HSK Exams – The Official Chinese Level Exam

The HSK exam is divided into 6 levels, from 1 to 6, from the lowest to the most advanced, respectively. It’s possible to write the exam for any level without having passed any previous level. In addition, there is no limit on how many times you can attempt any level. In 2010, the structure of the HSK exam was adapted to the 6 categories of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to subdivide language levels.

The exams corresponding to the basic level (HSK1 and 2) are divided into two sets of exercises: first is listening comprehension and after that is reading comprehension. Starting as of HSK3, all exams also include writing exercises (in Chinese characters, of course). Chinese proficiency tends to be measured through the number of characters that you memorize. To get an idea, passing HSK1 means that you are able to recognize around 150 characters, whereas to obtain an HSK6 certificate, that means that you master a minimum of 5,000.

It goes without saying that the higher the exam level, the more difficult the exercises. For example, in levels 1 and 2, all characters are accompanied by pinyin or a phonetic transcription, a greatly appreciated help that disappears in HSK3. Starting as of HSK4, the recording for listening comprehension exercises is only played once and not twice, as is the case in lower levels. Nonetheless, intermediate level exams are more or less doable if you’re a consistent student.

I want to highlight the qualitative gap between HSK4 and HSK5, and between the latter and HSK6. The two advanced levels are a challenge for any Chinese student. First of all, this is because they accumulate a large number of characters and second of all, because you have to be creative in your writing and as fast as lightning when reading.

The length of the test also varies depending on the level, ranging from 35 minutes for HSK1 up to 140 minutes for HSK6. Even so, the fact that the exam takes more time doesn’t mean that there’s more time to do the exercises; rather, quite the opposite is true… Lack of time is a serious problem, especially in the upper levels.The minimum score to pass HSK1 and HSK2 is 120 out of a total of 200. From HSK3 to HSK6, you need a minimum of 180 points out of 300.

Since 2011, it has been possible to do the exam online, because of which the writing portion for exams for levels 3 to 6 has become more manageable (it’s a lot easier to write characters on the computer than by hand). However, the test is only available at certain authorized centers (see “where to write the exam”).

The HSKK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi Kouyu) is the oral exam portion of the HSK exam. It is independent of the written test, and you need to sign up for it separately.This means that you don’t have to write the written portion to have access to the oral component and vice versa. In addition, not having any previous HSK or HSKK certificate won’t exclude you from writing it.As opposed to the written portion, HKSS only has three levels: basic ??, intermediate, ?? and advanced ??. Each of these levels corresponds to two HSK levels (see the table in the previous section).

So, for example, if you have an HSK4 writing level, it’s most typical for you to have an intermediate oral level. However, this is only a standardized approximation, as people can have an advanced oral level and not know how to read or write characters.One particularly of the oral test is that it’s done entirely through an automated listening and recording system. In other words, it won’t be an in-person examiner assessing your oral Chinese proficiency, but rather you will listen to and respond to each exercise on a recorder, computer, or something similar. The recording with your answers will be sent to China, where it is evaluated by the corresponding professionals.

In my experience (I’ve written the HSKK twice, once in Spain and the other time in China), this system is much worse than in person. First of all, this is because it’s impossible to not lose your concentration in a room full of exam students talking at the same time as you. Second of all, if talking into a microphone is hard in the first place, imagine having to do it for several minutes, and in Chinese at that!The oral exam takes 20 to 25 minutes (depending on the level), and in all cases is passed with a minimum score of 60 out of 100.