HSK exam guide: levels, format, scores and a plan to pass

Your test date decides: HSK 2.0 or 3.0

If your test is on or before 7 November, it's HSK 2.0. From 13 December, it's HSK 3.0.

Chinese Testing International, CTI, announced on 8 September that HSK 3.0 "will be officially launched worldwide" on 13 December. Earlier in the year, it had added a line to its pilot notice: this year's regular dates still use HSK 2.0, as an archived copy from March shows.

A test centre spells it out. The 17 October and 7 November sittings are HSK 2.0, says the Confucius Institute Barcelona.

CTI's own directory agrees. On 7 October we read the public listings for eight countries in CTI's "Find a Test Center". Every centre offering HSK on 13 December sells it with the new level-matched speaking test, and not one sells the old HSKK that day.

Centres offering the October and November dates still sell the old HSKK. We found two edge cases:

• US home test, 29 November. Ten US centres list an internet-based test at home that day with the old HSKK, so it's an HSK 2.0 sitting. It's for the US only.
• Singapore, 12 December. Crestar, a Singapore centre, runs its own sitting that day and still names the old oral tiers on its schedule. Ask the centre which version it is before you study.

CTI's launch notice doesn't say whether any HSK 2.0 sittings continue after the switch, so plan as if they don't. Here's the switch, date by date:

If you want the story of what changed and why, read HSK 3.0 explained. This guide sticks to sitting the exam.

What are the HSK levels?

HSK 3.0 has nine levels in three stages. Levels 1 to 6 are separate exams, and levels 7, 8 and 9 share one advanced paper that places you by score. HSK 2.0 has six levels.

The full name is the Chinese proficiency test, 汉语水平考试(Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì). Its new word lists are bigger at every level:

Sources: the HSK 3.0 syllabus, CLEC 2025, and CTI's 2009 introduction of HSK 2.0. Totals are cumulative.

Every word, with pinyin and audio, is on our free HSK vocabulary lists, one page per level, with a CSV for flashcards.

What you can do at each level

CLEC, which writes the syllabus, sums up each level in a line in its one-page competency profile:

Source: CLEC's HSK 3.0 competency profile.

Notice that the word "fluent" first appears at HSK 6. Keep that in mind when you pick a target.

No official CEFR match for HSK 3.0

There's no official CEFR answer for HSK 3.0. We found no HSK 3.0-to-CEFR table from CTI, CLEC or China's Ministry of Education. In 2021, CLEC only said it would promote alignment with other standards.

The charts you'll see trace back to two older sources that disagree:

• CTI's 2009 introduction of HSK 2.0 matched HSK 1–6 to the six CEFR levels, so HSK 6 was the top one, C2.
• Germany's association of Chinese teachers rejected that in June 2010. It put HSK 4 at about A2 and HSK 6 at about B2.

So treat any HSK-to-CEFR chart as an estimate, including the rough band our level test gives you. If a school or employer asks for a CEFR level, ask which HSK level and score they accept instead.

Shorter papers, a longer test day

From HSK 3 up, the new written papers are shorter, writing starts at HSK 2, and you book speaking with the exam. HSK 4, for example, drops from 100 questions to 70.

Fewer items don't mean a shorter day, as we found when we added up the times. Add the speaking test, and an HSK 6 sitting grows from 140 minutes to about 148. Here's test day at every level, then any level's two papers, section by section:

So when you do a mock, time the paper and the speaking test together.

Writing grows fast, from single characters at HSK 2 to an essay at HSK 4. Here's what the sample papers ask you to write at each level:

Source: CLEC sample papers.

HSK 1 and HSK 2 sample papers print pinyin above the characters; from HSK 3 they don't. If you lean on pinyin, HSK 3 is where you'll feel it.

Do you have to take the HSKK speaking test?

From 13 December, yes for HSK 3 to 6, and it isn't the old HSKK. CTI's pilot rules require HSK 3–6 to be registered together with the speaking test of the same level. Centres now sell "HSK Speaking Level 3, 4, 5, 6" for that date, as CUHK's notes show.

HSK 1 and 2 have no speaking test. In HSK 7–9, speaking is part of the paper.

For many of you, this isn't new. Since January 2023, CTI has combined HSK 3–6 with the matching HSKK at its centres in China, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The centres we checked in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore already sell the two together.

What changes is the test itself. The old HSKK had three tiers spread over six levels; now each of HSK 3 to 6 has a paper of its own. Here's what each one asks:

Source: CLEC sample papers.

Everything runs on a timer, from 10-second repeats to answers of up to two and a half minutes, and that's hard to practise alone. Our HSKK speaking test guide times each paper minute by minute and has a practice timer.

Passing scores: 60% on HSK 2.0, unknown on 3.0

On HSK 2.0, you pass on your total, not section by section. Here's how each test is scored:

Sources: CTI level pages and CTI's HSK 5 and HSK 6 level guides.

CTI's pages give no minimum per section. Its current HSK 5 and 6 pages show only the 300 maximum, but CTI's own level guides set the pass at 180 there too.

On HSK 3.0, nobody can tell you the pass mark yet. We read both pilot notices, the launch notice, the syllabus and every sample-paper cover, and none gives a scale or pass mark for levels 1 to 6, as of 6 October.

HSK 7–9 already works differently. An item-response model places you below level 7, or at level 7, 8 or 9, from your scores, CTI says.

When are the next HSK dates, and when must you register?

CTI's own date service gives these deadlines and result dates for the rest of the year. For 13 December, registration closes at midnight Beijing time.

Sources: CTI test dates, checked 6–7 October 2026; CTI launch notice.

Your centre may close earlier. For 13 December, most computer-based listings we read closed on 27 November, six days before CTI's date.

Paper cut-offs ran from 16 to 19 November. Use the earlier of your centre's date and CTI's.

CTI hasn't published next year's dates. This year's calendar came out on 24 December 2025, so we expect the next one around December.

Home testing is rare, so find a centre

In most countries, you'll sit the HSK at a test centre. These are the centres offering HSK on 13 December in CTI's public directory on 7 October, in our snapshot of eight countries:

Centres keep adding dates, so search your city on chinesetest.cn before you give up. And if you've read that almost every HSK is now computer-based, it isn't true everywhere: in Vietnam and Malaysia, most centres offering 13 December run it on paper.

Home testing exists, but it's rare. CTI has run an internet-based test at home since April 2020, and its 2024 session was open only to centres in the Americas, Europe, Oceania and Africa, CTI's notice says.

That session needed a Windows computer with a camera, plus a phone as a second camera, and HSK 3–6 candidates had to add the HSKK.

On 7 October, the only home listings in the eight countries we checked were in the US, for HSK 2.0 on 29 November. One more, for HSK 7–9, was in the Philippines.

Each centre sets its own HSK fee

CTI's rule for the switch is that HSK 3.0 levels 3 to 6 with speaking cost the same as the old level plus the matching HSKK. HSK 1 and 2 don't change, says CTI's pilot notice.

We collected the price of HSK 4 with its speaking test at one centre per country:

Sources: the centres' own fee lists.

Malaysia's full list, on hsk-ibt.com.my, runs from RM120 for HSK 1 to RM460 for HSK 6 with speaking. Ask your own centre for its price before you plan around a date.

Book online, then bring your ticket and ID

You register on chinesetest.cn, and the booking only counts once it's paid. CTI's candidate rules list the steps:

1. Create an account on chinesetest.cn.
2. Choose the test, level, format, date and centre.
3. Enter your details exactly as on your passport or ID, and upload a photo: taken in the last 6 months, colour, no hat, a JPG between 50 and 500 KB, not edited or AI-altered.
4. Confirm and pay online or as your centre tells you. Outside mainland China you usually pay the centre.
5. Print your admission ticket, 准考证(zhǔnkǎozhèng), from your account 5–7 days before the test.

You can't book HSK 5 and HSK 6 on the same day. Changing your mind costs more as the date gets closer:

Source: CTI's candidate rules. A new date must be within six months, at the same centre, level and format.

On the day, bring the printed ticket and the original ID you registered with; copies aren't accepted. Paper-based candidates bring two or more 2B pencils and an eraser, and computer-based candidates can't bring paper or pencils.

Arrive 30 minutes early. If you're late for listening, you wait outside until it ends and lose that time; once reading starts, you can't go in. Late for the speaking test means no test.

Results arrive in weeks and last two years

CTI's candidate rules set the timing. Computer-based written results come out 15 days after the test, and computer-based speaking results after 20 days. Paper-based results take a month, later around holidays.

You check them on chinesetest.cn with your ticket number. Outside mainland China, printed score reports reach your centre about 45 days after the exam.

Score reports are valid for two years as proof of your level. HSK 2.0 results don't expire early because of the switch: CTI said in 2022 that existing scores and certificates stay valid. Centres such as CI Barcelona confirm the two-year rule for HSK 2.0 certificates.

Plan by words per week, not hours

Expect to need longer than the official guide suggests. When CTI launched HSK 2.0, its level guides described the typical candidate.

HSK 1 came after one semester of two to three class hours a week. Each level up to HSK 4 added a semester, and HSK 5 took more than two years, by CTI's HSK 1 guide and HSK 5 guide.

Germany's association of Chinese teachers read the HSK 4 figure as 160–320 hours and called it "out of the question".

In its statement, the association estimated 1,200–1,600 hours of instruction for a level like B2.

CLEC publishes no study-hour guide for HSK 3.0, and its lists are longer. So plan by words per week, not by a promised number of hours. Our planner does that with the official counts, CTI's deadlines and the speaking test for your level:

Take the planner's default: HSK 4 on 13 December, from HSK 3 on the new list, at five hours a week.

From 6 October, that meant about 130 new words a week. All in, it left about three minutes per new word for everything, listening, writing and speaking included. That's why many people move to a later date.

Switching lists costs less than the totals suggest. If you know the whole HSK 2.0 list up to level 4, you already know 1,140 of the 1,978 different words on the HSK 3.0 list up to level 4.

That leaves 838 to learn, in our comparison of the two official lists, which HSK 3.0 explained walks through.

How to prepare for each section

Start with the official material, then add practice where you're weakest.

• Diagnose first. Do the official sample paper for your level in week one. CLEC's HSK 3.0 sample papers are a free download, a ZIP of about 395 MB, and chinesetest.cn has an online "Try HSK 3.0" demo. For HSK 2.0, use "Do A Mock" on CTI's level pages.
• Vocabulary. Learn the list for your exam's version, a fixed number of words a week, with spaced repetition. Our HSK lists have audio for every word and download as CSV for your flashcard app, or you can use our free flashcards.
• Listening. On the new HSK 4 paper, listening runs about 20 minutes, then paper candidates get 5 minutes to copy answers onto the sheet. Practise at full speed with short dialogues, such as our free listening practice.
• Reading. HSK 4 gives you under a minute per reading item. Graded reading builds speed: SayMei Stories are short graded books with audio.
• Writing. On paper you write by hand, so practise the characters on your level's handwriting list. Our free writing workbooks follow the HSK 3.0 words: HSK 1, HSK 2, HSK 3, HSK 4, HSK 5, HSK 6.
• Speaking. Record yourself on each task type with the real timers, from short repeats to prepared answers of up to two and a half minutes. Speaking out loud with feedback helps most; our HSK lessons are levelled by HSK.
• Mocks. Take a full timed mock halfway through, and two in the last fortnight. Stop learning new words in the final week.

Three claims you'll see that are wrong

We keep seeing these in search results and chatbot answers. The official documents say otherwise:

Sources: CTI, the syllabus cover and the CLEC sample papers.

If a guide repeats one of these, check its other details before you rely on it.

Where SayMei fits, and where it doesn't

SayMei is an app for learning Mandarin by speaking with Mei Lin, an AI teacher, plus free word lists, workbooks and a level test. It helps most with the part of the HSK that's hardest to practise alone: speaking, now compulsory from HSK 3.

After a free first lesson with no account, it's $5.99 a month for 200 minutes.

That follows a seven-day trial that needs a card. We checked our pricing page on 7 October.

It isn't an exam simulator. SayMei has no official mock tests and doesn't cover HSK 7–9. It can't predict an HSK 3.0 score, and no one can until pass marks are out.

Its speaking lessons are conversations, not the recorded retell-and-describe format of the test. If you mainly need timed past papers or help registering, use the official materials and your test centre.

What to do next

• Check which version you'll sit. Your date decides it, and the version decides the word list you study.
• Register before your centre's cut-off. It can come days before CTI's, so look yours up today.
• Do a timed sample paper this week. It shows you which section needs the most work.
• Plan by words per week. Put your date and level into the planner, and pick a later date if the weekly load is too high.
• Practise speaking out loud. From HSK 3 it's part of every booking, and it's the section self-study practises least.

Not sure which level to book? Our free level test takes about five minutes and estimates your level on both versions.