large percentage of, but not everything said. If you’ve finished NPCR2 I believe that doing a mixture of elementary and intermediate lessons that have a higher percentage of vocabulary that you know would be a good idea, over time you can transition fully into intermediate lessons as you work through NPCR3 and grow accustom to the intermediate level…

You may find my dialogue lists per HSK level helpful. See http://www.edsko.net/2015/10/17/ChinesePod-HSK/ for HSK 1-3 (these are also available as playlists on the ChinesePod website itself (https://chinesepod.com/library/courses/) , http://www.edsko.net/2016/01/17/ChinesePod-HSK4/ for HSK4 and http://www.edsko.net/2018/04/02/ChinesePod-HSK5/ for HSK5.