This paper pointed out the disadvantages of the spilt-sample validation method and introduced the hv-block cross-validation method for the hydrological model calibration. The application results of different basins, different lengths of data set and time intervals show that hv-block cross-validation method is superior to spilt-sample validation method with high simulation and prediction accuracy. The hv-block cross-validation method can fully use the information of the observed data and its advantage is more evident when the length of the data set is short.