A Second Education: 4 Exams and Tests Expats Can Take in China

A Second Education: 4 Exams and Tests Expats Can Take in China
Feb 17, 2016 By Elaine Fisher , eChinacities.com

If you’ve got spare time on your hands, why not consider furthering yourself educationally or gaining some extra certificates to pad up your resume with? There are a number of tests and exams on offer in China that are open to foreign candidates and that have the potential of opening new doors. From exams to get into business schools to qualifications to work as an accountant to tests to get you into the Foreign Service, do as the Chinese do and take some exams!

Exams in China
Photo: scui3asteveo

1) Postgraduate: GRE, GMAT
The offspring of high-level officials obtain postgraduate degrees at universities in your home country, so why shouldn’t you. Language teachers or learners fresh out of university may appreciate having additional options on returning home after their stint. Previously, neighboring Asian countries like Vietnam were destinations for the GRE, a standardized admission test for grad schools in the U.S. Currently, the computer-based GRE is offered in 13 cities in China while the business school-specific GMAT is offered in 16. So chances are, you can take either exam at a center near you, or combine business and pleasure by scheduling the test followed by a well-earned holiday.

Have there been any concerns about the GRE here? Chinese candidates gaming the GRE in a show of online collectivism by pooling questions and answers, as well as ETS’s (GRE’s examining body) lawsuit against New Oriental for publishing unofficial versions of GRE questions are some of the controversies surrounding the exam.

2) Professional: ACCA, CIMA and LCCI
If number-crunching sounds appealing, prep yourself for a career in accountancy when you get home. Obtain credits towards the ACCA and CIMA, accounting-related professional degrees, in exams administered by the British Council. The ACCA equips for careers in accounting, audit and taxation, while the CIMA is specifically for management accounting. The ACCA papers are administered via computer so only the lcower levels are available in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The CIMA uses paper-based exams in more locations. Should the idea of jumping in for a professional degree prove somewhat daunting, LCCI exams are offered in designated examination centers. The entry-level qualification for bookkeeping may serve as a warm-up for those new to the field.

3) FSOT (Foreign Service Officer Test)
Bitten by the overseas-living bug while living in China? Working in an overseas posting would be a natural transition. For U.S. citizens, one option is to join the Foreign Service. As in the Imperial Examinations days in ancient China, working for the government is still a highly-coveted position. Chinese today show up in droves for the civil service examinations and you can do the same. The Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) is offered in quite a few cities, including Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai and Guangzhou. A word of caution though, representing one’s country abroad may sound glamorous with generous benefits and travel, but the Foreign Service may not be for everyone. In the course of your career, expect assignments to “hardship posts”, sometimes “unaccompanied”, meaning that family will not be able to come along.

4) CATTI (China Aptitude Test for Translators and Interpreters)
So you’re already HSK-certified and locals around you are constantly wowed by your Mandarin. So what’s next? Test yourself against local benchmarks with the Putonghua Ceshi, commonly taken by Mandarin teachers, newscasters and anyone else who makes a living speaking standard Mandarin.

All those years invested in language learning may finally pay off if they can somehow be incorporated into a future career, in addition to providing the opportunity to keep in touch with the language. For this, take the China Aptitude Test for Translators and Interpreters (memorably acronymed, CATTI) offered in three levels and seven languages – English, Japanese, French, Arabic, Russian, German and Spanish. Both translation and interpretations are tested. Be forewarned though, the test has a pass rate of slightly over 10%, according to People’s Daily Online.

The quest for learning (and the paper chase) certainly never ends. In fact, it is one of the hallmarks of Asian society. With more and more Chinese looking to go overseas, expect more tests and exams for international qualifications to be administered in China, especially through computer-based testing. Also, the plethora of study material and specimen questions available online should be sufficient to equip candidates for any question in the exam.

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Keywords: tests expats can take in China exams on offer in China CATTI

11 Comments

All comments are subject to moderation by eChinacities.com staff. Because we wish to encourage healthy and productive dialogue we ask that all comments remain polite, free of profanity or name calling, and relevant to the original post and subsequent discussion. Comments will not be deleted because of the viewpoints they express, only if the mode of expression itself is inappropriate.

Cemply

There is nothing for an expat to learn here other than Chinese language

Feb 28, 2016 12:19 Report Abuse

kuriku

Rather than A-levels, which I see was taken out, you could replace it with IELTS (similar to SATs, but more adults take it) or TOEFL (for non native speakers). I also think the HSK could've been expanded on here.

Feb 24, 2016 23:18 Report Abuse

golf79

tr

Feb 23, 2016 09:40 Report Abuse

kuntmans

Lots of options there for expats which signals China can be less transitory...for the more educated immigrants at least.

Feb 20, 2016 23:48 Report Abuse

Garbo

Integrating into society? I was in Philadelphia's Chinatown and saw this Chinese man act like he wanted to beat and steal from white folks and then proceed to try to break an old fashioned parking meter while his little group of idiots laughed. I shouted at him in Chinese telling him if he doesn't like Americans why is he there? I also told him if he broke the parking meter and stole money people would call the police. He and his group sheepishly walked away. Who should be given exams to go to other countries ? Chinese people. They act like idiots wherever they go.

Sep 15, 2014 11:26 Report Abuse

Garbo

They're so rude. The duty free employees were telling me how rude they were acting like it's their problem they can't speak another language. I say give them exams about manners before they can get a visa. It was funny waiting for the plane in Newark this Chinese man starts shouting to people faraway. Everyone turned to look at him. He was embarrassed. Or waiting for the plane in Beijing and a woman was shouting at the people at the desk wanting to get on the plane when the flight attendants were. Keep in mind this was United Airlines and everyone started laughing at the woman. They explained in Chinese why she couldn't board the plane. She still thought she should. Finally after staff and waiting passengers were laughing at her she stopped and waited like everyone else.

Sep 22, 2014 08:56 Report Abuse

Vyborg

You seem to think Chinese society allows foreigners to integrate.

Sep 14, 2014 22:39 Report Abuse

GuestBob

The HSK is a standard qualification accepted and required for alot of international posts within Asian business, a glance at the entry requirements for any UK or US university will show that degrees and high school qualifications from Chinese educational institutions are accepted and the only substantive domestic qualification listed in the article (the CATTI) is recognised by domestic and international translation associations. There certainly is corruption in the education system in China but its presence has not resulted in the exceptionally broad conclusion which you suggest.

Sep 25, 2013 09:21 Report Abuse

bill8899

Looks like they deleted the IGCSE/A Level/ AP part of the article, instead of rewriting it.

Sep 13, 2014 09:49 Report Abuse

GuestBob

GCSEs and iGCSEs are not used to qualify for admission to university programs. "A Levels" are the university entry qualification generally used in England. Your article also seems to suggest that AP examinations can be taken at British Council offices - they cannot, and in case there was any confusion, "A Levels" and AP Tests are not the same thing. This paragraph needs to be tidied up I think.

Sep 24, 2013 08:13 Report Abuse

bill8899

What Bob said. Otherwise, quite informative.

Sep 24, 2013 10:34 Report Abuse