A level Chinese: the papers, the IRP, the set works and what an A* takes

A level Chinese means Pearson's 9CN0, with one Cambridge alternative

If you take A level Chinese in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, you take Pearson Edexcel's. No other UK board offers one, and Pearson withdrew its AS level in Chinese after 2020.

The cohort is international. Over 7,600 students sat the essay paper in 2025, Pearson's examiners report.

Pearson's own statistics count only about 1,600 of them in the UK, so by our arithmetic about four in five sit it abroad.

Pearson doesn't publish how many grew up speaking Chinese. Some schools say it plainly, though: one Cambridge sixth form offers the course only to first-language speakers. A London head of languages wrote in Tes that the leap from GCSE is "far too hard" for everyone else.

It's a full A level, and an A* carries 56 UCAS tariff points, the same as any other subject. You can speak Mandarin or Cantonese in the speaking exam, and every paper prints its texts in both simplified and traditional characters.

Universities decide how they count it, though. There's no national rule on language A levels taken by native speakers, researchers found, so we'd ask each admissions office on your list.

International schools may offer Cambridge's version instead, and we compare it further down. One caveat for readers in Singapore: there, "A level Chinese" usually means H1 Chinese, a different exam this guide doesn't cover.

The exam changed in 2026, after Ofqual stepped in

In December 2025, Ofqual fined Pearson £505,000 over A level Chinese.

It found that in Pearson's first three exam series, in 2019, 2022 and 2023, "the questions and mark scheme were inappropriately pitched towards knowledge that native speakers would have".

The marking had problems too. Ofqual found a strict two-minute cut-off on one part of the speaking test, an instruction to avoid full marks in speaking, and unduly high expectations for precision in translation into English and for character formation. Pearson realigned its marking for 2024 and changed the papers' content for 2025.

Then it changed the format. Here's what's different from June 2026, as Pearson's summary of changes sets out:

Sources: Pearson's summary of changes and its January 2026 notice. The English questions were first announced in July 2024.

So older past papers still help. Treat their listening and reading questions as practice, and write your answers in English.

Pearson hadn't posted its reports on the June 2026 papers when we checked in November, so the newest examiner advice here comes from 2025.

Three papers, at a glance

You sit the speaking exam in April or May and the two written papers in May or June, all in the same year. Here's each one as the specification sets it out:

Source: Pearson's A level Chinese specification, Issue 5, which also covers June 2027. No dictionaries are allowed in any paper, and you can't bring your set works into Paper 2.

Everything you write is in Chinese, except your Paper 1 answers and its translation, which are in English. In Paper 1 you control the recording, so you can pause and replay each passage as often as you like. We suggest learning these timings before your first mock.

Speaking and the essays carry most of the marks

Each part of the exam has its own share of your grade. We worked them out from the marks and weightings in the specification. Here's where the marks come from:

Source: our arithmetic from the specification: for example, the presentation's 12 marks out of the speaking paper's 72, times its 30% weight.

Now look at the speaking rows per minute. The research presentation lasts two minutes and earns 5% of the A level. Each essay takes about an hour and earns 12.5%.

So a minute of speaking is worth several times a minute of essay writing. In our view, that's the best argument for speaking practice every week from Year 12, not just in the spring.

What do you need for an A* in A level Chinese?

Pearson adds your three papers on a 400-mark scale, weighting each to its share of the grade.

Raw marks on the listening and reading paper count double, each speaking mark counts 1.667, and essay-paper marks count once. Then Pearson rounds the total and compares it with the grade boundaries.

The boundaries have barely moved in three years. Here they are, from Pearson's boundary tables:

Source: Pearson's GCE grade boundaries for June 2024, 2025 and 2026, A level Chinese, out of 400 subject marks.

So an A* needs about 82% of the subject marks, and an A needs 75%. Put in your mock marks, and the calculator does the scaling for you:

We suggest running it after every mock, so you know which paper to work on next.

Pearson also publishes a "notional" boundary for each paper. It doesn't decide your grade, but it tells you what an A* paper looked like. Here's what June 2026 asked for:

Source: Pearson's notional component boundaries, June 2026. In 2024 and 2025, Paper 1 needed two marks more at each grade and Paper 2 three or four fewer.

A notional A on all three papers adds up to exactly 300, the A boundary. Because Paper 1 marks count double, a few more right answers in listening and reading move you further than anything else.

A* grades rose sharply after the fix

The boundaries stayed put, but results didn't. Pearson's grade statistics for UK candidates show the change after Ofqual's review. Here's the share at A* and at A* or A each year:

Source: Pearson's grade statistics for June 2023 to 2025, and its provisional figures for June 2026. UK candidates only.

These figures don't split heritage from non-heritage students, so we can't tell you your own odds from them. They do show that the exam you'll sit is marked differently from the one older students describe.

How examiners mark, in plain words

Every mark comes from a published grid. We read them all and boiled each one down to what a top answer does:

Source: the mark grids in Pearson's specification, Issue 5. The discussion rows apply to both the theme discussion and the research discussion.

Two patterns run through all the grids we read. Analysis beats description everywhere, and accuracy matters, but a few slips don't keep you out of the top band. The grids say native speakers make errors too.

Task 1: five minutes to prepare, seven to talk

The speaking exam opens with a discussion on one of the four themes. An invigilator offers you two sub-themes in English, you pick one, and you get its card.

The card has a statement and two compulsory questions. You get five supervised minutes to prepare and may make notes on one side of A4, but you can't write on the card. Then the teacher-examiner asks the card's two questions, follows up, and broadens the talk to the wider theme.

In the reports we read, that broadening is where students lose ground. Examiners in 2025 saw discussions that never left the card, and talks too brief to fill the recommended six minutes. In 2024, students who noticed key words on the card did better, such as "more and more", 越来越(yuèláiyuè), or "daily life", 日常生活(rìcháng shēnghuó).

Here's how we'd spend the five minutes:

1. Find the key word. Circle the word the statement turns on, and decide whether you agree, disagree or partly agree.
2. Note two reasons. Give each one an example from China or another Chinese-speaking society.
3. Note one counterpoint. Examiners reward balance and a conclusion.
4. Write two questions for the examiner. You're marked on asking for their view.
5. Note one link to the wider theme. Then you're ready when the talk broadens.

Here's a model opening for a practice card of our own, on education and work: "In China, a degree from a top university matters more than ability." 在中国，名牌大学的文凭比能力更重要。 Zài Zhōngguó, míngpái dàxué de wénpíng bǐ nénglì gèng zhòngyào.

• 我部分同意这个看法。 Wǒ bùfen tóngyì zhège kànfǎ. I partly agree with this view.
• 一方面，很多大公司招聘的时候先看学历，所以名校毕业生更容易找到好工作。 Yì fāngmiàn, hěn duō dà gōngsī zhāopìn de shíhou xiān kàn xuélì, suǒyǐ míngxiào bìyèshēng gèng róngyì zhǎodào hǎo gōngzuò. On the one hand, many big companies look at qualifications first when they hire, so graduates of top universities find good jobs more easily.
• 另一方面，随着竞争越来越激烈，公司也越来越重视实际能力和经验。 Lìng yì fāngmiàn, suízhe jìngzhēng yuèláiyuè jīliè, gōngsī yě yuèláiyuè zhòngshì shíjì nénglì hé jīngyàn. On the other hand, as competition gets fiercer, companies care more and more about real skills and experience.
• 比如说，现在不少年轻人通过实习证明自己的能力。 Bǐrú shuō, xiànzài bù shǎo niánqīngrén tōngguò shíxí zhèngmíng zìjǐ de nénglì. For example, many young people now prove what they can do through internships.
• 所以我认为，文凭可以帮你打开门，但是能力决定你能走多远。你同意我的看法吗？ Suǒyǐ wǒ rènwéi, wénpíng kěyǐ bāng nǐ dǎkāi mén, dànshì nénglì juédìng nǐ néng zǒu duō yuǎn. Nǐ tóngyì wǒ de kànfǎ ma? So I think a degree can open the door, but ability decides how far you go. Do you agree with me?

That's a position, two sides, an example, a conclusion and a question for the examiner, in about a minute. The specification lists other questions you can ask, such as "What's your view on …?", 你对……有什么看法？ Nǐ duì … yǒu shénme kànfǎ? Use them where they fit the talk, because examiners notice when they sound bolted on.

The research project: your question, two named sources, two minutes

The second task is about your independent research project, the IRP. You choose a question about the society or culture of the Chinese-speaking world, research it on your own, and talk about it for 10 to 11 minutes.

The rules are strict, and breaking some of them costs the whole task:

• Stay in the Chinese-speaking world. Your question can come from a theme or your own interest, but it must be about Chinese-speaking society or culture.
• Don't research your set works. A project on a Paper 2 book or film scores zero for the task, though its author or director is fine.
• Read at least two written sources in Chinese. Articles, reports and books count. Videos and interviews can feed the discussion, not the presentation.
• Fill in the RP3 form. It needs your title in Chinese, six to ten key findings in English and full details of your sources. Hand it in at least three weeks before your speaking test.
• Do the work yourself. Your teacher can check that your question works, but can't give detailed feedback or rehearse the questions with you.

The presentation comes first and must not run past two minutes. In it, you summarise at least two named written sources, give their authors' main points and say what you think of them. If you cover only one source, the most you can score is 3 of the 12 marks.

Every examiner report from 2023 to 2025 said the same thing about weak presentations. They gave the project's findings without naming a source or responding to an author. Here's a frame that avoids that, timed for two minutes:

• 我的研究问题是…… Wǒ de yánjiū wèntí shì … My research question is … (10 seconds)
• 我读的第一篇文章是……，作者的主要观点是…… Wǒ dú de dì yī piān wénzhāng shì …, zuòzhě de zhǔyào guāndiǎn shì … The first article I read is …, and the author's main point is … (30 seconds)
• 我同意作者的看法，因为…… Wǒ tóngyì zuòzhě de kànfǎ, yīnwèi … I agree with the author, because … (20 seconds)
• 第二篇文章…… 我不完全同意，因为…… Dì èr piān wénzhāng … Wǒ bù wánquán tóngyì, yīnwèi … The second article … I don't fully agree, because … (50 seconds)
• 总的来说…… Zǒng de lái shuō … Overall … (10 seconds)

In our view, the best questions are narrow, arguable and clearly Chinese. Here are three broad topics turned into sharper questions:

• Social media becomes: Has Douyin changed how young Chinese people shop? 抖音改变了中国年轻人的购物方式吗？ Dǒuyīn gǎibiànle Zhōngguó niánqīngrén de gòuwù fāngshì ma?
• Work becomes: Why is "lying flat" popular with young Chinese workers? 为什么"躺平"在中国年轻人中很流行？ Wèishénme "tǎngpíng" zài Zhōngguó niánqīngrén zhōng hěn liúxíng?
• Food becomes: Has food delivery changed how Chinese families eat? 外卖改变了中国家庭的吃饭习惯吗？ Wàimài gǎibiànle Zhōngguó jiātíng de chīfàn xíguàn ma?

In the discussion, the examiner works from the findings on your RP3. Expect "why" and "what follows" questions, like "What conclusion can we draw from …?", 我们可以由……得出什么结论？ Wǒmen kěyǐ yóu … déchū shénme jiélùn? So for each finding, prepare a fact, a cause, your view and the best argument against it.

We suggest choosing your question in the summer before Year 13. Speaking tests start in mid-April, so the form's deadline arrives sooner than you think.

Tones and accuracy decide your language marks

The language grids reward range, accuracy and pronunciation together. An accent doesn't cost marks, but mispronunciations that block the meaning do.

The specification gives examples, such as saying "read a book", 看书(kànshū), as "chop down trees", 砍树(kǎn shù), or "online", 网上(wǎngshàng), as "evening", 晚上(wǎnshang). If you learned Chinese at school, tones are where a fluent answer can still lose marks.

Range is the other half. The grids name the structures they count as complex: aspect markers like 了(le), 过(guo) and 着(zhe), the passive with 被(bèi), 把(bǎ) sentences and longer sentences joined by conjunctions. These carry an argument well:

• not only … but also, 不但……而且 búdàn … érqiě
• as, or along with, 随着(suízhe)
• even, 连……都 lián … dōu
• no matter whether, 不管……还是 bùguǎn … háishi
• from this we can see, 由此可见(yóucǐ kějiàn)

Examiners in 2024 and 2025 also met fluent students whose very simple vocabulary didn't add up to what the grids call articulate communication. Fluency alone isn't range. Our guides to common grammar mistakes and chengyu help with both halves.

Paper 1: listen and read, then answer in English

Paper 1 has three sections in two hours: listening, reading and a translation into English. From 2026, every question is in English and so are your answers.

The specification suggests 50 minutes each for listening and reading, and 20 for the translation. Listening has three questions, including a summary. Reading has four, starting with picking four true statements from nine.

There are no marks for the quality of your English, only for the right information. We took these habits from the three Paper 1 reports we read:

• Give exactly the number of details asked. A two-mark question wants two answers. In 2024, examiners accepted only the first of two answers that meant the same thing.
• Answer the question, not the passage. Copying a chunk that contains the answer doesn't score if it doesn't answer it.
• Keep the qualifiers. "Newly graduated students" isn't the same as "students", and examiners mark the difference.
• Summarise, don't transcribe. The summary question asks for the points in each bullet, in short phrases.

You control the recording, so we'd replay a passage rather than guess. Watch especially for words that turn a sentence around, like 但是(dànshì) and 却(què), both "but".

Translation into English: twenty chances to lose a mark

The translation into English is worth 10% of the A level, and it's marked in 20 sense groups. Each group you translate correctly earns a mark. One you add to, drop or change earns nothing.

Examiners tolerate a misspelling unless it changes the word, and they ask one test: would an English speaker understand it without seeing the Chinese? Here's how a sentence of our own splits into groups:

• 越来越多的年轻人 yuèláiyuè duō de niánqīngrén → More and more young people
• 选择在网上购物 xuǎnzé zài wǎngshàng gòuwù → choose to shop online
• 因为这样(yīnwèi zhèyàng) → because it is
• 既方便又便宜(jì fāngbiàn yòu piányi) → both convenient and cheap

Two traps catch most people. Paraphrasing feels natural but drops sense groups, and tense slips do the same. Translate every word's meaning, then read your English aloud once to check it sounds natural.

Translation into Chinese: one mark per section, so leave nothing out

The translation into Chinese opens the essay paper and works the same way, with one mark per section.

It's worth only 5% of the A level, so give it its 30 minutes and move on.

The 2025 mark scheme shows how exact the marking is. "This tremendous change" was one section. 这个巨大的变化 zhège jùdà de biànhuà earned the mark, and plain 大的(dà de) for "tremendous" was rejected.

Word order is the other trap. Time and place come before the verb in Chinese, so "He studies in the library every evening" is 他每天晚上在图书馆学习。 Tā měitiān wǎnshang zài túshūguǎn xuéxí. The specification itself uses 我学习在图书馆 wǒ xuéxí zài túshūguǎn, in English word order, as its example of an error that hinders clarity.

Here's a sentence of our own in the style of the paper: "In recent years, more and more young people have moved to big cities to look for work, but many find that rent is very expensive."

• 近年来，越来越多的年轻人搬到大城市找工作，但是很多人发现房租非常贵。 Jìnnián lái, yuèláiyuè duō de niánqīngrén bāndào dà chéngshì zhǎo gōngzuò, dànshì hěn duō rén fāxiàn fángzū fēicháng guì.

Characters count, too. A wrong character, 别字(biézì), never earns the mark, even when it sounds right, though a missing stroke can. Pinyin earns nothing.

The essays: eight works, two questions each

You write two essays: on two literary texts, or on one text and one film. You can't write on two films. Each work has two questions, set in Chinese and English, and you answer in Chinese without the book in front of you.

Here are the four literary texts, with what Pearson's sample questions and recent examiner reports focus on:

Source: Pearson's specification, Appendix 2. Years are Pearson's, including 2016 for Folding Beijing, which Wikipedia dates to 2012; questions from the 2026 sample paper and the 2023 to 2025 examiner reports. For Memories of Peking you must study both stories: Hui'an Hostel, 惠安馆 Huì'ān guǎn, and My Father's Flowers Have Fallen, 爸爸的花儿落了 Bàba de huār luò le.

And the four films:

Source: as above. Please Vote for Me is a documentary; The Way We Are is set in Hong Kong.

In 2025, A Very Special Pigeon was the most popular text and Please Vote for Me the most popular film. Few students chose Beijing Bicycle or The Way We Are. No report covers the two new works yet, so fewer model answers exist for them.

You have 2 hours and 10 minutes for both essays, so about an hour each.

Pearson recommends 250 to 350 characters an essay, but it marks the whole essay whatever its length. Our advice: plan for ten minutes, write for fifty and keep a few minutes to check every character.

The question's verb tells you the job. Watch for these three:

• analyse, 分析(fēnxī): take apart how the work does something
• explore, or discuss, 探讨(tàntǎo): look at several sides
• evaluate, 评估(pínggū): judge how well or how much

We'd answer in the first sentence, make three points with evidence, and link each back to the question. Here's one paragraph of our own on Not One Less, answering "Analyse how the film presents the difficulties of rural education." 分析电影如何表现农村教育的困难。 Fēnxī diànyǐng rúhé biǎoxiàn nóngcūn jiàoyù de kùnnan.

• 首先，导演用粉笔这个细节表现了农村学校的贫穷。 Shǒuxiān, dǎoyǎn yòng fěnbǐ zhège xìjié biǎoxiànle nóngcūn xuéxiào de pínqióng. First, the director uses the detail of the chalk to show how poor the village school is.
• 高老师走以前要求魏敏芝每天只用一支粉笔，可见学校连最基本的教学用品都缺。 Gāo lǎoshī zǒu yǐqián yāoqiú Wèi Mǐnzhī měitiān zhǐ yòng yì zhī fěnbǐ, kějiàn xuéxiào lián zuì jīběn de jiàoxué yòngpǐn dōu quē. Before he leaves, Teacher Gao tells Wei Minzhi to use only one piece of chalk a day, which shows the school lacks even the most basic supplies.
• 电影最后，每个学生用彩色粉笔写一个字。这个对比说明，以前限制孩子们的不是能力，而是贫穷。 Diànyǐng zuìhòu, měi ge xuésheng yòng cǎisè fěnbǐ xiě yí ge zì. Zhège duìbǐ shuōmíng, yǐqián xiànzhì háizimen de bú shì nénglì, ér shì pínqióng. At the end, each pupil writes one character in coloured chalk. The contrast shows that poverty, not ability, had held the children back.

The paragraph names a technique, gives a detail from the film and says what it shows. The grids also reward the vocabulary of analysis, so learn terms like these:

• theme, 主题(zhǔtí)
• characterisation, 人物形象(rénwù xíngxiàng)
• contrast, 对比(duìbǐ)
• metaphor, 比喻(bǐyù)
• symbol, 象征(xiàngzhēng)
• a shot, 镜头(jìngtóu), and a close-up, 特写(tèxiě)

The commonest weakness, in all three essay-paper reports we read, was retelling the story instead of analysing it. The 2025 report puts it plainly: "Resist the temptation to try to demonstrate your knowledge by including everything you know." In 2025, an essay with near-top language scored under half marks for its argument, because it drifted from the question.

What loses marks, year after year

We read all nine examiner reports from 2023 to 2025, three for each paper. The same mistakes come up again and again:

Source: Pearson's examiners' reports for Papers 1, 2 and 3, June 2023, 2024 and 2025. Before 2026, Paper 1 answers were written in Chinese, so its character rule may matter less now.

Every one of these is a habit we'd fix in practice, long before the exam. Keep your own list of slips on each mock, and check it before the real thing.

What HSK level is A level Chinese?

There's no official link between A level Chinese and the HSK. So we measured one. We took Pearson's 2026 sample Paper 1, which it calls the benchmark for live papers, and matched every word in its listening, reading and translation texts to the new HSK word lists.

Here's how much of the paper you'd know at each HSK level:

Source: our count of Pearson's Issue 3 sample Paper 1, simplified characters, against the November 2025 HSK syllabus. Names are left out; a word built from listed words counts at its hardest part.

Reading studies put comfortable reading at 95% to 98% of words known, Laufer and Ravenhorst-Kalovski found. So HSK 5 vocabulary gets you to the threshold for the listening and reading paper, and HSK 6 takes you close to the top of that range.

Our HSK 5 study guide covers that level. One caveat: the HSK lists skip the exam's own topic words. Seven of the 40 terms in the specification's theme list aren't on them at all, and several more appear only as their parts:

Source: our check of the specification's four themes against the November 2025 HSK syllabus. The seven missing terms also include the four festival names and China-UK relations.

So we'd build two word banks: the HSK 5 list for Paper 1, and a theme bank from the specification's headings for speaking and essays. There's no official A level vocabulary list, only the themes and a grammar list, so the theme bank is yours to make.

A study plan for six months or twelve weeks

There's no official study time for this A level. Cambridge budgets about 360 guided learning hours for its own A level in Chinese, which gives a sense of scale. We built both plans around the speaking window, because it comes first, and they assume you already know your set works.

Here's a six-month plan, from November to the exams:

Source: our plan, not Pearson's. The 2027 speaking window opens on 15 April.

If you have twelve weeks, what you practise depends on where you started. Here's the same run-in, split by starting point:

Source: our plan, not Pearson's.

If you grew up speaking Chinese, the reports suggest your marks are more at risk in written accuracy, range and analysis than in fluency, so plan more pen-and-paper time. If you learned at school, speaking at length without a script is the skill a class can't drill enough. Our guide for heritage speakers covers the other side of that gap.

Free practice, ours first

Practice in the new format is still scarce, because the 2026 changes are recent. Here's where we'd look, in order:

• Our two workbooks. The speaking workbook has a discussion card for each theme and a research-project plan, and the translation and essay workbook covers both translations and essay frames. Both are free with a SayMei account, and each has a listening page with its audio.
• Pearson's sample papers. The Issue 3 sample assessment materials are the only official papers in the 2026 format, with mark schemes and speaking cards.
• Pearson's past papers and reports. Past papers, mark schemes and examiner reports for the old format are on Pearson's course materials page. Answer the old Paper 1 questions in English.
• Listening at natural speed. Mandarin Corner has street and in-depth interviews with Chinese subtitles, on everyday and social topics. Our listening practice has graded dialogues with audio.
• Reading for your research. BBC News Chinese and its website cover China and China-UK relations in Chinese, a good start for written sources.

For the films, we'd watch a legal copy at least twice: once for the story and once for the camera work. For the texts, keep a list of short evidence you can quote from memory.

Cambridge International: 9868 and 8238 are different exams

International schools may enter you for Cambridge International instead. Cambridge has two Chinese qualifications, and neither is Pearson's exam. We compared all three on the points that change how you prepare:

Sources: Cambridge's 9868 syllabus and 8238 syllabus for 2027 to 2029, and Pearson's specification.

Cambridge 9868 is Chinese Language and Literature: a reading paper, a writing paper with two short essays, and a literature paper. It aims at upper-intermediate to advanced level.

Its texts for 2027 include Qian Zhongshu's Fortress Besieged, 围城(Wéichéng), and Lilian Lee's Farewell My Concubine, 霸王别姬(Bàwáng bié jī).

Cambridge 8238 is a standalone AS level in four equal parts: listening, reading, writing and speaking. Its results can't be carried forward into 9868. One timing note: Cambridge runs June exams for both only in some regions, but every region can sit in November.

Dates, entries, private candidates and resits for 2027

We took the dates for June 2027 from Pearson's final timetable and JCQ's key dates:

Sources: Pearson's GCE summer 2027 timetable and its 2027 speaking windows; JCQ's key dates for June 2027. Your school sets your speaking test's date inside the window.

Pearson's entry fee for UK centres is £158.75 for the 2027 exams.

Entries after the deadline cost double, and after 22 April, triple.

If you're a private candidate, you'll need a centre that accepts private entries, and JCQ's centre search is the place to start. Centres set their own fees on top of Pearson's, and the speaking test is often the hardest part to arrange.

Pearson has two answers to that. A host centre can run your speaking test, and UK centres without a Chinese specialist can apply for Pearson's remote oral service, in Mandarin or Cantonese. Whoever conducts it can't be a family member.

On the day of your speaking test, you take nothing in. You make your Task 1 notes during the five minutes, and you may look at your RP3 form in Task 2 but not write on it. Phones and dictionaries stay outside.

Resits have one shortcut. You redo Papers 1 and 2, but you can carry your speaking mark forward from the previous year.

Where SayMei fits, and where it doesn't

SayMei is an app for learning Mandarin by talking with Mei Lin, an AI tutor. For A level Chinese, it helps most with the skill the speaking grids reward and classes rarely have time for: answering out loud, at length, and being corrected, with feedback on your tones.

SayMei Premium costs $5.99 a month for 200 minutes with Mei Lin. Depending on your country, you start with a free first lesson or a free week that needs a card. We checked our pricing page in November.

It isn't an A level course. Mei Lin doesn't know your theme card or your research questions, doesn't teach the set works and doesn't mark answers against Pearson's grids. It also teaches Mandarin only, with simplified characters by default, so Cantonese speakers will need practice elsewhere.

Our two workbooks are practice in the exam's format, written by SayMei, not Pearson. The essay workbook's worked example uses a SayMei story, not a set work. SayMei isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Pearson or Cambridge. For marked essays, a teacher or tutor who knows the specification is the better buy.

What to do next

• Read Pearson's sample papers. They're the only official papers in the 2026 format.
• Choose your research question this term. Make it narrow, arguable and about Chinese-speaking society.
• Run one theme card a week out loud. Five minutes to prepare, then talk for six without a script.
• Put your mock marks in the calculator. See which paper would move your grade most.
• Start your two word banks. The HSK 5 list for Paper 1, and the themes for speaking and essays.

Start today with the free speaking workbook.