Everything HSK 3.0 asks of you at each band — vocabulary, characters, paper structure and timing — set out in one place, taken directly from the published syllabus.
Bands 1 to 6 each have their own paper. Bands 7, 8 and 9 are assessed by a single combined paper that places you into one of the three advanced bands.
Everyday exchanges: introducing yourself, asking about time, place and price, handling simple written notices. Speaking enters at Band 3.
Extended discussion of familiar and unfamiliar topics, reading longer texts for argument and inference, and writing structured prose.
Academic and professional Chinese, including translation both ways and integrated speaking, assessed by one paper covering all three bands.
Switch between what you need to know and what you will sit on the day.
| Band | New words | Total words | Reading characters | Handwriting characters | Speaking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 300 | 300 | 246 | — | — |
| 2 | 200 | 500 | 371 | 100* | — |
| 3 | 500 | 1,000 | 655 | 250 | Speaking |
| 4 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 1,096 | 400 | Speaking |
| 5 | 1,600 | 3,600 | 1,527 | 550 | Speaking |
| 6 | 1,800 | 5,400 | 1,940 | 700 | Speaking |
| 7–9 | 5,600 | 11,000 | 3,088 | 1,200 | Integrated |
Under HSK 2.0 the speaking test was HSKK — a separate entry at Elementary, Intermediate or Advanced that most candidates skipped. HSK 3.0 ends that. From Band 3 upward, the speaking paper is matched to your written band and must be registered with it in the same entry.
You will see conflicting vocabulary figures quoted online. Both are real — they come from different documents that do different jobs. The one that governs your test is the syllabus.
The test specification. It defines the vocabulary, characters and grammar that can appear in each band’s paper. Prepare from this one.
The national teaching benchmark for international Chinese education. It shapes curricula and textbooks, and is not the test specification.
We would rather tell you what is missing than fill the gaps with figures we cannot stand behind. Three things are genuinely not public at the time of writing.
Every figure on this page is traceable to one of these documents. Where they are silent, we say so rather than estimate.
Find the next sitting in your region and enter your written and speaking papers together.