Advice on more efficient and effective study?

[mr tin]

Hi all. I've read through pages and pages of forum posts and I've found oodles of incredibly useful posts that have already changed the way I study Chinese. However, I'm afraid it might not be enough. I've been in China for nearly four and a half years now, and have been studying kind-of seriously for about two years, all of it by myself with the help of a few tutors. I've done many things. I studied vocabulary lists (HSK 1 & 2). I studied characters. I started studying texts a while ago and found that a very interesting way to improve. Of course, I feel you need to have mastered a solid vocabulary before reading makes any sense. My oral Chinese is quite good. I talk rather fluently, and can discuss just about anything with the Chinese people around me, but I do notice that there are often gaping holes in my vocabulary, ranging from the simple (e.g. words like 'victim' or 'pedestrian') to the less simple. (Calling myself 'rather fluent' then stems from the fact that I don't stall out when I find that I don't know the right word, I can usually talk around whatever I want to say, and as such get my meaning across regardless). My listening is not quite good enough yet to fully understand radio and TV broadcasts, although I usually can get a good deal of what they're saying. Listening tests in the HSK are horrible though. I tested a level 3 last year in those HSKs, and think I might have scored a 4 or 5 last week. That's a lot less progress than I had hoped to make. My current goal is to be solidly íntermediate (say, level 7) by the time I take the HSK again, which will be at least half a year from now. When I say that, I'm not even thinking that much about the test. I am more focused on improving my Chinese (to the point where I could get such a grade). I need to find a new source of inspiration. I need to find a way to get myself off of this big flat plateau I've landed on. Any tips? :help