A learning platform that can show its working
HSK Guide (汉路 — “the Chinese road”) exists because most Mandarin material asks you to trust it. A word list appears with no source. A blog post states an examination rule with no date. A chatbot invents a grammar explanation that sounds right. We built the opposite: every educational record on this platform carries a version, a source and a verification date, and the data layer refuses to publish one that is missing any of them — or that a model wrote and no editor has approved.
Who this is for
Four people, one platform
These are the users the product is designed around. If you are not one of them, the platform will still work — but it was not shaped for you.
The candidate with a date
You are sitting an examination in five months and you need to know whether you are on track. You need coverage against a standard, timed practice, and a readiness estimate that is honest enough to be useful — including when it says the target is not realistic.
The learner who wants to speak
You are not taking a test. You want to hold a conversation, read a menu, understand a message from a colleague. You need speaking, listening and everyday reading — and you need the examination scaffolding to get out of the way.
The teacher with a cohort
You have twenty-four learners and one hour a week. You need to see who is quietly not studying before the examination tells you, and you need to reteach from evidence rather than from the syllabus.
The self-taught learner who has stalled
You have three abandoned apps and a vocabulary list you cannot recall under pressure. You need scheduling that reflects what you actually forget, feedback specific enough to act on, and a reason to come back tomorrow.
Editorial policy
Every educational record is versioned, sourced and reviewed
This is not a statement of intent. It is enforced where it cannot be talked around: an educational record carries a version, a status, an origin, a source and a last-verified date, and the code that publishes one refuses without a source, without a verification date, or — where a model wrote it — without an editor’s approval on file.
Versioned
Every edit made through the editorial interface writes a revision first: a snapshot of the record as it was, the editor who changed it and a change note. There is one code path for a mutation and it cannot skip that step, so a correction can always be traced back to the day it was made. The bundled demonstration library is the exception — it is imported as a starting corpus and has no edit history behind it.
content_revisions
Sourced
A record that makes a factual claim points at the document it came from — the publisher, the edition, the date it was retrieved and the date an editor last checked it. Where a figure has not been verified against the primary source, the interface says “not yet verified” instead of showing it as settled.
content_sources · last_verified_at
Reviewed
A record moves draft → in review → published, and only an editor can make that last move. The publish call itself refuses three things: a record with no source, a record nobody has verified against that source, and a record a model wrote that no editor has approved. The review decision, the reviewer and the checklist are stored with it.
editorial_reviews
AI drafts never publish automatically
A model may help draft an example sentence, a distractor for a quiz or an explanation. Every record carries an origin — editorial, import, AI or licensed — and an AI-drafted record is marked as such from the moment it is created. It cannot move to the published state without a human editor reviewing and approving it, and the interface tells that editor exactly what they are looking at before they decide.
The same rule reaches the learner. The AI tutor answers from published, reviewed records and names them. Where output is generated live — a tutor reply, a mock provider’s response — it is visibly labelled and never styled like reviewed teaching material. Generated text does not silently become part of the dictionary, the grammar library, a lesson or an examination.
| Status | What it means | Visible to a learner |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Being written or imported. Incomplete by definition. | No |
| In review | Complete and waiting for a second person. AI-drafted records always pass through here. | No |
| Published | Approved by an editor, with a source and a verification date where a factual claim is made. | Yes — this is everything on the public site |
| Archived | Superseded or withdrawn. Kept with its history rather than deleted, so a past correction stays auditable. | No |
2897 records in this environment have reached the published state. Everything else is invisible to a learner.
Curriculum
Where the curriculum figures come from
Level targets — vocabulary, characters, grammar — are transcribed from a published standard and then checked against the primary source by an editor. Until that check has happened, the platform says so on every surface that shows the figures.
HSK 1–4 (classic)
Examination trackLevels 1 through 4 of the six-level HSK used by most textbooks, universities and scholarship applications published before the nine-level standard. HSK Guide does not yet publish levels 5 and 6.
- Source
- Chinese Testing International
- Levels
- 4
- Last verified
- Not yet verified
These figures are transcribed from the published standard and are awaiting editorial verification against the primary source. Treat them as indicative and confirm anything decisive with the examination authority.
Three-band, nine-level standard
Examination trackThe grading standard that organises proficiency into three bands and nine levels, with a substantially larger vocabulary and character inventory at each stage.
- Source
- Ministry of Education of the PRC
- Levels
- 7
- Last verified
- Not yet verified
These figures are transcribed from the published standard and are awaiting editorial verification against the primary source. Treat them as indicative and confirm anything decisive with the examination authority.
HSKK speaking examination
Examination trackThe separate spoken examination, taken alongside the written HSK. Practice here is recorded, scored for tone and fluency, and timed like the real thing.
- Source
- Chinese Testing International
- Levels
- 3
- Last verified
- Not yet verified
These figures are transcribed from the published standard and are awaiting editorial verification against the primary source. Treat them as indicative and confirm anything decisive with the examination authority.
General Mandarin
Exam-independentAn examination-independent path for learners who want to speak, read and live in Chinese without sitting a test.
- Source
- Editorial
- Levels
- 4
- Last verified
- Not yet verified
Independence
HSK Guide is an independent preparation platform. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, accredited by or connected to Chinese Testing International, Hanban, the Center for Language Education and Cooperation, or any body that administers the HSK or HSKK examinations.
“HSK” and “HSKK” are the names of examinations administered by their respective authorities. They are used on this site descriptively, to say which examination a page helps you prepare for. Their use does not imply any relationship, licence or endorsement.
All practice material on the platform is original, written for HSK Guide, and unofficial. We do not host, reproduce or resell past papers, and we do not reproduce official vocabulary inventories. For registration, current examination structure, scoring and dates, go to the examination authority or your registered test centre — not to us.
No sponsor, publisher, school or examination body pays for placement, ranking or favourable coverage anywhere on this site. The subscription is the entire business model, which is what makes it possible to say so.
Accountability
How to hold us to any of this
A policy nobody can check is a slogan. These are the levers that are actually available to you.
Report an error
Every educational record has a report control. A report opens a tracked item in the editorial queue with a status you can be told about. Corrections are made as a new version, with a change note.
Source
Where a page shows a figure from a standard, it shows the publisher and the date it was last verified — or states that it has not been verified. If a page shows a number with neither, that is a bug worth reporting.
Your data
You can export everything the platform holds about you as JSON, delete your voice recordings in one action, and delete your account with its progress. None of it requires an email to support.