Hello, everyone. I am Lawrence. Dàjiā hǎo, wǒ shì Liào Lǎoshi. Today around the world, more and more people start to learn Mandarin Chinese language, either because they think it is interesting or because they find it useful. As you are watching this, I assume you are one of them. When you are a Chinese learner, very soon you hear about a term called HSK.

What is HSK?

HSK is Chinese proficiency test. H stands for “Hanyu”, which is Mandarin Chinese language; S means “shuiping” that is level or proficiency here; K is “kaoshi” and “kaoshi” is the Chinese word for exams or tests. So, H-S-K, 汉语水平考试（Hanyu-shuiping-kaoshi） is the Chinese proficiency test. HSK is the TOFEL or IELTS for Chinese language. Because HSK is such an important exam, it is necessary for us to learn a few key facts about it.

Over the past 20 years, I have been teaching Mandarin in different cities in different countries and I helped hundreds of learners with their HSK exams. In my experience, there are five key things we must know before doing it (HSK). Let’s spend a few minutes together and walk through them one by one.