Mandarin Chinese Pre-U

In our small classes, you will have access to experienced teachers who can offer regular in-depth support, tailored to suit your strengths. One-to-one teacher surgeries are available to help build confidence and for additional support if required.

For students who attended St Mary’s Senior School, Mandarin Chinese is part of the curriculum from Key Stage 3 onwards, building a solid foundation for study at Pre-U level.

• Paper 1 Speaking – the speaking test consists of a prepared topic conversation and a general conversation. It is externally assessed by a visiting examiner.
• Paper 2 Listening, reading and translation
  • Listening – includes pinyin dictation, short passages and long passages (20 marks)
  • Reading – comprises two passages of around 450 words in total, requiring answers in English (18 marks)
  • Chinese sayings (Chengyu) – requires translating and explaining the meaning of three given Chinese sayings (6 marks)
  • Translation – this section comprises a translation of a short passage (no more than 200 characters) from Chinese into English (16 marks)
• Paper 3 Writing and Usage – radical, stroke order and grammar – requires identifying three characters by their radical and providing the number of strokes and stroke order and completing a cloze test.
  • Letter writing – a letter of 80 to 100 Chinese characters
  • Opinion essay – an essay of 175 to 225 Chinese characters
• Paper 4 Chinese Culture – you will answer two questions in English, one from a choice of three topics on Chinese culture, and a second on Chinese literature and film. Topics: family, young people, education, the media, work and leisure, equality of opportunity.

• Paper 1 Speaking (20% of total mark) approx. 15 minutes
• Paper 2 Listening, reading and translation (30% of total mark) 2 hours 30 minutes
• Paper 3 Writing and usage (25% of total mark) 2 hours
• Paper 4 Chinese culture (25% of total mark) 2 hours 30 minutes