Tips for Higher Mandarin Exams
This blog post comes from our Mandarin tutor, Chang. Chang is a native speaker of Mandarin and has lived and worked in the UK for a long time. She is fluent in English and works in an Edinburgh secondary school, teaching students and preparing them for exams on a daily basis.
Here are her Higher Mandarin exam tips for the different sections of the Higher Mandarin examination at the SQA:
1. The Listening Leap:
Higher Mandarin features faster speech and denser content. We build “exam ears” by using authentic SQA audio. This is then paired with regular exposure to native-speaker input, ensuring students aren’t just hearing words—they are processing meaning in real-time.
2. The “Translation” and the “Overall Purpose” question in the Reading paper:
In the Reading paper, the 10-mark translation section requires precision and skill. Many students lose marks on “sense units”—it’s not just about the vocabulary, but the grammatical nuance. For Chinese language, you might recognise each individual character or you could look up unknown characters in a dictionary. However, to successfully translate the text, you need a strong understanding of the context, sentence structures, and know how single characters form into meaningful chunks. And this is when an experienced tutor can be helpful. We provide targeted training for the “Overall Purpose” question — a new challenge at Higher level that requires students to synthesise the entire text. This is a skill that even top performers must master.
3. Directed Writing task:
Although candidates get to choose between two themes, they need to hit all six bullet points (no prepared bullets) or face a heavy mark penalty. I provide differentiated language tools that guarantee coverage and “flair”. For instance, I teach students a bank of Higher-level structures (like 把 sentences, passive 被 patterns, and idiomatic 成语) that are pre-vetted to meet the SQA “Detailed and Complex” criteria. A common pitfall for writing is to misuse the dictionary to translate ideas from English-to-Chinese. Students often look up individual words in a dictionary and string them together. It does not only takes a long time but also results in unnatural language that doesn’t make sense to a native marker. I teach students to think in Chinese, avoiding translating each phrase from English. Another important skill for the students is learning how to use a dictionary as a reference, not a translation tool. We focus on using “learned material”. These are phrases they already know and can adapt rather than gambling on new, unverified words under exam conditions.
4. Writing Assignment:
Students are expected to produce a long-form, discursive essay (260–330 characters) from scratch. Unlike the Directed Writing section, this Assignment requires students to argue a point of view. This means a challenge of the linguistic depth and critical thinking ability. Our students benefit massively from the guided practice on discussing pros and cons, expressing complex opinions, and drawing a valid conclusion. The SQA allows for a drafting process. I use the official SQA Marking Codes (e.g. t for tense, wo for word order) so students learn exactly where their grammatical blind spots are.
Higher Mandarin exam tips like these are a valuable source of learning for students. We are open for online Mandarin classes, all levels and qualifications. Please go to our homepage to book a Free Consultation with Chang or to book your first lesson: www.bktutoring.co.uk
