IGCSE Mandarin and Chinese: which syllabus you're on, and how to ace each paper

Which IGCSE Chinese syllabus are you on?

Your school decides, and the code on your exam timetable tells you which one it chose. Cambridge's Help Centre says the entry decision rests with the individual centre.

We read all four syllabuses and Cambridge's Help Centre. Here's who each is meant for, in the boards' own terms:

Sources: Cambridge's syllabuses for 0547, 0523 and 0509, its Help Centre, and Pearson's 4CN1 specification.

We'd check these rules first:

• The board decides first. If your school uses Pearson Edexcel, you're on 4CN1. Cambridge schools choose among the other three.
• You can't double up at Cambridge. 0547 can't be sat in the same June series as 0523 or 0509.
• Native speakers can sit 0547. Cambridge lets schools enter them, but it says the qualification only shows A2, the second of the six levels on the European CEFR scale.
• Characters depend on the syllabus. 0523, 0509 and 4CN1 print their Chinese in both simplified and traditional characters. The 0547 papers we read are in simplified characters only.
• Only 4CN1 offers Cantonese. Its listening recordings and its speaking test come in Mandarin or Cantonese, which matters to many families in Hong Kong.

There's also a newer option for native speakers: OxfordAQA's International GCSE Chinese – First Language, code 9263. It has two written papers and no speaking test.

If you're choosing, we'd follow Cambridge's advice and compare the specimen papers side by side. An A* on 0547 is worth having, but if Chinese is spoken at home, 0523 or 0509 will show far more of what you can do.

Top grades are common, so every mark counts

On three of the four syllabuses, most candidates get one of the top two grades. We pulled the latest results from both boards, for June 2026:

Sources: Cambridge's June 2026 results statistics and Pearson's provisional June 2026 grade statistics for its candidates outside the UK.

We don't read the Foreign Language result as a sign that its papers are easy. Cambridge lets schools enter native speakers, and a top-grade rate this high suggests many do. The share of A* grades has risen every year since 2023.

Pearson's figures tell the same story from another angle. Among its UK candidates for 4CN1, three in four got a grade 9.

Grades depend on your marks, though, not on a quota. If you learned Chinese only at school, an A* is still within reach: you need about four marks in every five.

The marks a top grade takes

The line for the top grade barely moves from one year to the next. Here's where it fell each June from 2023 to 2026, as a share of the marks:

Sources: Cambridge's grade threshold tables for 0547, 0523 and 0509, and Pearson's subject grade boundaries, June 2023 to June 2026.

So we'd plan for the line, not the hope of a low year. On 0547 the A* needed about 82% in every one of those years, and an A about 70%.

Cambridge doesn't simply add up your raw marks, as we found in its guide to grading. It multiplies each paper by a published weighting factor, so that each paper counts for its share of the grade, then adds them up. On 0547 each paper is a quarter, and the papers have different numbers of marks:

Source: Cambridge's component weighting factors for June 2026, and the 2028 syllabus for the new writing total.

So a listening question you get right adds more to your total than a writing mark does. Don't treat the shortest paper as the least important one.

On 0523 the weighting runs the other way. The speaking test has 60 marks but counts for a fifth of the grade, so each speaking mark is worth a third of a mark on the reading and writing paper.

We built the calculator below so you can try your own marks. It uses each board's own arithmetic and the grade lines from the last three June series:

0547 changes for anyone who started in 2026

If you began a two-year course in September 2026, you'll probably sit 0547 in June 2028, on its new syllabus. Listening and reading stay as they are, but speaking and writing change.

We compared the old and new syllabuses line by line. Here's what's different in the 2028–2030 syllabus:

Sources: the 2028–2030 syllabus, the 2028 specimen writing mark scheme and Cambridge's Help Centre.

The new words are telling. They include artificial intelligence, 人工智能(réngōng zhìnéng), influencer, 网红(wǎnghóng), takeaway food, 外卖(wàimài), and mental health, 心理健康(xīnlǐ jiànkāng). Gone are words like beer, 啤酒(píjiǔ), and internet café, 网吧(wǎngbā).

One caveat: Cambridge's web page for 0547 says all four papers are now worth 40 marks, but the syllabus keeps listening at 30. We follow the syllabus.

Speaking first: three tests, three formats

Speaking is a quarter of your grade on 0547 and 4CN1, and a fifth on 0523. In our view, it's also the paper where practice pays most directly, because the kinds of question come back every year.

All three tests are conducted by a teacher at your school and recorded. 0547 and 0523 are marked by your teacher and moderated by Cambridge, while 4CN1 recordings are marked by Pearson.

0547: one role play, then two conversations

You get 10 minutes, supervised, with a card that shows only the role play's scenario, such as planning a trip to the zoo with a friend. The questions aren't on it, and neither are the conversation topics. In 2026 and 2027 you can't make notes.

Then the test runs for about 10 minutes:

• A greeting. About 30 seconds, not marked.
• The role play. Your teacher asks five questions in role, about 2 minutes in all. Each answer earns up to 2 marks.
• Two topic conversations. About 4 minutes each: the first on Area A or B of the syllabus, such as food or your home, and the second on Area C, D or E, such as school, work or travel.

The role play rewards brief, complete answers. Cambridge's June 2024 examiner report says the first two tasks on each card are factual, and the last three give room for an opinion or a simple reason. I'd answer exactly what's asked, with the measure word or the unit:

• 我想买一张去上海的火车票。 Wǒ xiǎng mǎi yì zhāng qù Shànghǎi de huǒchēpiào. I'd like a train ticket to Shanghai.
• 一共两百块钱。 Yígòng liǎngbǎi kuài qián. That's 200 yuan altogether.

In the conversations, each topic has five set questions. The first two are closed and easy. The last three are open, and they ask about the past or the future.

Your teacher can repeat a question once. If you still don't follow questions 3 to 5, they switch to an easier alternative question, and the examiners say you can't reach the top band for communication if you need those. Two phrases mean "keep going": can you say a bit more, 你能多说一点儿吗？ Nǐ néng duō shuō yìdiǎnr ma?, and anything else, 还有呢？ Hái yǒu ne?

The marks for the conversations are 15 for communication and 15 for quality of language. The top communication band asks you to develop ideas often and to justify some answers. Here's a four-sentence answer, in a student's voice, to a typical question: what did you do last weekend, and what will you do next weekend?

• 上个周末我和朋友去公园打篮球了。 Shàng gè zhōumò wǒ hé péngyou qù gōngyuán dǎ lánqiú le. Last weekend I went to the park with friends to play basketball.
• 因为天气很好，所以我们打了两个小时。 Yīnwèi tiānqì hěn hǎo, suǒyǐ wǒmen dǎle liǎng gè xiǎoshí. The weather was good, so we played for two hours.
• 下个周末我打算在家复习，因为快要考试了。 Xià gè zhōumò wǒ dǎsuàn zài jiā fùxí, yīnwèi kuài yào kǎoshì le. Next weekend I plan to revise at home, because my exams are coming up.
• 不过我觉得周末也应该休息一下。 Búguò wǒ juéde zhōumò yě yīnggāi xiūxi yíxià. But I think weekends should have some rest too.

That's a past, a future, a reason and an opinion in about 20 seconds. With five questions in four minutes, there's room for one more detail each time, and it's the shape we'd aim for in every answer. The same report lists the words that tripped weaker candidates in 2024, among them character, 性格(xìnggé), in the future, 将来(jiānglái), and to retire, 退休(tuìxiū).

4CN1: your picture, then two conversations

The Edexcel test has three tasks in one 8 to 10 minute recording, and it's marked by Pearson, not your teacher. You choose the picture for the first task yourself, before the exam.

Here's how the time and the 40 marks split:

• Task A, your picture. 2 to 3 minutes, 12 marks. The picture must show at least two people, objects in the background and what the people are doing, with no text.
• Task B, a conversation. 3 to 3½ minutes, on a topic Pearson's grid picks at random.
• Task C, another conversation. 3 to 3½ minutes, on a third topic, straight after Task B. Tasks B and C share 28 marks.

In Task A your teacher asks five questions of set types: describe the picture, say what one person is doing, imagine what happened before or will happen next, give an opinion, and weigh up the wider topic. The only follow-ups allowed are why or why not, 为什么（不）呢？ Wèishénme (bù) ne?, anything else, 还有吗？ Hái yǒu ma?, and you still have time, please continue, 你还有时间，请继续。 Nǐ hái yǒu shíjiān, qǐng jìxù.

The timing is strict. Pearson's June 2025 examiner report says nothing after the time limit is assessed: 3 minutes in Task A, and 3½ minutes in each conversation. Fluent native speakers sometimes finish too fast instead, so practise filling the time.

The third question is your chance to use another time frame, and we'd always take it. Here's an answer about a picture of a family making dumplings at New Year: what do you think they'll do after dinner?

• 我觉得吃完饭以后，他们会一起看春节晚会。 Wǒ juéde chī wán fàn yǐhòu, tāmen huì yìqǐ kàn Chūnjié wǎnhuì. I think after dinner they'll watch the Spring Festival Gala together.
• 孩子们可能会给爷爷奶奶拜年，拿到红包。 Háizimen kěnéng huì gěi yéye nǎinai bàinián, nádào hóngbāo. The children may wish their grandparents a happy New Year and get red envelopes.
• 去年我们家也是这样过的，我觉得特别热闹。 Qùnián wǒmen jiā yě shì zhèyàng guò de, wǒ juéde tèbié rènao. My family celebrated like this last year, and it felt really lively.

The conversations carry a separate 12 marks for interaction and spontaneity, and the mark scheme marks down language that sounds learned by heart. Pearson's grids also count tones as part of intonation, so a wrong tone that changes a word's meaning costs marks.

0523: your presentation, then two conversations

The Second Language test is longer, about 10 to 13 minutes, and you choose its opening topic. It must be about Chinese culture or life in a Chinese-speaking community.

It has three parts of 20 marks each:

• Part 1, a presentation. 2 to 3 minutes, with no script. You may bring one postcard-sized cue card with up to five headings, and three or four pictures, maps or charts.
• Part 2, a conversation about your presentation. 4 to 5 minutes of questions you haven't seen.
• Part 3, a general conversation. 4 to 5 minutes on two or three syllabus topics, one from Areas A and B and one from C and D, none of them your presentation topic.

The June 2024 report asks you to say your title before you start. It warns that copied research and over-ambitious language make a presentation stilted. A cue card for a talk on Mid-Autumn in Singapore might read:

• origins, 来历(láilì)
• how it's celebrated, 怎么过(zěnme guò)
• mooncakes, 月饼(yuèbǐng)
• how it's changing, 变化(biànhuà)
• my view, 我的看法(wǒ de kànfǎ)

In Parts 2 and 3, examiners expect more depth than in a foreign-language exam. The report gives a model of the kind of question to expect: some people say exercise takes time from study, what do you think? 有人说做运动会占用学习时间，你觉得呢？ Yǒu rén shuō zuò yùndòng huì zhànyòng xuéxí shíjiān, nǐ juéde ne? We'd answer with a view, a reason and the other side.

Listening: hear the whole sentence before you choose

The listening papers look simple and punish guessing. Each recording plays twice, and the traps we found in every report are words you'll recognise from the recording.

The clearest example we found is in Cambridge's Foreign Language examiner report. Many candidates heard 场(chǎng) and picked market, 市场(shìchǎng), when the speaker said airport, 机场(jīchǎng). It also flags "text-based distractors": options that repeat a phrase from the recording but don't answer the question.

On 0547 all 30 questions are multiple choice or matching, and at the end you get 6 minutes to copy your answers onto a separate sheet. We'd practise that copying step at home, shading one letter per question.

The 4CN1 paper gives you 5 minutes to read the questions before the first recording. Its questions and your answers are in English, and spelling doesn't count as long as the answer is clear.

0523 asks for short written answers, gap fills, corrected facts and multiple choice. You may answer in characters or in pinyin without tones, if the answer can't be misread. Give one answer only: a right and a wrong answer together score nothing.

So in the later, longer recordings, wait for the whole thought before you choose. In our view, the second play is for checking, not for starting.

Reading: answer from the text, briefly

Reading rewards short answers that prove you understood. The examiners on every syllabus say the same thing about copying: lifting a whole sentence from the passage doesn't earn the mark.

On 0547 you write short answers in Chinese for two of the seven question groups. The 2024 report says brief answers with clear content are enough, as long as they keep the key verb. One question turned on the pattern everything is fine except, 什么都好，就是…… shénme dōu hǎo, jiùshì……, which many candidates missed.

We'd write the characters slowly, too. The report lists 参观(cānguān), to visit, written as 参欢, and 美术(měishù), art, written as 美木.

On 4CN1 you answer in English, using only what the text says. Count the marks, too: Pearson's examiners note that a question worth two marks wants two details.

On 0523, questions about feelings or attitudes want your own words. In 2024, candidates who quoted the passage got no mark, while a word like surprised, 惊讶(jīngyà), did.

On 0509, questions on the writer's language ask about the underlined words, not the whole sentence. The Classical Chinese section uses an unseen passage from the Ming dynasty, so we'd read a short Ming text every week.

The habit we'd build for every paper is simple: read the question twice, then find the line that answers it.

Writing: cover every bullet, then add detail

Every writing task comes with bullet points, and covering each one with detail earns most of the marks. The 0547 writing report says that writing there are many advantages, and nothing else, doesn't count as detail.

We added up the characters each syllabus asks you to write:

Sources: the 0547, 0523 and 0509 syllabuses, and Pearson's 2025 reading and writing report, which gives 125 to 150 for the long task.

Short answers are capped, too. On 0547 a long piece of 75 characters or fewer can't score more than half the marks for range and accuracy. Cambridge doesn't mark you down for writing more, but you don't need to copy out the question or write a long greeting.

On 0547 you fill in a form, write a short piece on five bullets, and then choose an email, letter, article or blog. One bullet in the short piece always asks about the future. Write in characters: the report asks you to avoid pinyin, English and digits, so write six o'clock as 六点(liù diǎn), not 6点.

On 4CN1 the short piece must use four words printed in a box, and the longer piece is one of three choices. Its top band asks for three time frames. Then you translate four sentences into Chinese, and every word is marked: in 2025, candidates lost marks over usually and over where this year goes.

On 0523 you write a functional email, then a longer piece such as an article or blog. In 2024 the long task asked for both sides of an argument and your own view, and the report says idioms help only when they fit.

On 0509 you build a piece only from the ideas in two passages, then write two compositions: one argument or discussion, and one description or story. The report says some candidates mixed up description and narrative, so we'd plan the shape before writing a word.

The Foreign Language report also lists the grammar slips that cost the most marks. We've put each one right:

• No 是(shì) before an adjective. 我的老师很友好。 Wǒ de lǎoshī hěn yǒuhǎo. My teacher is friendly, not 我的老师是友好.
• Don't join adjectives with 和(hé). 他很高，也很友好。 Tā hěn gāo, yě hěn yǒuhǎo. He's tall and friendly.
• Keep 了(le) out of plans. 我下次会去北京参加比赛。 Wǒ xià cì huì qù Běijīng cānjiā bǐsài. Next time I'll go to Beijing for a competition.
• Put time and place before the verb. 我星期三在学校打网球。 Wǒ xīngqīsān zài xuéxiào dǎ wǎngqiú. I play tennis at school on Wednesdays.
• Check characters that sound alike. The report found 工坐 for 工作(gōngzuò), work, and 房字 for 房子(fángzi), house.

Our guide to common grammar mistakes explains each of these slips with more examples. Write one short piece a week and check it against the list above before you hand it in.

The word lists are mostly HSK 1 to 4

0547 and 4CN1 both publish word lists, and we'd learn them whole. The 0547 reading report's first piece of advice is to study the entire list.

The lists work differently. On 0547, the first 20 listening questions, the early reading questions, the role play and the form use only words from the list.

On 4CN1 the list covers the tasks aimed at the lower and middle grades, so the top grades need more. 0523 and 0509 have no list, because they assume you read widely.

We matched both lists to the new HSK syllabus of November 2025, word by word. Here's where we found their words sit:

Source: our match of Cambridge's 0547 word list for 2028, 1,442 words, and Pearson's minimum core list in its 4CN1 specification, 695 words, to the HSK lists. Phrases built from HSK words count at their highest word's level; the rest of each list isn't on the HSK lists at all.

The 0547 list is about twice as long and climbs higher: a fifth of it is HSK 4 vocabulary. The words beyond the HSK lists are mostly everyday things like spinach, 菠菜(bōcài), and festivals like the Dragon Boat Festival, 端午节(Duānwǔ Jié).

So if you've finished HSK 3, you already know about half of the 0547 list. We'd learn the rest by topic area, and say each word in a sentence, because the speaking and writing papers want words you can use.

Our HSK 3.0 guide explains the new HSK levels, and the HSK 4 word list covers the next fifth of the 0547 list.

A 12-week plan, and six months by starting point

In our view, twelve weeks is enough to sharpen the papers if your Chinese is already close to the level. Start with the date that comes first for most students: the speaking test.

Cambridge's speaking window for June 2027 runs from March to the end of April, before the written papers.

Here's how we'd spend about 40 minutes a day, on top of class:

Our plan, not Cambridge's or Pearson's. If your speaking test falls in March, move weeks 7 to 9 earlier.

The speaking line matters most in our plan. It's the paper where daily practice moves your mark fastest, and a class rarely gives each student enough of it.

Six months out, which is roughly now for a June 2027 candidate, your starting point decides the plan:

• If Chinese is new at home. Spend November and December on the word list, one topic area at a time, and the grammar list. In January, start daily speaking: role plays first, then conversations. From March, add timed papers.
• If you speak Chinese at home but rarely write it. Your marks hide in characters and accuracy. Write something every day from the start, and check it against the slips list. Practise speaking at the level the mark scheme rewards: full answers with reasons, not chat.
• If you're on 0509. Read a Ming-dynasty prose text every week, and write one timed composition a fortnight, alternating the two kinds.

Cambridge designs each IGCSE for about 130 guided learning hours. If you're starting from scratch, give yourself the full course.

The best free practice, ours first

Most practice online is past papers, and those from before 2022 follow an older 0547 syllabus. Here's what we'd use, in this order:

• SayMei's IGCSE workbooks. The 0547 practice book, the 0547 writing book and the 0523 practice book, free with a SayMei account. They're practice in the exam's format, not past papers, and the 0547 book's audio plays free on its listening page.
• Cambridge's public papers. Each syllabus page has free specimen papers, the June 2024 papers, mark schemes and an examiner report, and the 0547 page adds the 2028 specimens.
• Pearson's 4CN1 materials. The specification, with its word list, and each series' examiner reports are free. Read the speaking report before you choose your picture.
• Our listening practice. Graded dialogues with audio, and pinyin and English you can hide.
• Mandarin Corner on YouTube. Natural-speed conversations with Chinese subtitles, good for 0523, 4CN1 and confident 0547 listeners.
• Our guide videos. Short videos on tones and speaking, useful for the pronunciation side of the speaking marks.

Save one full set of papers for the last fortnight, and take it in one sitting with a timer.

2027 exam dates, entries and resits

We read Cambridge's final June 2027 timetables for all six zones, and Pearson's final summer timetable. Here are the Chinese papers:

Sources: Cambridge's June 2027 timetables for all six zones, and Pearson's summer 2027 timetable. In Cambridge's zone 6, the 0547 and 0523 papers fall a day later.

We can't give you start times. Cambridge assigns every school to one of six administrative zones, so whether your paper is in the morning or the afternoon depends on where you are, and your exams officer has the times.

All three Cambridge syllabuses run in June only, while Pearson also runs 4CN1 in November. Cambridge releases June results in August, through your school.

Private candidates can enter for 0547 and 0523 if the centre can run and record the speaking test. In Hong Kong, the HKEAA's list of Pearson subjects for private candidates in November 2026 didn't include Chinese. So ask a school or tutoring centre that runs the speaking test, and ask about its fees, because each centre sets its own.

You can retake a Cambridge IGCSE as often as you like. A 0547 speaking mark can't be carried forward to a later series, though, so a resit means the speaking test too.

Where SayMei fits, and where it doesn't

We make SayMei, an app for learning Mandarin by speaking with Mei Lin, an AI tutor. For IGCSE, it helps most with the skill the speaking tests reward: answering out loud, at length, with follow-up questions and feedback on your tones.

Our three IGCSE workbooks are free with a SayMei account, and the word lists and listening practice linked above are free to use.

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, as our pricing page showed when we checked it this week.

It isn't an examiner. Mei Lin doesn't mark IGCSE answers, predict grades or know this year's role play cards, and our workbooks aren't past papers. For a mock speaking test under exam rules, a teacher is the right person.

There are gaps too. Mei Lin speaks Mandarin only, so she won't help with 4CN1 in Cantonese. SayMei doesn't teach Classical Chinese or the literary analysis that 0509 asks for.

SayMei isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Cambridge International Education or Pearson Edexcel. Cambridge IGCSE™ is a Cambridge International Education qualification, and the International GCSE is Pearson's.

What to do next

• Confirm your syllabus code. Ask your teacher or exams officer, then download that syllabus and its specimen papers.
• Find your speaking date. It comes weeks before the written papers, so plan backwards from it.
• Practise one speaking task a day. Out loud, timed, with a past and a future in every answer.
• Learn the word list by topic. Say each new word in a sentence of your own.
• Write one piece a week. Answer every bullet, then check it for the grammar slips above.

Start this week with the free 0547 practice book, or the 0523 book if that's your syllabus.