At HSK 4, Chinese starts to move beyond individual sentences toward more connected listening, reading, speaking, and writing. You need a larger vocabulary and the ability to organize information across several sentences.
This guide covers the new HSK 4 exam format, question types, test time, vocabulary requirements, writing and speaking tasks, score guidance, and the main differences between HSK 3 and HSK 4.
HSK 4 is the fourth level of the new HSK system and a clear step up from HSK 3. It is also written as HSK4 or HSK Level 4.
At HSK 3, learners begin producing complete sentences and handling more detailed everyday communication. At HSK 4, those skills extend across longer stretches of Chinese: you need to follow more detailed information, describe experiences more clearly, explain reasons and results, and connect ideas across a paragraph.
The official HSK 4 tasks cover everyday life, work, education, travel, health, relationships, community life, and broader social situations. The emphasis is increasingly on understanding and expressing a complete message rather than responding with one isolated sentence.
32 questions · About 20 min
HSK 4 listening requires you to follow more connected spoken information.
You need to understand the main point while tracking details such as intentions, reasons, opinions, plans, comparisons, and the sequence of events.
The challenge is less about catching one familiar keyword and more about following how the information develops.
32 questions · 30 min
HSK 4 reading requires you to understand connected sentences and short passages in context.
You need to follow relationships between ideas, identify important details, and understand how a passage develops rather than reading one word at a time.
6 questions · 25 min
Writing is one of the clearest changes at HSK 4.
The first five tasks ask you to use a picture and a given word to produce a complete sentence.
The final task requires a connected short composition of at least 80 Chinese characters.
HSK 4 therefore moves beyond sentence production. You need to organize several sentences around one topic and make them work together as a short piece of writing.
5 tasks · About 20 min
Separate oral test
The corresponding Level 4 oral test includes retelling spoken information, speaking from a picture, and answering open questions.
Compared with HSK 3, you need to speak for longer and organize your response more clearly.
| Task | Questions |
|---|---|
| Listen and retell | 2 |
| Speak from a picture | 1 |
| Answer questions | 2 |
| Total | 5 |
The oral test takes about 20 minutes, including preparation time.
| Section | Questions | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Listening | 32 | About 20 min |
| Reading | 32 | 30 min |
| Writing | 6 | 25 min |
| Written total | 70 | About 85 min |
The new HSK 4 written test contains 70 questions and takes about 85 minutes in total.
The total written-test time also includes candidate-information and answer-sheet procedures where applicable.
The corresponding Level 4 oral test is separate from the 85-minute written test and takes about 20 minutes including preparation time.
180 / 300
Current published passing reference
The currently published HSK Level 4 scoring information uses a total score of 300 points.
The currently published passing score is 180 out of 300.
For now, 180/300 should be treated as the current published HSK 4 passing reference, not as a newly confirmed scoring rule for the revised format.
| Level | New words | Cumulative vocabulary |
|---|---|---|
| HSK 1 | 300 | 300 |
| HSK 2 | 200 | 500 |
| HSK 3 | 500 | 1,000 |
| HSK 4 | 1,000 | 2,000 |
If you have completed HSK 3, your new HSK 4 vocabulary target is:
Words 1001–2000 — 1,000 new words
The first 1,000 words still matter because HSK vocabulary is cumulative.
2,000 words is the total expected by the end of HSK 4; 1,000 words are newly introduced at this level.
| Exam feature | HSK 3 | HSK 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Cumulative vocabulary | 1,000 | 2,000 |
| New words | 500 | 1,000 |
| Written questions | 70 | 70 |
| Written test time | About 83 min | About 85 min |
| Listening | 30 | 32 |
| Reading | 30 | 32 |
| Writing | 10 | 6 |
| Writing time | 20 min | 25 min |
HSK 4 adds 1,000 new words — the same number as the entire cumulative vocabulary required through HSK 3.
That larger vocabulary supports more detailed communication about experiences, opinions, work, education, health, travel, relationships, and everyday problems.
At HSK 4, you need to hold more information in mind and understand how details connect across a conversation or passage.
Following the development of meaning becomes more important than waiting for one obvious keyword.
This is one of the most important changes from HSK 3.
HSK 3 focuses mainly on complete sentence production. HSK 4 adds a connected composition of at least 80 Chinese characters.
You need to stay on topic, connect several sentences, and organize information in a logical order.
HSK 4 oral tasks include retelling spoken information, speaking from a picture, and answering open questions.
Instead of giving a very short answer, you increasingly need to develop one connected idea clearly.
Focus on words 1001–2000 while continuing to review the first 1,000 words.
At this level, learn vocabulary in context. Pay attention to common combinations, sentence patterns, and how a word behaves inside a complete sentence.
Listen for the main point first, then follow supporting details such as reasons, opinions, comparisons, changes, and results.
After listening, try to summarize or retell what you heard in your own words.
Practice with connected passages rather than isolated sentences.
Notice whether a sentence gives a reason, example, contrast, condition, or result. This helps you understand the structure of a passage without translating every word.
Do not wait until the end of your preparation to practice the 80-character writing task.
Start with familiar topics such as a trip, a person, a study experience, a problem you solved, or an everyday opinion.
Focus on staying on topic, connecting sentences naturally, and giving enough supporting detail.
Retell short pieces of information, describe pictures as complete situations, and expand answers with a reason or example.
The goal is to make several sentences work together as one response.
Once your vocabulary and writing skills are strong enough, complete full HSK 4 practice tests under time limits.
Use mistakes to identify whether you need more work on vocabulary, comprehension, writing organization, speaking, or time management.
HSK 4 requires 2,000 cumulative vocabulary words under the new standard.
If you already know the 1,000 words covered through HSK 3, HSK 4 adds another 1,000 new words, covering cumulative words 1001–2000.
Both numbers are correct, but they refer to different things.
HSK 4 introduces 1,000 new words, while the cumulative vocabulary requirement reaches 2,000 words.
The new HSK 4 written test has 70 questions: 32 Listening, 32 Reading, and 6 Writing.
The written HSK 4 test takes about 85 minutes.
The corresponding Level 4 oral test takes about 20 minutes, including preparation time.
Yes.
HSK 4 has 6 writing questions and gives you 25 minutes for the section.
Five tasks require complete sentences from picture and word prompts. The final task requires a connected short composition of at least 80 Chinese characters.
Under the new HSK system, HSK 4 has a corresponding Level 4 oral test.
It contains 5 tasks: two listen-and-retell tasks, one picture-based speaking task, and two question-and-answer tasks. The test takes about 20 minutes including preparation time.
The current published HSK Level 4 passing score is 180 out of 300.
The official page showing this score still uses the previous 100-question exam format. The revised HSK 4 materials use a 70-question format, but no updated scoring rule or passing threshold has yet been separately published.
For now, 180/300 remains the current published reference.
HSK 4 doubles the cumulative vocabulary from 1,000 to 2,000 words and requires more connected listening, reading, speaking, and writing.
The clearest change is writing: HSK 3 focuses mainly on individual sentences, while HSK 4 introduces a connected short composition of at least 80 Chinese characters.
