HSK Tests 汉语水平考试
HSK is a short form for Hànyǔ shuǐpíng kǎoshì 汉语水平考试, ie Chinese Proficiency Test, designed to assess the Chinese language proficiency of non-native speakers from Level 1 to Level 6 by the official Chinese HanBan Institute. The HSK written test consists of Listening & Reading & Writing exams, while the oral test HSKK has to be taken separately.
With over 2 million people in Europe taking the test every year, and 5 million people worldwide, HSK is undoubtedly the most authoritative certificate you would want for your Chinese studies.
We update the most recent HSK test information on our blog here, including the test locations, time available, fees and application process. On this page, we are offering learning material including various HSK vocabulary lists, character lists, flashcards, all FREE for download.
Why Choose our Courses?
Practical Mandarin is the only language school in London set up to design our courses in accordance with the HSK levels from Beginner Level 1 to Level 6. If you follow our syllables, attend our classes regularly and organise your home study as your teacher instructs, we can almost guarantee you can learn Mandarin with achieving these important HSK level mile stones step by step.
It’s simple, we really want our students to succeed! To succeed in learning Chinese effectively and mastering HSK tests, choose one of our courses below that suits your level.
What students say?
I have passed HSK 2 test easily with the help of my teacher from Practical Mandarin. We also have great HSKK speaking test preparation which really improves my speaking skills. With a 98% result, I’m more than happy to put it on my CV.
It makes totally sense when my Beginner course is arranged to achieve HSK 1 test, we had fun learning in each class, and with the flashcards we have to review each week, our teacher helps us to build up the vocabularies for the test. 95%! Victory I would say.
HSK 1
Beginners CourseHSK 2
Elementary CourseHSK 3
Intermediate CourseHSK 4
Upper-Inter CourseHSK 5
Pre-advanced HSK 5 CourseHSK 6
Advanced HSK 6 Course
HSK Level One requires a command of 150 words, and it’s designed for learners who can understand and use some simple Chinese characters and sentences to communicate, and prepares them for continuing their Chinese studies. In HSK 1 all characters are provided along with Pinyin.
Depending on your learning frequency and personal progress, we recommend a part time study of 3-6 months before taking the exam from complete beginner level.
In Practical Mandarin, we’ve designed our Entry Beginner course and Advanced Beginner course to take you through to HSK Level 1 in steady steps. We also focus a lot on pronunciation, and basic characters learning. Taking the two Beginner courses in 2 Terms (10-20 Weeks) is one of the most popular courses for our new students to start their learning journey and achieve the first important Mile Stone.
Visit the course detail page here to choose Regular or Intensive course on a time that works best for you.
Course page: Entry Beginner
Course page:Advanced Beginner
HSK Level Two requires a command of 300 words, and it’s designed for learners who can use Chinese in a simple and direct manner, applying it in a basic fashion to their daily lives. In HSK 2 all characters are provided along with Pinyin to facilitate communication first.
Depending on your learning frequency and personal progress, we recommend a part time study of 6-10 months before taking the exam from complete beginner level.
Practical Mandarin school offers our Elementary course to help you achieve your goal in just 2 Terms (24 Weeks) . At the same time, our main focus is always towards fluency, we train you more to listen and response in Chinese, communicate in correct sentences to make sense.
Course page: Elementary Level 2
HSK Level Three requires a command of 600 words, and it’s designed for learners who can use Chinese to serve the demands of their personal lives, studies and work, and are capable of completing most of the communicative tasks they experience during their Chinese tour.
Depending on your learning frequency and personal progress, we recommend a part time study of 1.5 year before taking the exam from complete beginner level.
However, at Practical Mandarin, our Intermediate course is a fast lane to achieve your goal. We run this level in 3 Terms (36 Weeks) , using our story telling methods, and character enhancement training, we can guarantee your communication skills improvement, this would be your glorious mile stone to achieve.
Course page: Intermediate Level 3
Download here: HSK Level 3 Vocabularies by Frequency | HSK Level 3 Characters by Radicals
HSK Level Four requires a command of 1200 words, and it’s designed for learners who can discuss a relatively wide range of topics in Chinese and are capable of communicating with Chinese speakers at a high standard.
Depending on your learning frequency and personal progress, we recommend a part time study of 2.5 year before taking the exam from complete beginner level.
This is the right level to really achieve fluency in everyday life. Practical Mandarin introduces language immersion program into the lessons for each student to practise speaking about any given topics comfortably. We also aim to expand the students HSK 4 vocabulary with discussions & debates, as well as flashcards space repetition reviews. The Upper Intermediate Level will run through 4 Terms (48 Weeks) it’s the critical level to achieve your big goal – fluency & literacy, we take it slow. However, some of our students take the test with less than 2 terms, some of our students just want to practise their fluency with no test on agenda, it’s completely your call.
Course page: Upper Intermediate Level 4
Download here: HSK Level 4 Vocabularies by Frequency | HSK Level 4 Characters by Radicals
HSK Level Five requires a command of 2500 words, and it’s designed for learners who can read Chinese newspapers and magazines, watch Chinese films and are capable of writing and delivering a lengthy speech in Chinese.
Depending on your learning frequency and personal progress, we recommend a part time study of 4 year before taking the exam from complete beginner level.
Students at this level should be fluent already, comfortable talking about any subject within their vocabulary. This is the also the level where a lot of customise learning comes in. We run Advanced HSK 5 course focusing on academic literacy to enrich your language and traditional culture.
We also run Advanced Business course learning very specific vocabulary about Chinese economy, politics and social affairs. Students will not only improve greatly in their Mandarin levels, but also gain huge amount of knowledge about how the Chinese society works.
Course page: Advanced HSK 5
Course page: Advanced Business
Download here: HSK Level 5 Vocabularies by Frequency | HSK Level 5 Characters by Radicals
HSK Level Six requires a command of 5000 words, and it’s designed for learners who can easily understand any information communicated in Chinese and are capable of smoothly expressing themselves in written or oral form.
Depending on your learning frequency and personal progress, we recommend a part time study of 5 year before taking the exam from complete beginner level.
This the proficient level which is very close to a native speaker. We currently do not have group course on this level, as in UK there is only very little number of people who have achieve such proficiency as a non-native Mandarin speaker. However, please check out our Private Tutoring service to have private training to work towards your learning goal effectively.
Download here: HSK Level 6 Vocabularies by Frequency | HSK Level 6 Characters by Radicals