Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì ( 汉语水平考试) – Level1

If you’re here looking at this post then maybe it makes sense to provide a quick background on the HSK.

The HSK is the Mandarin equivalent of the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). A ranking of certain levels of the test may be required in order to do somethign like enrol in a Chinese university. The test is administered at a testing site in various countries. I think my tests were all done at the Confuscious Institutes, which are getting a bit of shade worldwide as really just being an arm of the Chinese government and potentially interfering with local country politics etc. The UK has actually gone on to ban the insititute from some activities.

The testing system before 2010 had 11 levels with the highest achievement requireing a vocab of 8,840 words across 2,865 characters. After 2010 they reorganized it into 6 levels.

Why am I even trying to provide an overview? You guys know that its better to read straight from Wikipedia

I’ve taken all of the test levels up to level 5 and managed to do OK on levels 1-4 (but level 5 crushed me for sure).

When I wrote the test it was in the system that existed from 2010-2021. They appear to be changing the way it works from 2022 onward but no new materials are out there yet.

Anyway, what should you expect from HSK1 and how to prepare?

This test is pretty basic. It is fully pinyin so you don’t even need to know characters.

HSK 1 in the 2010-2021 curriculum tests up to 150 words. In the international A/B/C ranking of fluency, it is “below A1”.

There is one frustrating part of the test: all the instructions are in Mandarin and are using language that is well beyond the testing level. So, it is defintely helpful to get used to the test format so you can either study the “instruction vocabulary” or at least so that it doesn’t throw you off your game!

The test itself has several parts to it:

• Listening
  • Questions 1-5: simple matching of the picture with some spoken words
  • Questions 6-10: select which picture out of 3 is the best match based on the audio
  • Questions 11-15: select which picture is best appropriate for a slightly longer audio dialogue
  • Questions 16-20: listen to a longer dialogue and respond to a question asked in Mandarin by selecting from multiple choise
• Reading
  • Questions 21-25: complete these questions by answering true or false to a picture of something next to a Chinese character (with Pinyin)
  • Questions 26-30: select which picture is most suitable for the short text
  • Questions 31:35: select which response is most appropriate for a question being asked, all in Mandarin
  • Questions 35-40: select which word fits best into a short sentence

You can find sample tests from previous HSK years at a number of locations (all of which take some google searching to find). Here are a couple great resources:

• All Musing: They have four tests for each of HSK 1-6.
• BSCTextBooks: they have an online version fo the official test
• CultureYard: Another selection of online tests available on their website
• Digmandarin: more practice tests
• Confucious Institute: They have an official set of materials which I believe you can buy on purpleculture, amazon or download at various places on the internet

In terms of preparation beyond just looking at the previous tests, there are a bunch of resources I can recommend:

• Check out the Chinese Breeze readers. I’ve got a link here to one of them on amazon, but you can read my page where I review them separately
• Check out the official study materials from Hanban. You can purchase these on amazon
• Here is an HSK 1 level storybook on amazon. This would be really helpful preparation for the HSK1 test.
• There are a number of other publications which indicate they are “Level 1” but they go to ~300 characters which is more than you really need. Here are a few links:
  • Prince and the Pauper (300 character level)
  • The Secret Garden (300 character level)
• As usual, I’ll link to other people’s great websites that provide an overview I found helpful. here is a more detailed description of the test provided by Pinhok
• Finally, below I’ve put a full list of the 150 words required. Let me know if you want an excel version of this and I can post my files!

No	Chinese	Pinyin	English
	Personal Pron.
1	我	wǒ	I, me
2	我们	wǒmen	we, us (pl.)
3	你	nǐ	you
4	他	tā	he, him
5	她	tā	she, her
	Demonstrative Pron.
6	这 (这儿)	zhè ( zhèr)	this (here)
7	那 (那儿)	nà (nàr)	that (there)
	Interrogative Pron.
8	哪	nǎ	which
9	哪儿	nǎr	where
10	谁	shéi	who
11	什么	shénme	what, why
12	多少	duōshǎo	how many, how much
13	几	jǐ	a few, how many
14	怎么	zěnme	how
15	怎么样	zěnmeyàng	how about
	Numberal
16	一	yī	one
17	二	èr	two
18	三	sān	three
19	四	sì	four
20	五	wǔ	five
21	六	liù	six
22	七	qī	seven
23	八	bā	eight
24	九	jiǔ	nine
25	十	shí	ten
	Quantifier
26	个	gè	(for normal objects)
27	岁	suì	(for age)
28	本	běn	(for books)
29	些	xiē	some
30	块	kuài	piece, chunk
	Adverb
31	不	bù	no
32	没	méi	no
33	很	hěn	quite, very
34	太	tài	too
35	都	dōu	all
36	一点儿	yīdiǎnr	a little bit
	Conjunction
37	和	hé	and
	Preposition
38	在	zài	in, at
	Auxiliary
39	的	de
40	了	le
41	吗	ma
42	呢	ne
	Interjection
43	喂	wèi	hello
	Noun
44	家	jiā	home
45	学校	xuéxiào	school
46	饭店	fàndiàn	restaurant
47	商店	shāngdiàn	store
48	医院	yīyuàn	hospital
49	中国	Zhōngguò	China
50	北京	Běijīng	Beijing
51	上	shàng	up
52	下	xià	down
53	前面	qiánmiàn	front
54	后面	hòumiàn	behind
55	里	lǐmiàn	inside
56	今天	jīntiān	today
57	明天	míngtiān	tomorrow
58	昨天	zuótiān	yesterday
59	上午	shàngwǔ	morning
60	中午	zhōngwǔ	noon
61	下午	xiàwǔ	afternoon
62	年	nián	year
63	月	yuè	month
64	号	hào	number/date
65	星期	xīngqī	week
66	点	diǎn	o’clock
67	分钟	fēnzhōng	minute
68	现在	xiànzài	now
69	时候	shíhou	time
70	爸爸	bàba	father
71	妈妈	māma	mother
72	儿子	érzi	son
73	女儿	nǚér	daughter
74	老师	lǎoshī	teacher
75	学生	xuéshēng	student
76	同学	tóngxué	classmate
77	朋友	péngyǒu	friend
78	医生	yīshēng	doctor
79	先生	xiānsheng	sir
80	小姐	xiǎojiě	Miss
81	衣服	yīfu	cloth
82	水	shuǐ	water
83	菜	cài	dish
84	米饭	mǐfàn	rice
85	水果	shuǐguǒ	fruit
86	苹果	píngguǒ	apple
87	茶	chá	tea
88	杯子	bēizi	cup
89	钱	qián	money
90	飞机	fēijī	airplane
91	出租车	chūzūchē	taxi
92	电视	diànshì	television
93	电脑	diànnǎo	computer
94	电影	diànyǐng	movie
95	天气	tiānqì	weather
96	猫	māo	cat
97	狗	gǒu	dog
98	东西	dōngxi	thing
99	人	rén	person
100	名字	míngzi	name
101	书	shū	book
102	汉语	hànyǔ	mandarin Chinese
103	字	zì	character
104	桌子	zhuōzi	desk
105	椅子	yǐzi	chair
	Verb
106	谢谢	xièxie	thank
107	不客气	búkèqì	you are welcome
108	再见	zàijiàn	good-bye
109	请	qǐng	please
110	对不起	duìbùqǐ	sorry
111	没关系	méiguānxì	It doesn’t matter
112	是	shì	be (am, is, are)
113	有	yǒu	have
114	看	kàn	look
115	听	tīng	listen
116	说	shuō	speak
117	读	dú	read
118	写	xiě	write
119	看见	kànjiàn	see
120	叫	jiào	call
121	来	lái	come
122	回	huí	return
123	去	qù	go
124	吃	chī	eat
125	喝	hē	drink
126	睡觉	shuìjiào	sleep
127	打电话	dǎdiànhuà	make phone call
128	做	zuò	do
129	买	mǎi	buy
130	开	kāi	open
131	坐	zuò	sit
132	住	zhù	live
133	学习	xuéxí	study
134	工作	gōngzuò	work
135	下雨	xiàyǔ	rain
136	爱	ài	love
137	喜欢	xǐhuān	love, like
138	想	xiǎng	want
139	认识	rènshi	know
140	会	huì	can
141	能	néng	can, be able to
	Adjective
142	好	hǎo	good
143	大	dà	big
144	小	xiǎo	small
145	多	duō	many, much
146	少	shǎo	few, little
147	冷	lěng	cold
148	热	rè	hot
149	高兴	gāoxìng	happy
150	漂亮	piàoliang	beautiful