89 replies to this topic

[General_Zhaoyun]

About CHF Imperial Exam System

CHF is generally catered for those who are interested in learning chinese history and culture. We pride ourselves in becoming a leading educational and academic site for the learning of chinese history and culture. Functioning just like a university/school, CHF has also established "Imperial Exams" designed to help qualify members to become "official scholar members" (qualified citizens) of CHF.

CHF is probably the 1st and only online community to implement an exam system for its member. Our goal is to make all members become literate or educated in chinese history and culture after joining CHF. Technically speaking, CHF encourages all members to take the Entry Level Exam (Xiucai Exam), but it is also possible to exempt yourself from taking the exam, if you decide not to take the exam and wants to continue to participate in CHF.


Objectives of implementing the Exam

The Imperial Exam was implemented in Nov 2006 as an effective system to filter away troublemaker members who are not here to learn chinese history and culture (such as flamers, trolls, nationalist, hatemongers, spammers etc). It acts as a form of immigration control to ensure that CHF continues to have a friendly and sociable environment, without being disrupted by troublemakers.

Other than its filtering role, the exam's main objective is to support CHF's educational goal of making you literate in chinese history after joining CHF. The exam provides a clear-cut educational path for absolute beginners to learn chinese history, without being lost in CHF having no clue on how to study chinese history. Through studying for and taking the exams, members are equipped with a basic general knowledge of chinese history and the necessary research skills to participate in further discussion in CHF, and gain more fun and fruits from the learning here.


How the "streaming system" and Imperial exam works

Basically, a new member will be allowed to post up to 30 posts in the forum, after which your posting ability will be rendered ineffective except in the Imperial Exam forum. You will then become a "Xiucai Exam Candidate", where you can still read the posts in CHF (by logging out and visit CHF as a guest), but will only be able to post in the Imperial Exam forum.

In order to re-gain full posting ability and continue your participation in CHF, you will need to
choose either of the two paths:

Path 1
1. Become a scholar member by taking our Entry Level chinese history exam

OR

Path 2
2. You can opt to become a "Exemption Plan" member by taking part in the 'exemption plan' (if you do not want to take exam).


The entry-level chinese history exam is known as "Xiucai Exam". Upon passing it, the administrator of CHF will then grant you the right to continue to post anywhere in CHF, in which you will become a 'Entry Scholar Member (Xiucai)'. You will have access to all the forums in CHF.

If you opt to take part in the exemption plan, you need not take the exam. The administrator will make you a 'magistrate', where you will have access to only a few forums. But as you become more active, you can be promoted to have access to more forums. You would need to PM/e-mail administrator if you wish to take part in the 'exemption plan'.


What happens if you fail the 1st Exam?

If you fail the 1st entry level exam, you will still have a chance to re-take a second easier exam (known as the "Xiucai Re-take Exam"). The re-take exam will be easier than the 1st exam. The administrator should automatically grant you the ability to re-take the exam, if you have failed the 1st exam. If not, you can always contact the administrator to take 2nd exam. If you pass this second exam with a score of 90% or 100%, the adminstrator will group you as a "Entry Scholar Member (Xiucai)". If you pass with a score of 60% to 80%, you will be grouped as a "Novice Scholar (Tongsheng)", which will still allow you to post anywhere in CHF. If you fail this second exam (below 60%), the administrator will put you automatically under "exemption plan", and you will undergo the exemption plan path.



CHF Entry-Level Exam Process

To help you understand the entire Xiucai exam process, we have created a flow-chart about the exam system. Please read it to understand the process.



The exam also invariably allows the postings in the forum to be maintained at a high quality. This is because members who have taken and passed the exam are more educated in terms of chinese history and culture. Members are thus more capable of contributing relevant, highly informative and accurate postings, that will continuously raise the quality of postings in CHF.

All in all, the exams allows the mission of CHF (i.e. ensuring a friendly environment for learning and discussing chinese history) and educational goal of CHF (i.e. making its members educated in chinese history) to be accomplished


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

General Info about Exam

CHF Entry Level Exam (called "Xiucai Exam") - Beginner's Level (Optional)
CHF Promotion Level Exam (called "Juren Exam") - Moderate's Level (Optional)
CHF Supreme Level Exam (called "Jinshi Exam") - Advanced Level (Optional)

Xiucai (秀才), Juren (举人), Jinshi (进士) depicted the chinese terms used to indicate the scholar ranks of ancient chinese exam system. They correspond to the "Quasi-Bachelor", "Quasi-Master" and "Quasi-Doctorate" degree of today's university respectively. A lower scholar rank known as Tongsheng (童生) corresponds to the "Quasi-graduation certificate" of today's high school.

The Xiucai and Juren Exam are currently in action, while the Jinshi Exam will be planned in the future as optional exams for those who want to advance further.

It is also planned in the future to have optional specialized exam on certain subjects such as chinese military history, chinese military strategy, chinese philosophy, chinese culture etc.

There will generally be no time limit for the exam. It can be taken at any time, and be re-taken if you fail the 1st time. No study material will be provided. The answers can be found in the forum or on the internet or you can refer to the books. The exam format is in Multiple Choice format


What will be tested for Entry-Level Exams?

The Entry-Level Exam questions will be based on basic general knowledge about Chinese history that is easily available on the internet and in this forum. You will NOT be tested on very specific detail knowledge of a certain dynasty's history, but you may be required to search for and find information on such topics as: each dynasty period's major historical events, major emperors or historical figures, the time periods for various dynasties or emperors, the meaning of certain terms, the dates of certain events, the significance of certain historical figures, places, or ethnic groups, etc.

The exam will be in the format of Multiple-choice questions, and is open-book with no time limit.

If you're an absolute beginner with no knowledge of chinese history, we suggest you to read our Study Guide for Beginners in Chinese History so as to engage yourself on a self-study path to learn chinese history.

The entry-level exam is also meant to test your research ability (i.e. your ability to find information/answers) from the internet, the forum or books. Always use Search function in this forum, google or Wikipedia or various tools to search for any information.


How to take the Entry Level Chinese History Exam (Xiucai Exam) - Instructions

1. PM Bao Pu about your request to take the exam.

2. The administrator will then create an exam account for you at the exam site and will PM/e-mail you the login details (username and password) of your exam account, so that you can login to take the exam.

3. Go to http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/exam

4. Login and start taking the exam indicated (e.g. "Entry-Level Chinese History Exam")

5. You will only be allowed 1 attempt to the exam. There is no time limit and to pass, you will need to score at least 60%.

6. The exam can be paused at any time. For instance, if you stop at question 3 and wish to leave the exam, simply close the window or go back to the homepage or log out. When you log in again next time and you go back to the test, it will start from question 3 onwards and you can continue the exam.

7. At the end of the exam, your results will be e-mailed to you. You can review the correct answers after the exam by selecting "review test results" and then clicking the icon with the magnifying glass at the extreme right of each question on the list.

8. If you fail the exam, the administrators will give you technical clearance to take a second, less difficult entry-level exam that follow the same format as the first exam. This clearance process usually takes place within one or two days. If you pass this re-test exam, you will be entered into the Entry Scholar Member (Xiucai) or Novice Scholar Member groups (depending on your score). If you fail the re-test exam, you will be entered into Exemption Plan.


Once you pass the exam

Once you pass the exam, the forum administrator will automatically make you a "Entry Scholar Member (Xiucai)". Please allow up to 24 hours for your change to take effect. If you do not receive the change after 24 hours, you can PM me or any other administrators for request to make you a xiucai scholar.

You will inherit the Xiucai Scholar Badge as follow:



If you fail to pass the 1st exam, but manage to score between 60-90% in the 2nd exam, the forum administrator will make you a "Novice Scholar Member (Tongsheng)". You will inherit the Novice scholar Badge as follow:





Exemption from Exam

Only the group listed under our exemption policy and those who participate in "Exemption Plan" can be exempted from taking the exam. For more details, please refer to http://www.chinahist...showtopic=19153 and http://www.chinahist...showtopic=19216

[fcharton]

Get the idea? The problem with the admin version of the test is, it makes the assumption that everyone here grew up in China, Hong Kong, or some other place where Chinese history during childhood is a given. I grew up in New York City in the 60's and the only thing in school that was ever Chinese were the spring rolls that they served with lunch on International Food day. What may be considered easy to some from Asia may be viewed by others elsewhere as PhD thesis material.

I suppose it depends on how you pass the test...

I did it yesterday (as a "tester", pretending I was totally new to chinese history, using searches on CHF, google and the like), it took me quite some time (some 2 hours), but I scored 18/20. So I would consider that anyone a bit determinate, with internet access and a good dictionnary, is fairly certain to pass, and will learn quite a few things in the process.

Francois

[Howard Fu]

I suppose it depends on how you pass the test...

I did it yesterday (as a "tester", pretending I was totally new to chinese history, using searches on CHF, google and the like), it took me quite some time (some 2 hours), but I scored 18/20. So I would consider that anyone a bit determinate, with internet access and a good dictionnary, is fairly certain to pass, and will learn quite a few things in the process.

Francois

fcharton,
I agree with Ralph.
You are the most knowledgable non-Chinese on Chinese history I have seen. You are translating Guiguzi!
If you have to take a lot time to finish the exam, the questions is simply too difficult.

[fcharton]

You are the most knowledgable non-Chinese on Chinese history I have seen. You are translating Guiguzi!
If you have to take a lot time to finish the exam, the questions is simply too difficult.

Howard,

I couldn't really pass the exam, because I wrote some of the questions... But, what I tried to do yesterday was to suppose I didn't know anything. And just google in the question, or a few relevant words in it. This took some time, but I got a 18/20 out of this. Where I disagree with ralph and you is that if you expect (for a westerner at least) to be able to answer all the questions without research, the test is quite difficult, but then if you want to spend some time passing the test, then it becomes quite feasible and a good way to learn.

Another point, which I think is worth mentionning is that not passing the test will never impair one's ability to frequent the forum, you can visit it as much as you want, just not post. And I am sorry, and with all due respect, most of the people who explained that this was a very bad thing are unfrequent posters (to say the least), Sorry for the rant, but I am sort of tired of all these "foreign experts" who deign visit the CHF, but never post anything. I have been there for more than a year, a learned a lot here, but not from you, the silent guys, you don't want the test, fine, but please do realise that your absence do not deprive us, the members who never had the privilege of reading one of your remarkable contributions.

Francois

[lanjingling]

But after taking the test, I feel it is a very good idea, because it automatically filters out the trouble-makers because they won't take the trouble to complete that test.

Yes, only the most determined trouble-makers will be allowed

[Yun]

I just done the exam, and there are some answers which correctness are open to debate.

I have modified two of the questions based on feedback from Thirdgumi. Anyone who finds any more factual problems with the questions can

To the critics of this new exam system so far: I and the three other designers of the exam have taken care to ensure that the questions asked are neither too easy, nor so difficult that the answers cannot be found on the internet (e.g. Wikipedia), in books, or even in threads on CHF itself.

We are still tweaking the exam to make it more suitable for members, and will take into account the pass/fail rates for each individual question. If a question proves too difficult for many members, we will change it. The fact that Bananalee and Ralphrepo passed the exam, and in fact scored well in it, should indicate that it is not so impossible to pass even for members who have joined recently or have rarely posted here. The exam system is certainly no reason to write CHF off as an elitist forum. We are merely trying to ensure that our active members take CHF's purpose as a history forum seriously by demonstrating that they can do some history research on their own.

To members who have taken the exam but could not pass it: The exam team is now creating a re-test paper for the exam, which will be on an easier level. If you pass this re-test, you will regain unlimited posting ability on CHF, although your member badge will be different from those who passed the entry exam on the first round. In the meantime, however, you may be unable to make posts on CHF because of the 30-post cap rule, until the re-test is ready to be taken. We are sorry for the inconvenience. If you need to take the re-test, please register for it by PM to GZ.

Thanks,
Yun

[Yun]

Additional information:

GZ and I have been discussing how to refine the system so that it improves rather than stifles discussion on the forum. We have decided:

1) That members who fail the exam can take a simpler re-test. Those who pass this re-test will enjoy unlimited posting ability as well, but will have a less prestigious rank badge (Learner Member) than those who passed the first Xiucai exam (Entry Scholar Member).

2) Members who fail both the first exam and the re-test will be allowed to make posts but only in the Home to Beginners forum (with the rank of Beginner Member), although we may later review their participation on the forum and consider upgrading them to members with full posting rights.

The above two measures will take a little time to implement. We ask for your patience and understanding while we continue with the CHF reform process.

[xng]

A more likely exam for newcomers to Chinese history would be asking a question like:

1.A period of time that is ruled by a Chinese emperor is also known as: A dynasty.
2.The last Chinese emperor was: Puyi.
3.A series of Japanese wartime atrocities in China that many Japanese nationalists dispute is also known as: The
Rape of Nanjing.
4.Sun Yat Sen was the first president of the Republic of China: True or False

Get the idea? The problem with the admin version of the test is, it makes the assumption that everyone here grew up in China, Hong Kong, or some other place where Chinese history during childhood is a given. I grew up in New York City in the 60's and the only thing in school that was ever Chinese were the spring rolls that they served with lunch on International Food day. What may be considered easy to some

I agree that the so-called xiucai exam is not really a beginner chinese exam. It was more of a 'tricky' advanced chinese exam. One example is the 'unofficial' and official first chinese female emperor ....

My specialty was on zhao tuo and the chinese languages. Yet, none of them surfaced. There was a question on Qin shi huang but it was not an important question. A beginner would be more interested in which states he conquered and what important reforms he did for China.

Edited by xng, 12 November 2006 - 09:28 AM.

[Yun]

It was more of a 'tricky' advanced chinese exam. One example is the 'unofficial' and official first chinese female emperor ....

The answer to this question can be found on CHF. So it isn't as tricky as it seems.

My specialty was on zhao tuo and the chinese languages. Yet, none of them surfaced.

We can't possibly have questions on everyone's specialty. We have a at least a hundred active members, after all. Besides, languages/linguistics are not tested in this exam, which is mainly on history.

[Yun]

A more likely exam for newcomers to Chinese history would be asking a question like:

1.A period of time that is ruled by a Chinese emperor is also known as: A dynasty.
2.The last Chinese emperor was: Puyi.
3.A series of Japanese wartime atrocities in China that many Japanese nationalists dispute is also known as: The
Rape of Nanjing.
4.Sun Yat Sen was the first president of the Republic of China: True or False

Such answers can be found by anyone on the internet in a matter of seconds. It would make the exam pretty futile as a way of encouraging members to improve their knowledge of Chinese history, and preventing those who have no interest in Chinese history from using the forum for their own ends.

[xng]

The answer to this question can be found on CHF. So it isn't as tricky as it seems.

Are you saying that the other 2 tests ie. medium to advanced chinese answers cannot be found in this forum ?

I didn't do a search on CHF for any of my answers as it would take too long as there are many arguments here and there sometimes on the true history.

What I am saying is that, a chinese who were brought up in china, HK who didn't specialise in chinese history may not know the answer to that question. They don't have to search the internet or CHF as it is supposed to be a 'beginner' question. That's what the history books in schools are for at this level.

[Liang Jieming]

Therein lies a problem. The way that it's set it up, a revisionist terrorist can still re-reg on a daily basis and still post inaccurate non-educational comments up to 30 times with each account. It would be an exercise in futility. It takes a lot of motivation for a revision terrorist to continually hawk his agenda. I doubt that a two hour test would stop him because he's already motivated by his reasons. So he will pass the test and still be able to retain his access, while a large part of your membership base would be alienated; and it will seem elitist to new comers.

Better would be a system that allows moderators to invite participants into a special forum who have exhibited a pattern of learned discourse over a period of time. The Special forum (or whatever) will be a special password only access for posting. In this way, the rabble can still come in, but scholarly discussion would thereby be limited to only those deserving of it.

Frankly, at present, none of this would affect me, as I was able to squeak by the test. However, my opinion has always been that any forum that needs to erect such participation hurdles ultimately is diminished by it. Regardless, I do thank the admin and mods for taking the time and effort to care about this wonderful site.

Ralph

agreed.

The original structure was already predisposed to just such a system which I agree with Ralph, would have worked better without seeming to look elitist or put off newcomers with a passing interest since the whole aim is to encourage more people to take an interest of chinese history, including those who started out without any interest.

[Yun]

Better would be a system that allows moderators to invite participants into a special forum who have exhibited a pattern of learned discourse over a period of time. The Special forum (or whatever) will be a special password only access for posting. In this way, the rabble can still come in, but scholarly discussion would thereby be limited to only those deserving of it.

Unfortunately, we would be preventing beginners with a keen interest to learn, but who have made no impression on moderators (at least not yet), from gaining access to the learned discourse in that special exclusive forum. The best members in CHF would be building their own ivory tower, just like how relatively few academics actually make an effort to engage with history enthusiasts outside the field or the university. I would find a Special Club forum to be even more elitist than an exam, and also far more subjective because admission depends on the judgment of moderators. I would expect members not invited to the Club to be even more alienated than those who are currently unhappy with the exam.

Furthermore, how does it benefit CHF in the long term if the main part of the forum, which is accessible to the public, continues to deteriorate?

However, my opinion has always been that any forum that needs to erect such participation hurdles ultimately is diminished by it.

CHF has been around for 2 years, and the consensus among our best members is that the quality of participation was much higher when membership was smaller. We have been attracting more and more members who tend to hijack discussions for their own personal ideological agendas or prejudices, and this is what is really turning serious members off.

If we don't make any changes, we will continue to decline. So I would rather take the risk of a radical reform than sit by and let things go down the drain.

What I am saying is that, a chinese who were brought up in china, HK who didn't specialise in chinese history may not know the answer to that question.

Even many Chinese from China, HK or Taiwan wouldn't know that answer from school. The thing is, a committed student of Chinese history will be able to find the answer even on the internet.

I didn't do a search on CHF for any of my answers as it would take too long as there are many arguments here and there sometimes on the true history.

We have not asked questions on anything where there might be controversy over the answer. Doing a search on CHF may take time, but I'd recommend it. You will find that many of the answers are already available somewhere on the forum.

They don't have to search the internet or CHF as it is supposed to be a 'beginner' question.

The exam is not meant to be tailored for 'beginners'. In fact, only members who fail both the exam and the re-test will be classified as 'beginners'. They will be allowed to post in the Home to Beginners forum but not elsewhere.

Are you saying that the other 2 tests ie. medium to advanced chinese answers cannot be found in this forum ?

Quite likely, although GZ and I are still leaving the exact format of the higher-level exams to be decided later on.

[Yun]

If they become stuck on home to beginners forum, when can they post in the main forums?

If and when moderators decide they have earned a promotion to Learner Member through their good participation and/or increase in knowledge about Chinese history.

The Beginners forum is under-utilized right now anyway. It will be easier for the staff to frequently monitor one forum and keep it free of irrelevant or undesirable posts, than to monitor all of them.