HSK 1 study guide: the new test, its 300 words and an eight-week plan (video)
HSK 1 from 13 December 2026: 300 words, 40 questions in about 40 minutes, listening and reading only. Scores, an 8-week plan and free practice tests.
Chapters
- 0:00Start
- 0:23The short answer
- 0:46Your test date decides
- 1:31What's on the test
- 2:30The word list doubles
- 3:34Pass marks aren't out
- 4:00An eight-week plan
- 4:54Practice tests
- 5:53Where SayMei fits
- 6:13What to do next
Transcript
Start
Sit HSK 1 on or after 13 December, and you're taking a new test. It asks for twice as many words as the old one. 300 instead of 150, in the same 40 minutes. From SayMei Guides, by Mei Lin: the HSK 1 study guide. The new test, its 300 words, and an eight-week plan.
The short answer
The short answer. HSK 1 is the first level of China's official Mandarin exam. From 13 December 2026, it tests 300 words through listening and reading, with pinyin printed over the Chinese. There's no writing or speaking. Pass marks for the new paper aren't published yet, so aim to get most answers right on a timed practice test.
Your test date decides
So which HSK 1 will you sit? The 13 December sitting is the first to use the new HSK, known as HSK 3.0, Chinese Testing International, CTI, announced in September. Earlier sittings, like 7 November, use the old HSK 2.0 paper. So check your booking before you choose a word list. For 13 December, paper bookings close at midnight Beijing time on 16 November. The computer cut-off is 3 December, but your centre may close sooner. Most centres we checked stopped taking computer bookings on 27 November. Results come out on 28 December for the computer test, and 15 January on paper.
What's on the test
What's on the paper? It tests only listening and reading, with 40 questions split evenly. Each half has four parts of five questions. You match what you hear or read to pictures, pick replies, fill gaps from a bank of six words, and answer a starred question about a short text. A starred question asks about the speaker. Here's one we wrote in that style. 书店在哪儿？ Where's the bookshop? What does the speaker want to know? A place. And on the official sample paper, expect pinyin above every line of Chinese, so you can sound out a word before you can read its characters. The new paper still takes about 40 minutes, but it shares them out differently. Listening drops from about 15 minutes to about 12. Reading grows from 17 to 20, half the paper. So if you practise on an old paper, give reading the full 20 minutes, and learn the question types from the new sample.
The word list doubles
Now, the words. The new HSK 1 list has 300, twice the old 150. But we matched every word against the old lists, and almost half come straight from the old HSK 1. That's 148 words. Another 62 were HSK 2, and 80 weren't on the old lists at all. Most of those new words are everyday Chinese the old list left out. 好玩儿, fun. 电影院, cinema. 火车, train. 汉字, Chinese character. A few dropped from much higher levels. 饺子, dumplings, was an HSK 4 word. And 女士, madam, was HSK 5. You'll also need to recognise 246 characters. You don't need to write any yet. Handwriting is first tested at HSK 2. One caveat: a list labelled HSK 3.0 with 500 words at level 1 follows the 2021 Standard, not the exam.
Pass marks aren't out
What score do you need? On the old HSK 1, you pass with 120 of 200 points, and only the total counts. For the new paper, nobody can tell you yet. On 16 October, we found no new score scale from CTI. So treat the old 60% as a floor, and keep practising until you clear it with room to spare. Whatever the pass mark, your result counts for two years.
An eight-week plan
Eight weeks is enough for the new list if you study most days. That's about six new words a day. Weeks one and two: 80 words, with pinyin, tones, greetings, numbers and family. Weeks three and four: another 80, on time, food and shopping, then the official sample paper, timed. Weeks five and six: places, getting around, weather and work, with old papers for speed. Week seven finishes the list. Week eight is review. Spend about half an hour a day, with four habits. Learn every word by ear, because half the paper is listening. Learn the question words first: 什么, 哪儿, 几 and 谁. Learn words in families, like 这, 那 and 哪. And drill numbers, times and prices, like 三点半, half past three.
Practice tests
Which practice tests should you use? There are only a few full papers in the new format, so use them carefully. CLEC's official sample paper is free, with its recording and answers. CTI's online trial is free too, but asks for your name and email. HSK Mock sells two new-format papers at $3.99 each. And CTI's old sample paper is good for speed. SayMei's HSK 1 practice test is free with an account. SayMei wrote every question, so it's a practice test in the new HSK format, not an official paper. It has a listening page and an answer key. Do the official sample first, keep SayMei's test for week seven, and save a fresh paper for the final week. There are free resources that follow the new list, too. The HSK 1 word list has all 300 words with audio, and a five-minute level test checks that HSK 1 is the right level to book.
Where SayMei fits
Where does SayMei fit? Its free parts help most for HSK 1: the word list, the workbooks and the practice test. But it isn't an exam simulator, and HSK 1 doesn't test speaking. If you only want the certificate, a word list, a few timed papers and a stopwatch may be all you need.
What to do next
So, what next? Check your test date. Book before your centre's deadline. Learn the new list by ear. Do a timed paper halfway through. And save a full practice test for the end. You can practise speaking with Mei Lin, SayMei's teacher, in a short spoken lesson at your level. The full guide, with every source, is on the page at saymei dot app.