HSK 4 study guide: the new test, its speaking paper and a 16-week plan

HSK 4 is the usual key to a Chinese-taught degree

If you want to study in Chinese at a Chinese university, HSK 4 is the level most rules point to. China's education ministry made that the national floor in 2018.

Its quality standard for international students says a Chinese-taught programme should admit students at level 4 or above on China's Chinese-language standard. CTI's own HSK 4 guide places HSK 4 at that level. The same rule asks for level 5 by graduation.

Scholarships follow the same line. Here's what the rules we read ask for:

Sources: China Scholarship Council's 2026–2027 call as posted by China's consulate in Montreal, the Ministry of Education's 2018 standard, USST's 2026 admissions FAQ and Tsinghua's programme page, all read 27 October 2026.

So as we read these rules, HSK 4 gets you through the door, and HSK 5 is where many programmes want you by the end. Selective universities can ask for more at entry, so read your programme's own page before you book.

One caveat: score lines such as "180" belong to the old exam. A score report counts as proof for university entry for two years from your test date, CTI's HSK 4 guide says.

Your test date decides which HSK 4 you sit

The 13 December sitting is the first to use the new HSK, called HSK 3.0, Chinese Testing International announced. Earlier sittings, such as 7 November, use the old HSK 2.0 paper.

So check your booking before you choose a word list. If December is too late for an application, the old paper may still suit you, but it tests the old list of 1,200 words.

For the December sitting, CTI takes paper bookings until midnight Beijing time on 16 November, and computer bookings until 3 December. Your centre may close sooner, so look it up today.

Results come out on 28 December for the computer test and 15 January on paper, CTI's date service shows.

Expect to book the speaking paper with the written one. For its September pilot, CTI's rules said levels 3 to 6 must be booked together with their speaking paper.

CTI's 13 December notice doesn't repeat that rule. Most centres in our October check of CTI's directory list a level-matched speaking paper for that date, and none list the old HSKK. If your centre lists HSK 4 without one, ask it before you pay.

Fees are set by each centre. For example, Hong Kong's CUHK lists HK$500 for HSK 4 and HK$400 for its speaking paper. Our HSK exam guide compares fees and centres in more countries.

CTI hasn't published next year's dates yet. When we read its notice list on 27 October, the newest item was still the December launch.

What's on the HSK 4 test?

HSK 4 checks that you can communicate in a complete and coherent way, in CLEC's words. CLEC writes the syllabus, and that phrase is how its competency profile sums up the level.

The written paper has 70 questions in three sections. Here's each part as it appears on CLEC's official sample paper, which prints characters only, with no pinyin:

• Listening. You hear short recordings and pick one of four printed answers, 32 questions in two parts.
• Reading, part 1. You fill gaps in sentences and mini-dialogues from a bank of six words. One word is a decoy.
• Reading, part 2. You read short texts, from a short notice to a short article, and answer questions about them.
• Reading, part 3. You put missing sentences back into two short articles.
• Writing, part 1. You see a picture and a word, and write a sentence that uses both.
• Writing, part 2. You write a short essay of at least 80 characters.

The new paper is about 20 minutes shorter than the old one. Here's where the time went:

Sources: the cover of CLEC's HSK 4 sample paper, and CTI's HSK 4 page for the old paper. The old paper has 100 questions, the new one 70.

So a shorter paper doesn't mean an easier one. Writing keeps all its time but now ends with an essay, and the old sentence-ordering questions are gone.

Plan for a long morning on test day

On 13 December, plan to spend most of the morning at your centre. The written paper and the speaking paper are separate sessions with a long gap between them.

CUHK's December timetable starts HSK 4 at nine and its speaking paper at half past eleven. CTI's September pilot used the same two times. Here's that morning, minute by minute:

Sources: CUHK's 13 December notes, CTI's pilot timetable and the sample papers' own timings. Your centre's times may differ.

Bring water and something to eat for the gap, and check whether you may leave the building. Arrive 30 minutes early, as CTI's rules ask, because latecomers are refused once reading starts and aren't let into the speaking test at all.

The speaking paper: retell, tell a story, answer

The HSK 4 speaking paper has five items in about 20 minutes, and half that time is preparation. You record your answers through a headset.

It opens with three warm-up questions, such as your name and the last five digits of your admission ticket number. Then come three parts, as the sample paper sets them out:

Source: CLEC's HSK 4 speaking sample paper and its recording. In the recording, the questions in part 3 are printed but not read aloud.

Start your practice with the retell, because it gives you no preparation time. Each sample passage is two sentences long and lasts about 13 to 20 seconds. The sample paper doesn't print the passages, so here's the first one as we transcribed it from the recording:

• "The two of us plan to marry on 5 September this year." 我们俩打算今年九月五号结婚。Wǒmen liǎ dǎsuàn jīnnián jiǔ yuè wǔ hào jiéhūn.
• "We chose that day because we met on that day seven years ago." 选择那天结婚，是因为我们两个是七年前的那天认识的。Xuǎnzé nà tiān jiéhūn, shì yīnwèi wǒmen liǎng ge shì qī nián qián de nà tiān rènshi de.

A good retell keeps the facts and the reason, in your own words. It also helps to switch to "they": "They plan to marry on 5 September, because they met on that day seven years ago." 他们打算九月五号结婚，因为他们是七年前的那天认识的。Tāmen dǎsuàn jiǔ yuè wǔ hào jiéhūn, yīnwèi tāmen shì qī nián qián de nà tiān rènshi de.

For the photo story, use your three minutes to give it a start, a middle and an end. The recording says you may write an outline, 提纲(tígāng), on the test paper, so note one verb for each photo.

The two questions ask about your own life. The first sample question asks how you'd spend a week off: "If you had seven days off, how would you plan them?" 如果给你七天假，你打算怎么安排？ Rúguǒ gěi nǐ qī tiān jià, nǐ dǎsuàn zěnme ānpái? The second asks how you'd settle in at a new job. Two minutes is longer than it sounds, so plan three points and an example for each.

HSK 4 is where speaking gets long. At HSK 3 your longest answer is a minute and a half; here, three answers run two minutes each.

Our guide to the HSK speaking test times the sample recording item by item and has a practice timer for every task.

Reading asks about 60 characters a minute

The reading section gives you 30 minutes for 32 questions. That works out at under a minute per question, with everything you have to read inside that minute.

We counted every Chinese character a candidate reads in the reading section of both official sample papers. That includes the texts, questions and answer choices, but not the instructions. The new paper has about 1,800 characters, the old one about 2,300.

Divide by the minutes, and the pace hardly moves. Here's how it compares with how fast native adults read:

Sources: our count of CLEC's new and CTI's old HSK 4 sample papers, and Brysbaert's 2019 review of reading-rate studies, converted at its own 1.5 characters per word. The exam figures include time to answer.

So you don't need to read like a native speaker. You need to read about 60 characters a minute while also choosing answers, and that leaves little time to puzzle over a word you half know.

The longest text on the sample is a short article of 169 characters, followed by three questions. If you read it at 60 characters a minute, it takes almost three minutes before you even look at the questions.

We suggest training with a stopwatch. Read a graded story or an old reading paper against the clock, and aim to finish a 170-character text in about two minutes.

Writing now ends with a short essay

The writing section is where you produce Chinese yourself. You have 25 minutes for six items.

In the first part, each item shows a picture and one word, and you write a sentence that uses both. The sample's words include settle the bill, 结账(jiézhàng), and lively, 活泼(huópō). In the second part you write at least 80 characters. The sample topic is your most memorable trip.

On paper you write by hand, so you'll need the characters on the syllabus's handwriting list. By HSK 4, it expects you to write 400 characters from memory and to recognise about 1,100.

An 80-character essay is short. We suggest four or five sentences: when and where, what happened, and how you felt. One caveat: CLEC's sample answer key gives model sentences for part 1 but no model essay.

The word list grows to 2,000, and 385 words are new

The new HSK 4 adds 1,000 words, for 2,000 in all. That makes the level two thirds bigger than the old HSK 4.

We matched every word on the new HSK 4 list against the old HSK 2.0 lists. About half were old HSK 4 words, and most of the rest had never been on any HSK list.

Here's where the new HSK 4 words sat on the old exam:

Source: our count, matching CLEC's 2025 syllabus to CTI's HSK 2.0 lists by written form. The syllabus numbers 1,000 entries at HSK 4; ten share a written form with another entry.

The 385 new words are mostly everyday modern Chinese. Every one of them is written with characters that already appeared on the old lists. A few examples:

• "pay", 支付(zhīfù)
• "change trains", 换乘(huànchéng)
• "destination", 目的地(mùdìdì)
• "eco-friendly", 环保(huánbǎo)
• "e-bike", 电动车(diàndòngchē)

Some old HSK 5 and 6 words moved down to HSK 4, such as "video", 视频(shìpín), and "village", 农村(nóngcūn). Going the other way, 51 old HSK 4 words moved down to HSK 3, and 16 left the lists, such as "plastic bag", 塑料袋(sùliàodài).

If you passed the old HSK 4, here's how much of the new HSK 1 to 4 list you already know:

Source: our matching of the two lists by written form.

The bigger list buys you more real Chinese. Matched against SUBTLEX-CH, a word count of Chinese film subtitles, the new HSK 1 to 4 words cover about 79% of the words people say on screen. The old list covered about 70%.

So we suggest starting with the words you haven't met. Our HSK 4 word list has all of them with pinyin, English and audio, and marks what changed from HSK 2.0. HSK 3.0 explained covers the changes at every level.

Pass marks for the new HSK 4 aren't out

On the old HSK 4, you pass with 180 of 300 points, CTI's HSK 4 page says. Listening, reading and writing count equally, and only the total decides.

For the new paper, nobody can tell you the pass mark yet. On 27 October we found no new score scale in CTI's notices, its pilot rules or the sample papers, and no rule for how speaking counts.

That matters for applications. When a university asks for "HSK 4, 180", it's quoting the old scale. If you sit the new paper, ask the admissions office what it will accept.

Until CTI publishes the scale, we suggest marking your practice tests against a margin. Treat 60% as a floor, and keep practising until you clear it comfortably on every section.

How to pass HSK 4 in 16 weeks

Sixteen weeks from a solid HSK 3 is a workable plan if you study most days. It means about ten new words a day for 14 weeks, with the last two kept for review.

There's no official study time for the new list. CTI's guide to the old HSK 4 expected four semesters at two to three class hours a week, for 1,200 words. So plan by words per week, and stretch the plan if your test is further off.

We built the plan around words per week. Here it is, four weeks at a time:

The weekly focus is our own plan, not CLEC's.

If you only have 12 weeks, learn about 13 words a day and keep the last week for review. Any shorter, and you're cramming, with little time left for daily speaking practice.

Each day, aim for about an hour. Five habits make that hour count:

• Learn words by ear and by hand. Listening is almost half the questions, and the essay needs characters you can write.
• Retell something every day. Play a 20-second clip once, then say it back in your own words. The test gives you one listen and no preparation.
• Time your reading. A stopwatch on a 170-character text tells you more than any score.
• Write the essay before you need it. Draft short essays on likely topics: a trip, a friend, your city, a plan.
• Speak for two full minutes. Time your answers, because two minutes feels long the first few times.

Practice tests in the new HSK 4 format

Full papers in the new format are still rare. We suggest the official sample first, and save at least one paper for the final fortnight.

We checked each provider's own page in October. Here's how they compare:

Sources: CLEC's sample pack, CTI's trial, HSK Mock's HSK 4 page and our guide to free HSK practice tests.

SayMei's practice test follows the published structure of the new HSK 4: the same parts, number 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 a speaking paper with the same five tasks and timings. You can play every listening track free on its listening page, without an account. Get the HSK 4 practice test.

We still suggest old papers for reading speed and vocabulary. Their question types differ, though, so learn the format from the new sample.

Free resources for each part of the paper

These follow the new HSK 4 list:

• Words. Our HSK 4 word list has every word with pinyin, English and audio, and a CSV for Anki.
• Reading. The HSK 4 workbooks, free with a SayMei account, include two reading practice books with longer texts, cloze and sentence gaps.
• Writing. The HSK 4 characters page has the 150 characters this level adds to the handwriting list, with stroke order. The HSK 4 writing workbook has every word to trace, and the guided writing workbook builds from sentences about a picture to a full paragraph.
• Listening. Our listening practice has dialogues graded by HSK level, with audio, pinyin and English you can hide.
• Textbooks. If you'd rather work from a book, our HSK book guide checks which ones follow the new list.

Not sure HSK 4 is your level yet? The level test takes about five minutes.

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 4, the speaking paper is where it helps most: retelling, describing and answering out loud.

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 late October.

It isn't an exam simulator. SayMei has one HSK 4 practice test, it isn't official, and no one can turn its score into a pass or fail yet.

It also won't mark your handwriting or grade your essay against CLEC's rules, because those rules aren't published. If you need a scored essay, a human teacher is the better buy.

What to do next

• Check what your programme asks for. Read its own admissions page, and ask how it treats the new scale.
• Book before your centre's deadline. It can fall days before CTI's, so look yours up today.
• Take the official sample untimed. It shows the format and which section needs the most work.
• Start the retell habit now. A short clip a day, said back in your own words.
• Save a full practice test for the end. Take both papers in one sitting, with a timer.

Start today with the words you haven't met on our HSK 4 word list.