In response to increasing numbers of Covid-19 cases in Hanoi, the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam has required all people who registered to take any TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language) tests to fill out the health declaration form they can find on the website of the Ministry of Health, Vietnam, or a similar related app before sitting for their test. In addition, staff check the temperature of each person as they arrive at the test venue and provide an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, and seating arrangements in the test room have been adjusted to maintain social distancing between the test takers.

Having a TOCFL certificate is required for applying for most student visas, and for admission to schools and universities in Taiwan and very helpful for being recruited by a Taiwanese enterprise, and this attracts many people to sit for the TOCFL tests. A total of 210 people registered for one of the five TOCFL CAT (Computerized Adaptive Test) Listening and Reading test sessions held in December 2021 at the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam in Hanoi: two sessions on December 10, and three on December 17. Approximately 90% were senior high school and university students, aged between 15 and 23. The others included Vietnamese workers and their spouses.

CAT test takers don’t need to choose a band when they register for the test. The test questions presented come from different bands and vary in difficulty. As the test proceeds, the computer immediately estimates the test taker’s proficiency based on their response to each item and then selects the most suitable test item to present next. If the person makes correct responses to the items, then more difficult questions will be presented; if the person makes incorrect responses, then simpler questions will follow. So a person who is subsequently awarded a Band A or a Band B pass may have encountered some Band B or Band C (the most advanced) questions during their test. Each TOCFL CAT test ends when the time limit is reached or when the test taker’s competence level has been determined - whichever comes first - and then their result and the level the person has passed at (from Level 1 to Level 6) is immediately shown.