Here’s the good news! Even if you are always having difficulty passing your Chinese composition, it can be done.
All you need to do is to read these tips of mine carefully and I’ll teach you the trick of passing step by step!
Throughout my time as a primary school teacher, I’ve marked Chinese compositions written by students of different abilities. Besides good model-like compositions, I’ve also read and analyzed compositions who failed to meet the mark.
To learn what you can do to pass your Chinese composition, look for the main reason that is holding you back.
Reason #1 for not passing: I don’t know how to write many Chinese characters
Which of these best describes what you decide to do next?
- I leave them blank
- I spell the hanyu pinyin of the Chinese words/use English instead
- I write words that sound similar
The thing to remember is, the marker needs to understand what you are writing in order to give you good grades. Not being able to write a lot of Chinese words will definitely affect the content of your composition as well as its expression.
Leaving blanks is the worst thing to do in an exam. If your marker can’t think like you and guess what you are trying to express, you’re doomed.
Hence, although it’s not ideal, the second and last choice are actually the lesser evil here.
Although marks will still be deducted for expression, at least your marker can do away with the guesswork and understand your composition a bit better. When your compo makes a bit more sense, it’s going to score slightly better.
If you fall into this group, there is hope.
How to increase your chances of passing with the right words:
The easiest trick to solve this problem is to learn how to write the Chinese characters that you don’t know.
And how do you know what words you don’t know?
Check out this checklist that I’ve created for my school kids to help them prepare for their Chinese composition exam. It covers all the common Chinese words you need to know in order to describe common scenarios in any Chinese compo.
Since this list has been tested and proven for many years, you can be confident that it’ll work for you to if you master all the words in this list. So cheers to passing your Chinese composition in advance!
Reason #2 for not passing: I don’t know how to express what I’m thinking in Chinese.
If you are used to speaking in English, you might have some problems finding the right words to express yourself or make grammatical mistakes when you are translating what you thinking from English to Chinese.
How to pass Chinese compo with better expression
If you are having trouble with Chinese grammar, the trick is to write short and simple sentences.
Learn common sentence structures in Chinese. Then use them to describe the events that are happening in your Chinese composition writings. Don’t underestimate these simple sentences. They’ll greatly decrease your chances of making grammatical errors and improve your overall compo scores.
Reason #3 for not passing: I’m not sure what to write
If you don’t have the problems above, you may have failed your Chinese composition because of a lack in content.
How to pass your compo by picking the right points:
A decent compo needs to have a good plot. If you are writing a picture composition, this means touching on all the important points that are portrayed in each picture.
To pass your Chinese compo, make sure that you’ve written the main points in each picture and do the two things I mentioned earlier on (Reduce the number of mis-spelled words and improve your expression).
If you need to know what is a good number of sentences to write for each picture, the magic number is 3. As long as you can write at least 3 sentences to describe the main event that’s taking place in each picture, passing your Chinese compo will not be a problem.
Conclusion
Now that we’ve learnt what you can do to pass your Chinese compo, try out the tips and let me know if you passed in the end. All the best!
