Official 2012 NEW HSK vocabulary lists

[Dvd]

I have had trouble finding a definitive list of terms used for the NEW HSK tests and was hoping someone might know where such lists (vocabulary required for each HSK 1-6) could be found.

[edelweis]

You can find the official lists at the end of the 大纲 documents on that page : http://www.chinesetesting.cn/godownload.do

Warning: on the actual tests, they may use words that are not in those lists (especially in higher levels.)

I thought you had already passed HSK6?

[laurenth]

Warning: on the actual tests, they may use words that are not in those lists (especially in higher levels.)

True, I've done 2 mock tests for HSK4 and discovered that some of the words I didn't know were, in fact, included in the HSK5 list. I suppose the idea is to test your capacity to make educated guesses even when you don't understand each and every element of a sentence. Which, I suppose, is the natural way to process languages.

[hanyu_xuesheng]

Some HSK mock tests (especially those from BLCUP) use a lot of words which are not in the official list. The mock tests from chinesetesting and PUP are much more realistic.

[imron]

This has always been true of the HSK, even in the older versions. They throw in X% of vocab outside the HSK vocab lists to gauge your ability to interpret words you don't understand.

[edelweis]

@Dvd: sorry, I think I mixed you up with user "acatt". Good luck with your studies for HSK4.

[WestTexas]

Some HSK mock tests (especially those from BLCUP) use a lot of words which are not in the official list.

I have a book of HSK tests from BLCUP and yeah, some of them have a ridiculous amount of words not on the HSK list. I have a book of HSK 6 tests and on one of the 'pick 4 words to fill in four blanks' section, the first two blanks were all chengyu choices, and only one of the chengyus was on the list.

These tests have other problems as well. Namely, the "Choose the wrong sentence" section is absolutely impossible. I've given it to several native speakers, including a grad student at Bei Da, and none of them could answer the "Choose the wrong sentence" section correctly. I would advise against anyone buying one of the HSK practice books from Beijing Language and Culture University Press.

[DanK]

Hi DvD,

Excellent question. A complete word list can be found here:

http://www.chinesetesting.cn/userfiles/file/dagang/HSK1.pdf (just change the number of the pdf file to get other levels, the vocab can be found on the last few pages of the document)

If I may offer some general advice:

1) There are always some higher level words outside the list in every HSK test

2) Even if you do not know all the words, it is very often still possible to pick the right answer with good confidence, practice makes perfect in this regard

3) Doing lots of practice questions helps you learn the needed vocab in context

4) Generally if you know most of the vocab, have practiced listening and reading and maybe some writing/typing (with lessons or other material), combined with a bit of actual HSK question practice, you should be OK ;-)

Good luck!

[ChTTay]

Does anyone have a link to HSK 4 full vocabulary list?

Also, I have read there are 600 words for the HSK 4 but i've also read 1200. Do you think the 1200 figure includes HSK 1, 2 and 3?

Thanks!

[Koxinga]

Here are the lists: http://lingomi.com/blog/hsk-lists-2010/

Every level contains the words from the lower level + the new words, so level 4 consists of 600 words from level 3 and 600 new words.

[alanmd]

Be careful using the Lingomi lists, as they are out of date (the URL suggests that they are from 2010). There is about a 10% difference between the 2010 and 2012 lists.

I've created a few different lists from the file mentioned earlier on chinesetesting.cn (adding pinyin and definitions to each level), you can download them here: http://www.hskhsk.com/word-lists.html

Yes, HSK 4 is about 1200 words total (600 new + 600 from levels 1-3). It's not too important but this number is not exact because of things such as words appearing in 1 level as a verb, and in another as an adjective, etc.

[linguaholic]

hey alanmd

thanks for that incredible list. I already had the list for level 1-4, however I was not able to get hold on lists for 5 and 6. Now I have them all :=) thank you.

[alanmd]

You're welcome linguaholic, glad you found them useful! In case anyone is interested in the changes between the 2010 New HSK and newest word lists, this page shows all words that differ: http://hskhsk.pythonanywhere.com/hskwords20102012

[linguaholic]

I would like to thank for the link http://hskhsk.python...skwords20102012 as well...very useful resource AGAIN. ^^

I like the fact that you can click on the characters and you have several "look-up" options (nciku, etc...). quality stuff

[mokushiroku]

We have ordered vocab lists that come with our guides on our site, but I'd be willing to send them for free to anyone on this forum who needs one. Hit me up through a PM.

And remember not to memorize words in alphabetical order! You don't want a bunch of "shi"s running through your brain at once.

[Shelley]

That is one of the most useful tips I have heard for ages mokushiroku. One of those things you never think of but makes absolute sense when you hear it said.

[andreavda]

thanks alan for the vocabulary list, I was looking at the vocabulary list for level 1 in frequency order (http://files.hskhsk.com/lists/HSK%20Official%20With%20Definitions%202012%20L1%20freqorder.txt) and I don't understand why there are two different chinese characters, and after the chinese characters there is the pinyin but before that there is a strange pinyin with numbers in it, why is that ?

[Ruben von Zwack]

Andrea, that is just different ways to represent the tones 1, 2, 3, and 4. If you have found a way to type tone 1 and 3 on your keyboard, let me know! In lack of that, you'll often see wo3 instead of wǒ, yi1 instead of yī.

For the (not so) "different" Chinese characters - that is simplified and traditional. I think you might benefit from it a lot if you picked up a good text book and just read the introduction (the part that usually everyone skips - but it's fundamental).

[roddy]

If you have found a way to type tone 1 and 3 on your keyboard, let me know!

What, you're not using Pinyinput!?

[ZhangKaiRong]

Hello everyone,

 

I would like to take the HSK6 next year. Does anyone know whether or not the word list has been modified recently? When I was preparing for the HSK4 last year, I used this book: 新HSK4级全真模拟测试题集. The tests were OK, they were harder than the actual exam, so I achieved a good score. I liked that book especially because It had a vocab list by categories, which made my learning process quite effective. I have the 新HSK5级全真模拟测试题集 as well, and now I would like to buy the 6级 version. The problem is that the book was published in the first half of 2012, and I don't really know wheter or not the Hanban has changed something regarding the vocab list. Any ideas?