HSK 4 study plan: from the HSK 3 jump to a timed mock

They exist so you reach a full timed mock without stuffing 80 new words into mock week. They fit a job: 25 to 40 minutes on study days, five days a week. From week 9, one timed section each weekend.

If HSK 3 took months at 20 minutes a day, HSK 4 does not fit “the next month.” You widen the daily window a little and lengthen the calendar. The 20-minute routine still shapes the day; here the cap and the listening load change. The HSK 1 eight-week plan was the floor. This is another storey.

Classic HSK 4, per Wikipedia HSK, runs listening at about 45 questions, reading at about 40, and writing at about 15 items. Maximum 300 points. 180 to pass. No per-section floor for HSK 3 and 4. You can compensate. You can also sink listening and still brush the cut if the rest holds. The mock tells you. The blog does not.

In brochure terms, HSK 4 covers a fairly wide range of topics. It is not office fluency. Speaking is HSKK; at 2026 centers it is often booked with HSK 4 as intermediate oral. One sentence is enough. The calendar below is the written paper.

Sixteen weeks are also not a university course in disguise. They are a split of minutes you can keep after work. If a block breaks for travel or illness, you do not “catch up” by doubling Sunday. You cut new cards and add a week at the end. The mock moves. Your ego does not.

Classic HSK 4 is about 1,200 cumulative words. After HSK 3’s ~600, that is about 600 new ones. Same source: Wikipedia HSK. It is not a second language. It is double the inventory you just closed, stacked on whatever still slips.

The HSK 2 to 3 jump already showed that a review queue explodes if you add too many new cards. Here the volume is larger. The useful cap stays low: a few new words a day, the rest to review and listen. If you open the whole list “for motivation,” week 4 punishes you.

New grammar belongs inside short sentences you can say, not in a dump list.

不但……而且…… (bùdàn... érqiě..., not only... but also...): 他不但学中文，而且学日语 (tā bùdàn xué zhōngwén, érqiě xué rìyǔ, he not only studies Chinese but also Japanese).

无论 (wúlùn, no matter): 无论多忙，他都看书 (wúlùn duō máng, tā dōu kàn shū, no matter how busy he is, he still reads).

为了 (wèile, in order to): 为了考试，她每天练习 (wèile kǎoshì, tā měi tiān liànxí, in order to take the exam, she practises every day).

One sentence per pattern. Next week you rewrite it with HSK 4 vocabulary, not with another YouTube template.

This site’s HSK 4 list lives on vocabulary. It is outside the free HSK 1-2 cap. The SRS queue still helps. That does not imply free HSK 4 lessons.

Weeks 1-4. Close leftover HSK 3 and take in about 150 new words. Priority: what still fails in HSK 3 listening, not a tour of rare characters. Each session: queue first, then 3 to 5 new cards, then one sentence said aloud. Saturday: 15 minutes of HSK 3-4 audio without reading the transcript on the first pass.

Weeks 5-8. Next block: about 200 new words, plus reading speed. HSK 4 reading punishes you if you spell every character. Time a short passage: do not look up every unknown; mark, finish, then check. Vocabulary goal for the block: close those ~200 without bloating the queue. If due cards already fill 40 minutes, set new cards to zero for two days.

Weeks 9-12. Listening sections on a timer. Classic paper listening is about 45 items: split into half-sections on short days, but keep the timer. Writing: the ~15 items. On the classic paper that usually means sentence ordering plus a short note. Describe the task; do not pretend you have the official PDF in front of you. Write by hand or keyboard to match the format you will sit. Weekend: one full timed section, not “five minutes of app.”

Weeks 13-16. One full timed mock and repair. Almost no new words. If listening collapses, repair audio, not forty flashcards. If writing sticks, redo three items of the type you missed. A second full mock only after the first has a hole plan. The center date (when you have it) comes last, not first. Official registration: chinesetest.cn.

Rough new-lexicon sum in the plan: 150 + 200 in the first eight weeks; the rest of the HSK 4 inventory is thinned across weeks 9-12 or assumed partly met in reading. Do not invent an official “X hours for HSK 4.”

The first real mock is not week 4. It is when you have already heard timed sections (week 9 onward) and can hold ~40 reading items without dictionary panic. Ideal: week 13 or 14, quiet room, same format as the center (paper or computer).

Mock rules: one continuous attempt; no pause to “look this up”; log listening, reading, and writing time separately. When you finish, do not stare at the global score first. See which section stole minutes. Then accuracy. Write the three section times on paper. A phone timer alone does not show where you bled the clock.

180 out of 300 is the classic cut for HSK 3 and 4. If you land at 165, you do not “study more list.” You study the hole. If you land at 210 with weak listening, you still repair listening: exam day can run worse.

Do not use the mock as a reason to buy another course. The mock measures the plan. If the plan was not kept (blank days, 40 new cards on a bad Tuesday), the mock only confirms the mess.

HSK 4 writing scares people because HSK 3 already removed pinyin as a crutch and sentence load rises here. The usual count is about 15 items: reorder pieces into a sentence, plus a short production such as a note or message.

Train ordering with sentences you already know. Scaffold example: 我 / 为了 / 考试 / 每天 / 学习 → 我为了考试每天学习 (wǒ wèile kǎoshì měi tiān xuéxí, I study every day for the exam). Then drop the scaffold and write from memory.

The short note: three sentences with a job (apology, meet-up, explain a delay). Add 因为 (yīnwèi, because) or 所以 (suǒyǐ, therefore) if it fits. Do not write an essay. The writing clock on the mock teaches how long you can stare at the ceiling.

If one item blocks you for more than a minute, mark it and move. Return at the end. Writing panic is usually bad time split, not “I do not know Chinese.”

Drop the second streak app. One SRS queue is enough. Two queues fight for the same 30 minutes.

Drop 40 new words on the day you arrive tired. That day: dues only and 10 minutes of audio. New cards wait. The HSK 4 inventory does not surrender if you pause a day; the queue does break if you bloat it.

Drop the two-hour “complete HSK 4 grammar” video. Replace it with the three patterns above inside your own sentences. If you need more, one new structure per week, not twelve.

Drop switching levels mid-plan because a friend sits HSK 5. You finish the HSK 4 mock. Then you decide.

Drop gloss-only study. 还是 (háishi, or / still depending on context) and 或者 (huòzhě, or) collapse if you never hear them in a question. Weekend listening is not optional.

Drop comparing your week to someone in immersion. Your clock is 25 to 40 minutes. Theirs is not the standard. If you keep five days, the plan moves. If you do not, the plan is lying and the mock will say so.

The next step is concrete: open vocabulary, pick HSK 4, and load the queue. Chinese Trainer does not take the exam fee. You keep the 16-week calendar. The app only holds the inventory while the mock clock gets closer.

• Weeks 1–8: close HSK 3 leftovers, then new words in small sets.
• From week 9: one timed section each weekend.
• Weeks 13–16: one full mock and repairs, not 80 new words.