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HSK 3 writing practice questions
5 HSK 3 writing questions with the answer to each one, in the order the HSK 3.0 paper asks them. They come from the same reviewed bank as the mock exams on this site, and none of them appears on a paper you can sit here, so working through these spends nothing.
Compared with HSK 2, the prescribed vocabulary more than doubles, from 500 words to 1,000. On the paper itself, write a sentence appears for the first time, choose the character drops out, the writing minimum rises from 100 characters to 200.
HSK 3.0 · Writing · 5 questions with answers · 1 graded part with marking criteria · free to read, no account
What HSK 3 writing asks of you, officially
Length: no less than 200 Chinese characters, in a limited time.
What you write: emails, general notices and short narratives.
Quality expected: basically coherent language and basically clear expression, copying correctly at a minimum of 20 per minute.
Characters: the standard expects you to be able to handwrite the 300 handwritten characters of the Elementary Level list.
Quoted from GF0025-2021, 《国际中文教育中文水平等级标准》, the official standard published by China's Ministry of Education and effective from 1 July 2021. The criteria below are how this site marks against it.
Write the character
A longer sentence with a pinyin gap, where you type the character yourself.
A sentence with one gap and the pinyin of the missing character printed in it. There are no options.
她们出发了，咱们（yě）打出租车吧。
这个周末我打算去（pá）山。
欢（yíng）你们来我家玩儿。
桌子上放着一把（yǐ）子，请你坐下来休息吧。
外面下（yǔ）了，你出门记得带伞。
Write a sentence
The learner must write ONE sentence using a required word.
请用“羽毛球”写一个句子。
There is no answer key for this task. What you write is judged against the criteria below.
How it is marked
Marked against HSK 3 (CEFR A2) on a 10 point scale, holistically. This is the same scheme the grader on this site uses, not a summary of it.
Overall sentence quality
worth 10 of 10Be strict about completeness: a subject plus the word with no real predicate is "low", not "mid".
- No credit 0 pts
- blank, off-task, unintelligible, OR does not use the required word.
- Weak 1 to 4 pts
- uses the word but the sentence is INCOMPLETE (missing a needed verb/object/predicate) or has errors that block meaning. A bare fragment is "low", never "mid".
- Adequate 5 to 7 pts
- a COMPLETE, understandable sentence using the word, with only minor grammar/usage errors.
- Strong 8 to 10 pts
- a complete, natural, grammatical sentence using the word correctly and on topic.
What each band looks like
Worked examples that fix where one band ends and the next begins. The grader is given these same examples, so they are what the marking is calibrated to.
今天是星期五。
You didn't use the required word 电脑.
- The required word 电脑 is not used.
我作业。
Incomplete — this needs a verb.
- No verb: 作业 needs a predicate such as 写 or 做.
我书很喜欢。
Word order makes the meaning unclear.
- Word order: the object 书 should follow the verb 喜欢, not come before it.
夏天我喜欢开空调，但是有点儿冷了。
Clear and complete, with a small usage slip.
- '有点儿冷了' is slightly off here — drop 了: '有点儿冷'.
每天早上我都去公园锻炼身体。
Natural, complete, and correct.
他邀请我去他家吃饭。
Great — natural and grammatical.
Ready for the whole paper?
These are single questions with the answers next to them. The exam is all 70 of them under the real clock, with audio that plays once. Your first HSK 3 mock is free.
Take a full HSK 3 mock examNot sure what is on the paper yet? Read the HSK 3 exam format guide.