HSK 3 study guide: the new test, its speaking paper and a plan by words per week

Your test date decides which HSK 3 you sit

The 13 December sitting is the first regular sitting of the new HSK, known as HSK 3.0, Chinese Testing International announced in September. Earlier sittings, such as 7 November, use the old HSK 2.0 paper.

So before you pick a word list, check the date on your booking. The two HSK 3 papers share a name and little else.

For 13 December, CTI takes paper bookings until midnight Beijing time on 16 November. Computer bookings close on 3 December, but your centre may stop sooner.

Expect to book the speaking paper with the written one. CTI's pilot rules required that for HSK 3 to 6. Its launch notice doesn't repeat the rule, but centres list the matching speaking paper for that date.

Results follow in late December for the computer test and in mid-January on paper.

If December is too close, aim for a 2027 date. CTI hadn't published next year's calendar when we checked on 27 October. Our HSK exam guide covers fees, centres and the rules on the day for every level.

What's on the new HSK 3 test?

HSK 3 checks that you can handle everyday life in Chinese: errands, travel, shopping, school, work and small talk. CLEC, which writes the syllabus, lists the level as a set of practical tasks, from describing a person to reporting a lost item or getting a bank card.

The written paper has three sections. We put the official sample next to CTI's description of the old paper:

Sources: the cover of CLEC's HSK 3 sample paper and CTI's HSK page, Level 3 tab, checked 27 October. Both totals include five minutes for your details.

So the new paper is shorter, but it asks more of your hand. Here's each part as we read it on the sample:

• Listening, 1–10. You hear short dialogues and match each one to a picture.
• Listening, 11–20. You hear a dialogue and a question, then pick one of three printed answers.
• Listening, 21–30. You hear a short talk and a question, then pick one of three answers.
• Reading, 31–40. You match each sentence to its reply.
• Reading, 41–50. You fill each gap from a bank of words.
• Reading, 51–60. You read short texts and answer starred questions; two texts carry two questions each.
• Writing, 61–65. You write the missing character in a sentence, with its pinyin as the clue.
• Writing, 66–70. You see a picture and a word, and write a sentence that uses the word.

Three things changed from the old paper. The true-or-false listening part is gone. So is the writing task where you put jumbled words in order. And the picture sentences are new.

The paper is in characters. Pinyin appears only as the clue in the five fill-in-a-character questions, so a word you know only by sound won't help you in reading.

Here's what a picture sentence looks like. For the word "happy", 开心(kāixīn), the sample's worked example is:

• "He was so happy he jumped up." 他开心得跳起来了。 Tā kāixīn de tiào qǐlái le.

That one sentence uses a complement of degree, 得(de), and a direction complement, 起来(qǐlái). You don't need either to score, but a correct, complete sentence is the job.

Expect test day to run from 2 pm to 4:35

On the day, the two papers are separate sessions. CTI hasn't published a timetable for 13 December. In its September pilot timetable, the written paper started at 2 pm local time and the speaking paper at 4:20 pm.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong's notes for 13 December list the same two times. Plan around them, and check your own centre's times when you book.

Here's the whole afternoon on paper, minute by minute:

Sources: CTI's pilot timetable and CUHK's 13 December notes for the start times; the covers of CLEC's HSK 3 sample papers for each part. Your centre may run a different timetable.

The break matters more than it looks. After nearly an hour and a half of listening, reading and writing, you wait, then have to speak at once. In mock runs, take a short walk after the written paper, then start the speaking paper cold.

A couple of CTI's candidate rules catch people out. If you're late for the speaking session, you're not let in. And watches and timers are banned, so you can't time your own answers.

The speaking paper is 15 short answers

The HSK 3 speaking paper has three parts, all recorded. There's no examiner in front of you: you wear headphones, hear the prompts and speak into a microphone.

Here's what the sample paper asks:

• Part 1: repeat eight sentences. You hear each sentence once, then a beep, and you have ten seconds to say it back.
• Part 2: describe five photos. For each one you say a single sentence, with 15 seconds to do it.
• Part 3: answer two printed questions. You get three minutes to prepare each and a minute and a half to speak.

The sample's repeat sentences are short and everyday:

• "Chinese characters have a long history." 汉字的历史很长。 Hànzì de lìshǐ hěn cháng.
• "I ride my bike to school every day." 我每天骑自行车去学校。 Wǒ měi tiān qí zìxíngchē qù xuéxiào.

The two sample questions in part 3 are about you:

• "Please introduce one of your family members." 请介绍一下你的一位家人。 Qǐng jièshào yíxià nǐ de yí wèi jiārén.
• "What kind of work do you like, and why?" 你喜欢做什么样的工作？为什么？ Nǐ xǐhuan zuò shénmeyàng de gōngzuò? Wèi shénme?

We timed every silence in CLEC's HSK 3 sample recording. The clock looks like this:

Source: our timing of the HSK 3 speaking recording in CLEC's sample pack. The recording runs 15.5 minutes from the greeting to the close.

So the first five minutes reward quick, accurate repetition, and the last ten reward planning. During preparation, the recording tells you that you may write an outline, 提纲(tígāng), on the test paper. Use it for three or four key words, not full sentences.

A minute and a half is longer than it sounds, so plan more than you think you need. Here's the start of an answer to question 14, which we wrote in the style of the sample:

• "I'd like to introduce my mum." 我想介绍一下我的妈妈。 Wǒ xiǎng jièshào yíxià wǒ de māma.
• "She's a teacher at a secondary school." 她是老师，在一个中学工作。 Tā shì lǎoshī, zài yí ge zhōngxué gōngzuò.
• "She loves reading, and at weekends she often takes me to the library." 她很喜欢看书，周末常常带我去图书馆。 Tā hěn xǐhuan kàn shū, zhōumò chángcháng dài wǒ qù túshūguǎn.

Keep going in the same way: one more fact, a reason, an example. For every HSK level, our speaking test guide has a practice timer and tactics for each task.

If you took the old HSKK Elementary, you'll find this paper shorter. The old test had 27 items, and the new one swaps its quick listen-and-answer part for photo sentences. One caveat: CTI hasn't said how the new speaking result is scored or reported.

Half the HSK 3 words are new to you

The new HSK 3 takes you to 1,000 words in all, up from 600 on the old exam.

The level mixes old words and new ones, though. We matched every word at the new HSK 3 against CTI's old lists, by written form. Here's where they came from:

Source: our count, matching CLEC's 2025 syllabus to CTI's HSK 2.0 lists by written form. A word listed twice, or also at an earlier level, counts once, so the 500 entries make 491 words.

The old HSK 4 words that dropped to HSK 3 are common ones. "Lost", 丢(diū), "comfortable and cool", 凉快(liángkuai), and "for example", 比如(bǐrú), are all now HSK 3.

Traffic runs the other way too. Of the old HSK 3 words, 41 moved down to HSK 1 or 2, and five moved up to HSK 4, such as "nose", 鼻子(bízi).

Only 13 old HSK 3 words left the lists in their old form, and most live on in another one. "Winter", 冬(dōng), became 冬天(dōngtiān), and "camera", 照相机(zhàoxiàngjī), became 相机(xiàngjī).

So what does that mean if you studied the old list? We worked it out. If you finished the old HSK 3, you already know over half the new HSK 1 to 3 words. That leaves about 420 to learn.

If you stopped at the old HSK 2, you have about 700 to go.

Our HSK 3 word list has all 500 new words with pinyin and audio, and marks the ones that changed from HSK 2.0.

The new words are everyday life

The 195 words that are new to the HSK aren't exotic. We grouped them by topic, and they read like a week in a Chinese city.

Here's how they split:

Source: our grouping of the 195 words, one topic per word, loosely following the syllabus's HSK 3 topics. The groups are a judgement call; the counts are exact.

A few examples show the flavour of the list:

• "high-speed train", 高铁(gāotiě)
• "takeaway", 外卖(wàimài)
• "email inbox", 邮箱(yóuxiāng)
• "traffic lights", 红绿灯(hóng-lǜdēng)
• "bank card", 银行卡(yínhángkǎ)
• "housing estate", 小区(xiǎoqū)

There's good news hidden in the list. We checked every new word's characters, and 187 of the 195 use only characters that already appear in old HSK 1 to 3 words. "Takeaway" is "outside" plus "sell", and "high-speed train" is "high" plus "iron".

So learn the new words as combinations of characters you know. It's faster than treating each one as a fresh shape.

You'll read 655 characters and write 250

The syllabus splits characters into two lists: ones to recognise and ones to write by hand. By HSK 3, you should recognise 655 characters, and HSK 3 itself adds 284 of them.

Writing is the smaller job. The handwriting list for HSK 1 to 3 has 250 characters, and over half of them arrive at HSK 3.

We checked the sample against it. All five characters the sample asks you to write by hand are on that list: "direction", 方(fāng); "should", 该(gāi); "ten cents", 毛(máo); "become", 成(chéng); and "method", 法(fǎ).

So drill the 250 by hand, in sentences, and learn the other 405 to read. Our free HSK 3 writing workbook has every character on a grid with pinyin and English.

Nobody knows the new pass mark yet

On the old HSK 3, you pass with 180 of 300 points, CTI's HSK page says. Your report shows listening, reading, writing and a total, and only the total decides.

For the new papers, there's no published number. In late October, we found no score scale or pass mark in CTI's launch notice, either pilot notice, the syllabus or the sample papers. We also found no rule on how the speaking result combines with the written one.

So mark your practice tests against a margin, not a line. Treat the old 60% as a floor on each paper, and keep going until you clear it comfortably.

Under the pilot rules, results come out about two weeks after a computer test and a month after a paper test, and they count for two years.

Who asks for HSK 3

HSK 3 is the level some scholarships and short programmes in China ask for. The clearest example is the International Chinese Language Teachers Scholarship. Beihang University's 2026 guide to it sets these bars on HSK 3:

• One semester of language education, literature, history or philosophy: at least 180, plus an HSKK score.
• One year of Chinese study: at least 210, with an HSKK score preferred.
• One year of international Chinese language education: at least 270, plus an HSKK score.

Those numbers use the old 300-point scale. When the new score report arrives, check how your programme reads it. We found nothing that says whether the new speaking result counts as an HSKK score, so ask about that too.

If you're aiming higher, HSK 4 asks for 2,000 words and longer spoken answers, so treat HSK 3 as the step before it.

How to pass HSK 3: a plan by words per week

The number that decides your plan is words per week. There's no official study time for the new list. CTI's old HSK 3 syllabus expected three semesters of two to three class hours a week, for 600 words.

We worked out the weekly pace for common starting points and dates. Each plan keeps the last two weeks for review and practice tests, except the 13 December plan, which keeps one:

Source: our arithmetic. "From the old HSK 3" means the 418 words an old HSK 3 finisher still needs on the new HSK 1 to 3 lists; "from the new HSK 2" means the 500 HSK 3 entries.

In our view, about 50 words a week is a steady pace, or seven a day with reviews.

At 80, you're cramming, and speaking practice gets squeezed out. If 13 December would need that pace, a date next year is the better bet.

Here's a 12-week plan from the new HSK 2, two weeks at a time:

The topics are our grouping of the word list, not the syllabus's.

Each day, give it about 45 minutes: new words and reviews first, then one paper skill. Four habits make that time count:

• Learn every word by ear and by mouth. Listening is the first section of the written paper, and part 1 of the speaking paper is pure repetition.
• Read in characters only. The paper has no pinyin, so switch it off in your reading practice from week 1.
• Write sentences, not lists. The picture task wants a full, correct sentence, so practise one for each new verb.
• Answer with a frame. For 90-second answers, use three moves: what, why and an example. "I think", 我觉得(wǒ juéde); "because", 因为(yīnwèi); "for example", 比如(bǐrú).

Free HSK 3 practice tests in the new format

There are only a few full papers in the new format, so use them carefully. Save at least one for the last fortnight, when timing matters most.

We checked each provider's own page. Here's what's available:

Sources: CLEC's sample pack, CTI's trial, HSK Mock's HSK 3 page and the Resources tab of CTI's HSK page, checked 27 October unless dated.

SayMei's practice test follows the published structure of the new HSK 3: the same parts, numbers of questions and timing, with words from the 2025 syllabus. SayMei wrote every question, so it's a practice test in the new HSK format, not an official paper.

It includes the 15-item speaking paper as well as the written one. You can play the listening section and every speaking prompt on its free listening page. Get the HSK 3 practice test.

Old papers are still useful for speed, but they use task types the new paper dropped, such as true-or-false listening. For every other free paper, see our guide to free HSK practice tests.

So do the official sample first, because it's the real format. Keep SayMei's test for weeks 9 and 10, and a fresh paper for the final week.

Free resources for each part of the paper

These cover the whole test:

• Words. Our HSK 3 word list has the 500 new words with pinyin, English and audio, and a CSV for any flashcard app.
• Reading. The HSK 3 workbooks, free with a SayMei account, include reading practice with notices, messages and short stories.
• Writing. The HSK 3 guided writing workbook builds from single sentences to short paragraphs, and the complete HSK 3 pack bundles it with the rest. For handwriting, the HSK 3 characters page has the 150 characters this level adds, with stroke order.
• Listening. Our HSK 3 listening practice has three HSK 3 dialogues with audio, pinyin and English, and lines to say back.
• Level and books. The level test estimates whether HSK 3 is the right level to book, and our HSK book guide checks which textbooks follow the new list.

If you're starting from scratch, our HSK 1 study guide covers the first level the same way, and HSK 3.0 explained shows what changed across all nine levels.

Where SayMei fits, and where it doesn't

SayMei is an app for learning Mandarin by speaking with Mei Lin, an AI teacher. For HSK 3, its free parts do a lot of the work: the word list, the workbooks and a practice test with both papers.

Lessons with Mei Lin are for the part of HSK 3 that's hardest to practise alone: speaking. You answer out loud, in full sentences, and she corrects your grammar and pronunciation as you go. 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 on 27 October.

It isn't an exam simulator. SayMei has one HSK 3 practice test, it isn't official, and no one can turn its score into a pass or fail yet. Mei Lin isn't an HSK examiner, and nobody outside CTI knows how the new speaking paper is marked.

If you only want the certificate and you're confident speaking, the free official sample, a few timed papers and a phone to record yourself may be all you need.

What to do next

• Check your test date. It decides whether you study the old paper or the new one.
• Book before your centre's deadline. It can fall days before CTI's, so look yours up today.
• Set your words per week. If the pace looks like cramming, move to a later date.
• Speak from week 1. Repeat sentences out loud daily, and record a 90-second answer each week.
• Do the official sample early. It shows which part of each paper needs the most work.

Start today with the first words on our HSK 3 word list.