What Is HSK 7–9?

HSK 7–9 is one exam for three advanced levels, not three separate papers. The official sample cover counts five parts, 91 items, and about 200 minutes. The English page for these levels, published by CTI Co., Ltd. at chinesetest.cn/HSK/7-9 and fetched on 20 October 2026, counts 98 questions and about 210 minutes. This page states both and names the document for each. It is the Level 7–9 guide on this site.

English Wikipedia's article at that link, fetched the same day, titles the exam the Zhongwen Shuiping Kaoshi and calls it the Chinese Proficiency Test, a standardized test of Standard Chinese for non-native speakers. The one-page competency file uses the Chinese name 中文水平考试/HSK and calls it a national standardized test of communicative ability in Chinese as a second language, in life, study, and work. The sample, the syllabus, and that competency file were compiled by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC). The HSK overview, also from CTI Co., Ltd., calls the revision a move from the current six-level system to a "Three Stages, Nine Levels" framework, covering elementary, intermediate, and advanced proficiency. It does not assign the digits 1–3, 4–6, or 7–9 to those stages. It says the test assesses listening, speaking, reading, and writing, plus translation at advanced levels. It does not print 91 or 98.

Levels 1 through 6 are separate exams. Their covers are in HSK 3.0 Exam Format. This page does not rebuild that ladder. Before this combined paper, Level 2 is where the written sample first adds handwriting, Level 3 is the first level with a separate speaking paper, and Level 4 is one intermediate paper of its own. Level 6 is the last separate paper. Its row stays on the format page.

Six papers, then one exam. The four labels are on the CTI page. The sample cover does not print them.

What still ranks for this question

On 20 October 2026 the pages compared for "what is hsk 7-9" were HSKMock's format guide, Second Language's HSK 3.0 guide, an English PDF titled HSK Levels 7-9 (Advanced) on konfuciuszintezet.hu, Pass HSK's requirements page, and SayMei's exam guide. HSKMock, Second Language, and the institute PDF still print 98 questions and about 210 minutes, the figures on the CTI page. HSKMock says candidates do not choose a separate Level 7, 8, or 9 paper, and its section table is listening 40 items and 30 minutes, reading 47 and 60, writing 2 and 55, translation 4 and 41, speaking 5 and 24. Second Language says Levels 7, 8, and 9 are tested in a single exam, then prints 98 and about 210 minutes. The institute PDF reprints the CTI table, including the 13:00 to 17:10 schedule, and adds a CEFR line and a range of study hours that the CTI page does not print. Those additions are not used here. Pass HSK calls Levels 7, 8, and 9 three increasingly demanding exams that share a curriculum. The sample and the CTI page both describe one exam. SayMei says levels 7, 8, and 9 share one advanced paper, and it lists "Since 2022, 98 items, about 210 minutes" beside "HSK 3.0, 91 items, about 200 minutes." It does not name the sample cover against the live CTI page, and it does not set the cover's about 42 minutes against item lines that add to 39, or the cover's about 20 speaking minutes against response lines that add to 9.

Those five pages are third party. The gain on this page is the pair of official documents, named, with the cover used as the walk-through and the CTI page kept beside it.

HSKMock, Second Language, and the institute PDF are still on 98 and about 210. SayMei lists both totals. Pass HSK says three exams.

Three competency lines, one exam

The competency file gives Levels 7, 8, and 9 three sentences. They are not three exams.

HSK（七级）能用中文就职场、一般专业场景、通用学术场景进行规范、流利交流。 A close English gloss, not an official translation: can communicate in a standard, fluent way in the workplace, in general professional situations, and in general academic situations.

HSK（八级）能用中文就职场、一般专业场景、通用学术场景进行得体、深入交流。 A gloss: can communicate appropriately and in depth in those same settings.

HSK（九级）能用中文就职业、专业、学术等各种场景进行精准、深入交流。 A gloss: can communicate precisely and in depth across professional, specialist, and academic situations.

The file attaches no score, study-hour figure, or pass mark to those lines. The HSK overview says the new test is guided by the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education, the 2021 standard this site calls GF 0025-2021. How the 2025 list compares with older lists is in Chinese Vocabulary Size vs HSK Level. No official HSK 3.0 mapping onto another scale was found in the documents read for this page.

The CTI page uses that 2021 standard for level setting after the one exam. It names four labels, "Below HSK (Level 7)", "HSK (Level 7)", "HSK (Level 8)", and "HSK (Level 9)", from item-response ability and from item content and difficulty. Each skill's report score on that page runs from 0 to 100. The page does not print the number that separates one label from the next. The sample paper does not print this scale. The 13 December 2026 launch notice does not say whether that sitting will use it. The date itself is kept in Should You Take HSK 2.0 or HSK 3.0 in 2026?.

5,600 new words, cumulative number 11,000

The vocabulary outline in the 2025 syllabus is one numbered list from 1 to 11,000. Levels 7–9 are one slice, not three lists. The new count is 5,600. The cumulative number is 11,000, the last sequence number. Number 5,401 is 挨 (āi), in pinyin, the official romanization for Standard Chinese used in China and Singapore. Number 11,000 is 做主 (zuòzhǔ). The syllabus cover prints 2025-11 发布 and 2026-07 实施, issued by 中外语言交流合作中心. The 2026-07 line is the implementation date on that cover, not the exam date.

A few earlier rows carry a parenthetical tag such as 7–9 and still sit inside an earlier level's number range. They are not a second advanced list. The entries, in syllabus order with pinyin and a short English gloss, are on the Levels 7–9 word list.

1,148 characters to recognize, 500 to handwrite

Character lists are separate from the word list, and each restarts at 1. A Chinese character (字, zì) is one written sign. The vocabulary outline counts words (词). Chinese Characters vs Words is the page for that distinction.

The Levels 7–9 recognition list, 认读字 (rèndúzì), has 1,148 items, from 1. 哀 to 1,148. 琢. The handwriting list, 书写字 (shūxiězì), has 500 items, from 1. 挨 to 500. 揍. The syllabus does not print a cumulative total for either list. Adding the earlier recognition lists (246, 125, 284, 441, 431, and 413) to 1,148 gives 3,088. Handwriting is one shared list of 100 characters for Levels 1 and 2, then 150 at each of Levels 3, 4, 5, and 6, which is 700 through Level 6, then 700 + 500 = 1,200 through Levels 7–9. There is no separate Level 2 handwriting list. Both 3,088 and 1,200 are sums of the printed new counts, not headings in the syllabus.

One word list ends at 11,000. The character totals 3,088 and 1,200 are sums, not syllabus headings.

The sample cover: 91 items, about 200 minutes

The walk-through here is the cover of HSK/HSK（七—九级）样卷.pdf, compiled by CLEC, 34 pages inside the official sample set. HSK 3.0 Sample Papers inventories the ZIP, including the two audio files for this paper. This site does not rehost the PDF.

The cover says five parts and 91 items. Listening, 听力 (tīnglì), is 40 items and about 33 minutes. Reading, 阅读 (yuèdú), is 40 items and 50 minutes. Writing, 写作 (xiězuò), is 2 items and 55 minutes. Translation, 翻译 (fānyì), is 4 items and about 42 minutes. Speaking, 口语 (kǒuyǔ), is 5 items and about 20 minutes. The whole exam is about 200 minutes. Adding the printed figures gives about 33 + 50 + 55 + 42 + 20 = 200. The cover says 约, "about", on the listening, translation, speaking, and total lines. Unlike the Levels 1–6 covers, this cover does not mention a personal-information block or an answer-sheet block.

Listening inside the paper is three blocks and no part-level minutes: items 1–10 judge a sentence with √, ×, or 〇; items 11–22 are select or fill; items 23–40 are select or fill. 10 + 12 + 18 = 40. Reading is items 41–61, select, 21 items; items 62–66, reorder paragraphs with one distractor, 5 items; items 67–80, short answers of no more than ten characters, 14 items. 21 + 5 + 14 = 40. Passages stay in the PDF.

Writing splits the cover's 55 minutes on the item lines, and the split matches the cover. Item 81 asks for a description and analysis of a chart, at least 200 characters, limited to 15 minutes. Item 82 is a topic essay, at least 600 characters, limited to 40 minutes. 15 + 40 = 55. The prompts are not copied here.

About 33 + 50 + 55 + 42 + 20 = 200. No personal-information line is on this cover.

The CTI page still says 98 and about 210

The same five section names appear on the CTI English page. The totals do not match the cover, except writing.

Section	Sample cover	CTI English page, fetched 20 October 2026
Listening	40 items, about 33 minutes. Blocks of 10, 12, and 18. No objective or subjective split.	40 items, about 30 minutes. Section 1: 10 objective. Section 2: 9 objective and 3 subjective. Section 3: 15 objective and 3 subjective.
Reading	40 items, 50 minutes. Blocks of 21, 5, and 14.	47 items, 60 minutes. 28 objective, 5 objective, and 14 subjective.
Writing	2 items, 55 minutes.	2 subjective items, 55 minutes.
Translation	4 items, about 42 minutes.	4 subjective items, 41 minutes. Foreign languages into Chinese, written and oral.
Speaking	5 items, about 20 minutes.	5 subjective items, about 24 minutes. The page's parts are 1, 3, and 1.
Total	91 items, about 200 minutes.	98 items, about 210 minutes.

On the CTI page, 9 + 3 = 12 and 15 + 3 = 18, so the listening section totals are 10, 12, and 18, the same three counts as the sample blocks. The objective and subjective labels are only on the CTI page. The minutes still differ: about 33 on the cover, about 30 on the page. Reading is where the item count moves. The 5-item block and the 14-item block match. The first block is 21 on the sample and 28 on the page. 28 − 21 = 7, and 47 − 40 = 7. That is the whole of the 91-versus-98 gap. Writing matches on both documents: 2 items and 55 minutes. The 200-character and 600-character minima are only on the sample.

The page's own addition is 67 objective items and 31 subjective items. Listening contributes 34 objective and 6 subjective, reading 33 and 14, writing 2, translation 4, speaking 5. 34 + 33 = 67, and 6 + 14 + 2 + 4 + 5 = 31. 67 + 31 = 98. Adding the page's minutes, with "about" left on the lines that print it, gives about 30 + 60 + 55 + 41 + 24 = 210.

91 and about 200 are the sample cover. 98 and about 210 are the CTI page. Writing is the row that matches.

The page also prints a clock. From 13:00 to 16:10 the sections named are listening, reading, writing, and translation, with one break during the test. From 16:10 to 16:40 the candidate takes a break and logs back in. From 16:40 to 17:10 the sections named are translation and speaking. Translation is named in both blocks. The sample cover does not print this clock. The launch notice does not say which description the 13 December 2026 sitting will use.

One more pair, both official. The CTI page says that, currently, HSK Levels 7–9 are available only as an internet-based test. The official sample set still includes the paper PDF named above. The file list lives on the sample-paper page.

Translation and speaking, at cover depth

Translation and speaking are what this paper adds to the shape of Levels 1–6. This section stops at the times and the task names.

The cover says translation is 4 items and about 42 minutes. The item lines say items 83–84 are two pieces to be translated into Chinese, limited to 35 minutes together, and items 85–86 are interpreting, 口译, each marked 2 minutes. 35 + 2 + 2 = 39. The cover's about 42 and the item lines' 39 are both printed. The paper does not explain the 3 minutes. The CTI page says 41 minutes for the same 4 items. Three figures, three places: about 42 on the cover, 39 on the item lines, 41 on the CTI page.

Speaking on this paper is section 5 of the same booklet, not a separate file of the kind Levels 3–6 use. HSK 3.0 Speaking Test owns those separate papers, including preparation time. The older three-level HSK Speaking Test (HSKK) is a different product. This page covers only the five items inside the 7–9 booklet.

The cover says 5 items and about 20 minutes. The printed response lines are item 87, 应用读说, 3 minutes; items 88–90, 听材料回答问题, 30 seconds, 30 seconds, and 2 minutes; item 91, 观点表达, 3 minutes. 3 minutes + 30 seconds + 30 seconds + 2 minutes + 3 minutes = 9 minutes. No separate preparation time is printed for these five items. The cover's about 20 and the response lines' 9 are both printed. The CTI page says about 24 minutes for 5 items, in parts of 1, 3, and 1. The sample's grouping is also 1 item, then 3, then 1, with different minutes.

The answer key gives listening and reading answers. Writing items 81–82 and translation items 83–86 are marked 略, omitted. Speaking items 87, 90, and 91 are 略. Items 88 and 89 have reference answers, which are not copied here. The key states no full score, no pass mark, and no rubric.

About 42, 39, and 41 for translation. About 20, 9, and about 24 for speaking. The paper does not reconcile them.

What neither document settles

The sample states no pass mark. The fetched 7–9 page does not say how long a report stays valid. The launch notice does not state a pass mark or a validity period either. The English pages for Level 1 through Level 4 print a pass mark for the papers those pages describe. Level 5 and Level 6 state a full score of 300 and do not state a passing mark. Those figures stay on those pages. They are not printed on this sample.

The CTI page describes the audience as advanced learners of Chinese as a second language. It names international students pursuing master's and doctoral degrees in China, students majoring in Chinese in other countries, and professionals involved in academic research and in economic, cultural, and technological exchanges conducted in Chinese. That is who the page is written for. It is not a score requirement.

How to check recognition

The list, the recognition test, and the sample answer different questions.

The Levels 7–9 word list is the 5,600 new entries, numbers 5,401 to 11,000. Chinese Copilot's free HSK 3.0 level test is a recognition estimate: 119 words drawn fresh each run, 17 from each band of Levels 1 to 6 and 17 from the combined Levels 7–9 list. You mark whether you recognize the word. There is no account. Answers stay in the browser. It typically takes 5–10 minutes. The result is an approximate level from 1 to 6, or the combined HSK 7–9 range, plus a stage: Elementary (初等), Intermediate (中等), or Advanced (高等). That stage is the label this test returns. It is not a digit map from the syllabus overview. The test does not separate Level 7 from Level 8 or Level 9, because the syllabus gives those levels one list. It does not measure listening, speaking, timed reading, translation, or handwriting, and it is not an official exam, a score, or a pass. The word source and the thresholds are on the methodology page.

How to Estimate Your HSK Level sets a recognition check next to a timed paper and next to graded reading. The sample is the timed check: five parts, audio, a 600-character essay, translation into Chinese, and five speaking items. Why recognition runs ahead of speaking and writing is a different question from the item count. Nothing on this page turns a recognition result into a Level 7, 8, or 9 label.

The list is the entries. The test is a recognition estimate. The sample is the 91-item cover, kept beside the CTI page's 98.

Levels 7–9 lean heavily on four-character idioms. The Chinese idioms dictionary explains each one with its story and examples; idioms from the 7–9 list to start with: 一目了然, 不可思议 and 一如既往. Single words are in the word dictionary.

More on the new exam, level by level, is in our HSK 3.0 guide.

Sources

• Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, English Wikipedia, fetched 20 October 2026. The article title returned for this URL is Zhongwen Shuiping Kaoshi, described as the Chinese Proficiency Test, a standardized test of Standard Chinese for non-native speakers. Not a source for item counts.
• Pinyin, English Wikipedia, fetched 20 October 2026. Secondary overview of the romanization used on the word list. Not a source for the 11,000 count.
• Chinese characters, English Wikipedia, fetched 20 October 2026. Secondary overview of 字. Not a source for the 1,148 or 500 counts.
• HSK overview: About the New HSK, CTI Co., Ltd., chinesetest.cn, fetched 20 October 2026. Three stages and nine levels without a digit map, five skills including translation at advanced levels, and the link to the sample set. No 91 or 98 on this page.
• HSK (Levels 7-9), chinesetest.cn, fetched 20 October 2026. 98 questions, about 210 minutes, the section table, the 13:00–17:10 schedule, four report labels citing GF 0025-2021, report scores from 0 to 100, internet-based availability, and the audience paragraph. No numeric cut between the four labels.
• HSK 3.0 will be officially launched worldwide on December 13, 2026, CTI notice, fetched 20 October 2026. The launch date. No paper structure, pass mark, or score validity in the notice.
• CTI English pages for Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, Level 5, and Level 6, fetched 20 October 2026. Levels 1 and 2 print 120 out of 200. Levels 3 and 4 print 180 out of 300. Levels 5 and 6 state a full score of 300 and do not state a passing mark. Those lines belong to the papers those pages describe. They are not on the 7–9 sample.
• Syllabus for the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK), Center for Language Education and Cooperation, published November 2025 (PDF, in Chinese). One list from 1 to 11,000. Levels 7–9 are 5,600 new entries, numbers 5,401–11,000. Recognition 1,148. Handwriting 500. The sums 3,088 and 1,200 are not printed in the syllabus.
• HSK 3.0 competency descriptions, Center for Language Education and Cooperation, one-page PDF. The national-test sentence and the Level 7, 8, and 9 lines. English glosses in this post are not a second official text.
• Official sample file HSK/HSK（七—九级）样卷.pdf and its answer key, inside the sample set linked from the HSK overview, read from the local text extract on 20 October 2026. Cover: 91 items and about 200 minutes. Item lines for writing, translation, and speaking as quoted. The answer key marks writing, translation, and speaking items 87, 90, and 91 as 略, and states no score. The file list is on the sample-paper page.
• Third-party pages compared, not used as the source of official numbers: HSKMock, HSK Test Format by Level, Second Language, HSK 3.0 Exam Guide, HSK Levels 7-9 (Advanced), konfuciuszintezet.hu, Pass HSK, HSK 7-9 requirements, SayMei, HSK exam guide. All fetched 20 October 2026.