Here’s the letter I wrote to the Taipei Times about the lack of resources available for the TOP.

ttimes

Testees left in the dark

暗中摸索的考生

The Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu (SC-TOP) was established by the Ministry of Education to develop and promote an effective Chinese assessment system, the Test of Proficiency-Huayu (TOP), for Chinese learners worldwide to assess their Chinese proficiency.
國家華語測驗推動工作委員會由教育部設立，致力於發展、推廣具有效率的中文評鑑系統，其華語文能力測驗即用來評估中文學習者的中文能力。

Unfortunately, SC-TOP does not provide the most basic of resources for test takers. There is only one mock test available for each level and the only word list consists of 8,000 words with no translations in any language. The words are listed in order of complexity and are useless for lower-level test takers.

令人遺憾的，推測會並沒有為考生提供最基本的資源，各程度只發行一份模擬試題，而且唯一的八千字單字表也沒有以任何語言加以翻譯。這份單字表順序複雜，對於基礎試題考生而言，毫無幫助。

China’s Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) has word lists available for different levels.

中國漢語水平考試針對不同程度提供不同單字表。

TOP has been running since 2003. Why aren’t these resources available for TOP test takers?
華語文能力測驗自2003年推行至今，為何沒有提供考生這些資源呢？

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2008/04/24/2003410093