Chinese Flash Cards Kit Volume 1: HSK Levels 1 & 2 Elementary Level: Characters 1-349 (Online Audio for each word Included)

These flashcards just arrived today, and I am impressed. I've been studying Mandarin for a year now, and ready to take the HSK exam. I bought these cards to ensure I had all the vocabulary memorized. I originally made my own at the start of my studies, but these cards will help bring my studies to a new level.With the character stoke order, example sentence, and commonly used word sections, I can expand my knowledge of a single character quickly (instead of looking up each character online/on pleco). Plus, they are numbered, so it's easy to track which characters I'll need extra practice in case I need to break up the deck.Finally, the set comes with a little pamphlet that organizes the characters alphabetically and by radicals, making it easy to find the card in the deck. I will be carrying these flashcards around with me to pass the time on my commutes, and perhaps even practice with a few friends as well.I would give this product a 5/5, but there are a few areas of improvement. First, only two of the cards were not fully punched. To resolve this I just pushed the ring through the punch area and had no problem fitting the cards on the ring. Second, the set only came with one ring. If you were to put all of the cards on 1 ring, it wouldn't lay flat on any surface (i.e. too many cards on one ring). I think the set could improve if it came with two rings. Thus, 4/5.I would recommend these cards to anyone serious about mastering the HSK exams! Hope this review helped!

These are really wonderful aids and do all that a flashcard can be asked to do. Also, they DO provide a very detailed stroke order- I am puzzled why so many reviews comment that there is no stroke order. Perhaps there was an earlier edition? I will take and upload a photo, so other customers can see for themselves.I find them superior to "Chinese Character Flashcards 888" and wish I would have saved my money as I purchased both sets. There is another review comparing them that is incorrect. These flashcards are more sturdy, have a more detailed stroke order (they break down every single stroke while the 888 set often groups them), provide a sample sentence as well as additional words using the character (888 only has a few sample words), and provide the traditional character along with the simplified when applicable (888 does too, but it's very small). They are superior in every way to the 888 set- I haven't even looked at the other set since the Tuttle set arrived. In fact, this is the first Amazon review I've written, and I do so to correct the misinformation I based my purchasing decision upon.Another useful feature is that the first 500 flashcards in the set coincide exactly with the two Tuttle Language Library volumes "250 Essential Chinese Characters". So, if you're working your way through these books, these flashcards are the ideal study aid. (The labeling numbers coincide exactly...if learning character number 115 in the book, you can refer to flashcard 115.)I am very happy with the cards and encourage their use as part of a well-rounded study program. It has been commented that individual characters have no real "meaning", so these cards have limited use. I disagree. Individual characters do have meaning and are used to represent a particular sound and tone. You must learn what sound goes with which character since characters are written individually with equal spacing- when reading Chinese, you need to pronounce each sound as you go along since characters are not grouped together to signal they are being used to build a particular word. Thus, each character needs to be learned individually since it can be used with many different characters to build different words. For example, "pengyou", meaning "friend", is written with two characters: one representing the sound "peng" (which means friend) and one representing "you" (which also means friend). But the character for "you" can also be combined with the character for "yi" which result in "youyi", meaning "friendship".As far as the samples sentences go, they may potentially be confusing since they do not provide an exact word-for-word translation, but for someone with moderate experience (I've been studying Mandarin for 3 months now) they are very easy to understand. An exact translation wouldn't be very comprehensible anyway. I rarely find myself confused over which word represents which meaning, and if uncertain, it's easy enough to look up a troublesome word in the dictionary. It's all part of the learning process.

I'm leaning toward 5 stars but there are drawbacks and ways this could improve. The cards are bit thin and flimsy, but given the number that are provided at the relatively low cost, this is understandable. Also the ring and hole is a good idea, but it would be better in my opinion, if there were a second hole on the other end of the card to allow 2 rings for easier flipping or a smaller ring that's' easier to turn, but the 4 stars is mainly for physical card quality. A stronger and slightly larger card would be better, but overall, this set is very good and shows great information, including samples and pinyin.