Switching from HSK 2.0 to HSK 3.0: Which Words You Already Know and What to Add
If you studied for HSK 2.0, almost nothing you learned is lost when HSK 3.0 becomes the exam on 13 December 2026. But the levels are cut differently, so your level number does not carry over. We compared the two official word lists, level by level, to show how much of your vocabulary transfers, which HSK 3.0 level it lines up with, and exactly how many words you still need to add.
How we counted: both lists come from one open dataset (complete-hsk-vocabulary on GitHub, MIT licence), and words are matched by their written form. The figures describe vocabulary overlap only. They are not an official conversion between the two exams.
The Short Answer
Your words carry over: 96–98% of the words on every HSK 2.0 level also appear somewhere in HSK 3.0.
Your level does not: HSK 3.0 levels are bigger, so your HSK 2.0 words cover only 49–61% of the HSK 3.0 level with the same number.
The gap is mostly familiar material: after HSK 2.0 level 3, you need 428 more words to complete HSK 3.0 levels 1–3, but only 57 of them contain a character you have not met.
Rule of thumb: by vocabulary, HSK 2.0 level 3 sits between HSK 3.0 levels 2 and 3, and HSK 2.0 level 4 is closest to HSK 3.0 level 3.
How Much of Your HSK 2.0 Vocabulary Carries Over
Take everything up to your HSK 2.0 level (the lists are cumulative) and look it up in HSK 3.0. The table shows how many of those words HSK 3.0 places at the same level number or below, how many it lists at any level, and which HSK 3.0 level you must reach before 90% of the shared words are covered.
| HSK 2.0 level | Words (levels 1–N) | In HSK 3.0 levels 1–N | Anywhere in HSK 3.0 | 90% covered by HSK 3.0 level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 150 | 143 (95%) | 147 (98%) | 1 |
| 2 | 297 | 271 (91%) | 288 (97%) | 2 |
| 3 | 595 | 550 (92%) | 575 (97%) | 3 |
| 4 | 1,193 | 1,095 (92%) | 1,160 (97%) | 4 |
| 5 | 2,491 | 2,049 (82%) | 2,430 (98%) | 6 |
| 6 | 4,991 | 3,154 (63%) | 4,802 (96%) | 7–9 |
Up to HSK 2.0 level 4 the picture is simple: more than nine in ten of your words sit at the same HSK 3.0 level or lower. From level 5 up, many words have been moved higher. Of the 2,500 words that are new at HSK 2.0 level 6, 1,525 belong to the HSK 3.0 advanced band (levels 7–9), and of the 1,298 new at HSK 2.0 level 5, 252 moved to level 6 and 121 to levels 7–9.
The words that do not appear in HSK 3.0 at all (2–4% per level) are mostly not lost either. Almost all of them are only cut differently: HSK 2.0 has 唱歌 chànggē "to sing", HSK 3.0 lists 唱 chàng and 歌 gē on their own; HSK 2.0 has 打篮球 dǎ lánqiú "to play basketball", HSK 3.0 lists 篮球 lánqiú. Up to level 5, every such word contains or sits inside an HSK 3.0 entry.
How Many Words You Need to Add
Now the other direction: start from the HSK 3.0 level with the same number and count what an HSK 2.0 learner does not know yet. The last two columns show how much of that gap is genuinely new: words that contain at least one character you have never seen, and the number of such new characters.
| Finished HSK 2.0 level | HSK 3.0 levels 1–N (words) | You already know | Words to add | …with a new character | New characters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 294 | 143 (49%) | 151 | 83 | 74 |
| 2 | 491 | 271 (55%) | 220 | 52 | 43 |
| 3 | 978 | 550 (56%) | 428 | 57 | 52 |
| 4 | 1,950 | 1,095 (56%) | 855 | 91 | 69 |
| 5 | 3,497 | 2,049 (59%) | 1,448 | 49 | 46 |
| 6 | 5,181 | 3,154 (61%) | 2,027 | 17 | 16 |
The "words to add" column looks heavy, but read it next to the last two. Most of the words you are missing are built from characters you already know: 电话 diànhuà "telephone" when you learned 打电话 dǎ diànhuà "to make a phone call", 春天 chūntiān "spring" when you learned 春 chūn, or new combinations of familiar characters. Those take minutes, not weeks.
The real new learning is the smaller number: from HSK 2.0 level 3 to HSK 3.0 level 3, about 50 new characters. That is where to spend writing practice.
Which HSK 3.0 Level Matches Yours
The table below answers "I passed HSK 2.0 level N - how far am I from HSK 3.0 level K?" Each cell is the number of HSK 3.0 words (levels 1 to K, cumulative) you still need to add.
| Finished HSK 2.0 level | → HSK 3.0 L1 | → L2 | → L3 | → L4 | → L5 | → L6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 151 | 345 | 832 | 1,804 | 3,350 | 5,034 |
| 2 | 96 | 220 | 694 | 1,666 | 3,209 | 4,893 |
| 3 | 90 | 180 | 428 | 1,380 | 2,923 | 4,606 |
| 4 | 87 | 172 | 366 | 855 | 2,345 | 4,023 |
| 5 | 85 | 168 | 350 | 726 | 1,448 | 2,874 |
| 6 | 85 | 168 | 350 | 713 | 1,280 | 2,027 |
This is about words only. HSK 3.0 also adds handwriting and, from level 3, more writing. A vocabulary match does not mean you would pass the exam at that level. See what changed in HSK 3.0.
Two things stand out. First, even an HSK 2.0 level 6 learner has 85 HSK 3.0 level 1 entries to look at. All 85 are written with characters from the HSK 2.0 lists: single characters now listed as words (车 chē, 病 bìng, 说 shuō), parts of old words (电话 diànhuà) and easy compounds (男朋友 nán péngyou, 早饭 zǎofàn). You will recognise most of them at a glance. Use them as a quick check, not a study load.
Second, the gap grows fast above your old level. An HSK 2.0 level 4 learner is 366 words from completing HSK 3.0 level 3, but 855 from level 4. By vocabulary size and overlap, a finished HSK 2.0 level 4 is closest to HSK 3.0 level 3, and a finished HSK 2.0 level 3 sits between HSK 3.0 levels 2 and 3.
Words That Moved
Matching level by level also shows how HSK 3.0 reorders everyday vocabulary. A few examples from the data:
- 超市 chāoshì (HSK 2.0 L3 → HSK 3.0 L1) - supermarket
- 半 bàn (HSK 2.0 L3 → HSK 3.0 L1) - half
- 饺子 jiǎozi (HSK 2.0 L4 → HSK 3.0 L1) - dumpling
- 中文 Zhōngwén (HSK 2.0 L4 → HSK 3.0 L1) - Chinese (language)
- 包子 bāozi (HSK 2.0 L5 → HSK 3.0 L1) - steamed bun
- 小姐 xiǎojiě (HSK 2.0 L1 → HSK 3.0 L5) - Miss; young lady
The pattern: HSK 3.0 brings many concrete words for daily life (food, shops, time) forward, and moves some others, such as 小姐 xiǎojiě, much later. If you learned with HSK 2.0, you probably know the first group already, even though your old list placed them later.
Build a Bridging List
Instead of starting HSK 3.0 from scratch, make one list of only the words you are missing. Work through it level by level, starting below your old level, not at it.
- Pick your target level - Use the table above. Finished HSK 2.0 level 3? Target HSK 3.0 level 2 first (180 words to add), then level 3 (another 248).
- Go through the HSK 3.0 lists from level 1 - Open HSK 3.0 level 1, then level 2, level 3 and level 4. Skim quickly; mark only what you do not know. The CSV download on each page makes this easy in a spreadsheet.
- Sort your marks into two piles - Pile A: words made of characters you already know (电话 diànhuà, 春天 chūntiān). Read them once and add them to review. Pile B: words with a new character. These need writing practice.
- Write pile B by hand - Open each new character to see its stroke order, take the writing quiz, and print a practice sheet for the hard ones.
- Review both piles on a schedule - Let spaced repetition bring the words back until they stick. Then move up one level and repeat.
Doing It on HanziBook
- Switch to HSK 3.0 - New accounts default to HSK 3.0. If you started on HSK 2.0, use the HSK 2.0 / 3.0 switch on the progress, review, test-prep and word-lessons pages.
- See where you stand - Progress → Stats shows, per HSK 3.0 level, how many words you have already practised; Progress → My words colours each word by status.
- Test yourself by level - HSK test prep has the same switch: pick HSK 3.0 and a level for timed multiple-choice practice. Misses can go straight into your review queue.
- Print your gap words - Search for the words on your bridging list in Print and export them as a copybook with stroke-order guides.
Shortcuts: your progress by level · My words · HSK test prep · print a copybook · the HSK 3.0 hub.
How We Counted, and the Limits
Source: the open dataset complete-hsk-vocabulary by drkameleon on GitHub (MIT licence), its HSK 2.0 lists ("old", levels 1–6) and its HSK 3.0 lists from the 2025 syllabus ("newest", levels 1–6 and 7–9). Downloaded on 20 October 2026.
HSK 2.0 sizes: 150 / 147 / 298 / 598 / 1,298 / 2,500 new words, 4,991 in total (the official figure is 5,000; a few duplicate entries are merged in the dataset).
HSK 3.0 sizes: 294 / 197 / 487 / 972 / 1,547 / 1,684 / 4,876 new words, 10,057 in total, against official round targets of about 300 / 500 / 1,000 / 2,000 / 3,600 / 5,400 / 11,000 cumulative. The dataset keeps one entry per written form, so a word the syllabus lists twice (for a second reading or meaning) appears once, at its first level.
Matching: by simplified characters only. Two words written the same way count as one, even if the syllabus intends a different reading. 打电话 dǎ diànhuà and 电话 diànhuà count as different words.
Not official: HSK 2.0 and HSK 3.0 levels have no official one-to-one equivalence that we know of. These figures compare word lists, nothing more.
The script that produces every number on this page is part of the HanziBook code (scripts/analysis/hsk2-vs-hsk3.mjs) and prints the full tables, so the analysis can be repeated when the dataset changes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my HSK 2.0 certificate still valid?
The new exam does not cancel existing certificates. Whether one is accepted, and how old it may be, is decided by whoever asks for it: a university, a scholarship programme or an employer. Score reports are commonly treated as valid for two years from the test date, but each institution sets its own rule, so check their current requirements.
HSK 2.0 level 4 equals which HSK 3.0 level?
There is no official equivalence. By vocabulary, a finished HSK 2.0 level 4 (1,193 words) is closest to HSK 3.0 level 3: you already know 63% of HSK 3.0 levels 1–3 and need 366 more words to complete them, against 855 for level 4.
I passed HSK 3 (HSK 2.0). What level is that in HSK 3.0?
By vocabulary, between HSK 3.0 levels 2 and 3. Your 595 words cover 92% of what you need at the same number or below, but HSK 3.0 levels 1–3 have 978 words. You are 180 words from completing level 2 and 428 from level 3, and only 57 of those 428 contain a character you have not seen.
Do I have to relearn everything for HSK 3.0?
No. 96–98% of the words on each HSK 2.0 level appear in HSK 3.0, and most of the words you are missing are made of characters you already know. Make a bridging list of only the missing words and work through it level by level.
Which new HSK 3.0 words should I add first?
Start below your old level: the missing HSK 3.0 level 1 and 2 words are everyday vocabulary and quick to pick up. Then prioritise words with characters you have never seen, because those need writing practice; words built from known characters can go straight into review.
Are these numbers official?
No. They are our counts from an open, community-maintained copy of both syllabuses, matched by written form. The official syllabus quotes rounded totals and lists some words twice for different readings, so exact figures may differ slightly.
HSK 3.0: everything in one place → · HSK 3.0 Explained → · HSK 3.0 Handwriting Characters → · HSK Test Prep →