Finding your HSK level

Q: Does taking the placement test cost credits?

No. The test itself is free, as is retaking it.

Q: Where can I see my results later?

In your account, on the Profile tab, under Placement results. Each test you take is kept there with its date, its score and the level it suggested. The result never changes your level by itself — you set that under Current level.

Q: I have never studied Chinese at all. Do I need the test?

No — start at HSK 1. The test will tell you the same thing, so take it only if you are curious what the results page looks like.

Q: Will changing level delete my progress?

No. Everything you have completed stays completed, your flashcard schedule is untouched, and your XP and streak carry over. Only the recommendations change.

Q: Can I study a level below or above the one I chose?

Yes. Nothing is gated by your chosen level — every level you have access to under your plan is open. Your level decides what the study plan puts in front of you, not what you are allowed to read.

Q: Should I trust the test over my own judgement?

Treat it as a second opinion. It measures grammar recognition, which correlates well with level but is not the whole of it — if it says HSK 4 and reading an HSK 4 lesson feels like wading, believe the lesson.

Starting one level too high is the most common reason people stall, and it rarely feels like the problem at the time — it feels like Chinese being hard. This article covers the placement test, what the nine HSK 3.0 levels actually mean, and how to change level later when you get it wrong.

Watch: Finding your HSK level

1 min 25 s · presented by Jason, Mandarin Temple's AI tutor

Captions are part of the picture, under Jason. The full transcript is below.

Captions file (WebVTT)

Read the transcript

Hi, I’m Jason, Mandarin Temple’s AI tutor. Let’s find the HSK level you should start at, with the placement test.
The placement test works out your level for you. There’s nothing to choose first: the questions get harder as you go, and it takes about three minutes.
You take it signed in, because each question is written for you as you go, and your result is saved to your account.
Select Begin test. The first question takes a moment to write, and it always comes from HSK 1: the test starts at the bottom and climbs.
Above the question are its level and the grammar point it tests. The bar shows how far you are, out of twelve questions at most.
Select the answer you think is right. You see straight away which one was correct, and why.
Two right in a row moves you up a level. Two wrong in a row, and the test has found your ceiling, so it stops there.
At the end, you get the level to start at and a note from me on why. The result never changes your level by itself: that stays your choice.
That’s the placement test: about three minutes to the level you should start at. Next, open a lesson at that level.

Open the video guide on its own page, with its key moments

The placement test

About three minutes, and adaptive — it adjusts to your answers rather than marching through a fixed list, so it narrows in quickly and stops once it is confident.

At the end you get a recommended HSK level and a short written explanation of why, with a link straight into the grammar for that band. Nothing is charged for taking it and you can retake it whenever you like.

You need to be signed in, because each question is written for you as you go. Every result is saved to your account and listed under Placement results in your profile, beside the level you chose — including the shorter warm-up you may have taken when you joined.

The placement test start page: a breadcrumb of Home, Grammar, Placement Test, a red roundel holding the character 考, and the heading Grammar Placement Test above 考试 with the pinyin kǎoshì. Below that a line promising adaptive questions that get progressively harder and a starting level in about 3 minutes, a reCAPTCHA notice, and one red Begin Test button. — The only control on the start screen is a single button — there is no level to pick before you begin, which is rather the point of a test that works the level out for you.

Take the placement testAdaptive, about three minutes

What the levels mean

HSK 3.0 has nine levels. One to six are individual exams; seven, eight and nine are three grades of a single advanced paper. Each level names a cumulative vocabulary target, and the site bands every dictionary entry and every generated sentence against those targets.

HSK 1 — 300 words — Beginner. Greetings, numbers, and basic conversation. Your first step into Mandarin.
HSK 2 — 500 words — Beginner. Daily routines, shopping and directions, building on HSK 1.
HSK 3 — 1,000 words — Elementary. Opinions, plans and past events, for richer everyday conversation.
HSK 4 — 2,000 words — Intermediate. Expressing opinions, narrating experiences, discussing society at length.
HSK 5 — 3,600 words — Intermediate. Reading newspapers and novels, following films, discussing culture with nuance.
HSK 6 — 5,400 words — Advanced. Reading literature, following complex media, expressing yourself precisely.
HSK 7–9 — 11,000 words — Mastery. Near-native command of literary and professional Chinese, graded across three bands.

A nine-row table of the HSK 3.0 bands, labelled 一 to 九, with columns for tier, vocabulary, characters, syllables, duration and sections. The tiers read Beginner, Beginner, Elementary, Intermediate, Intermediate, Advanced, Advanced, Proficient, Proficient. Vocabulary and characters are counted separately, so band 一 shows 500 vocabulary against 300 characters — the exam-syllabus cumulative count, which is not the same figure as the per-level word target listed above — and durations climb from 40 min to 210 min. Bands 七, 八 and 九 repeat one another in every column but tier — 11,000 vocabulary, 3,249 characters, 1,110 syllables, 210 min — and are the only rows listing Translation and Speaking; 一 and 二 list Listening and Reading alone. — This is the HSK 3.0 Vocabulary Overview table on the dictionary page, banded against the exam syllabus rather than the level cards. The last three rows repeat every figure and differ only in tier — Advanced at 七, Proficient at 八 and 九 — because they grade one paper rather than three. The sections column is where the exam changes shape: two parts at 一, three once writing arrives at 三, five from 七 onwards.

Choosing between two levels

When the test puts you on a boundary, or you are genuinely unsure, take the lower one. Two reasons, and neither is about being cautious for its own sake.

A level you find slightly easy is finished quickly and gives you the vocabulary the next one assumes. A level you find slightly hard is abandoned. And because every lesson is checked against the vocabulary of its own band, a lower level is genuinely lighter rather than the same material with a different label on it.

Changing level later

Change it whenever you like, from your study plan or your account settings. Nothing is lost: progress, XP, streaks and flashcard scheduling all belong to your account rather than to a level, so moving up or down only changes what is recommended next.

The signals worth acting on are boredom in one direction and dread in the other. If a lesson never teaches you anything new, move up. If you are looking up more than a couple of words a sentence, move down.

Common questions

1How long does the placement test take?

About three minutes. It is adaptive, so it converges on your level rather than working through a fixed list of questions, and it stops as soon as it has enough to answer.

2Does taking the placement test cost credits?

3Where can I see my results later?

4I have never studied Chinese at all. Do I need the test?

5Will changing level delete my progress?

6Can I study a level below or above the one I chose?

7Should I trust the test over my own judgement?

Continue learning

HSK lessonsThe shape of a lesson — podcast, dialogue, vocabulary, grammar and practice — and how to work through one.Your study planHow the calendar builds a week around your goals and available time, and how to change it.What Mandarin Temple isA tour of the whole product in five minutes — what it teaches, who it is for, and how the pieces fit together.