MandarinSteps Recommended app

Home / About

About · Editorial standards

About Mandarin Steps

By the Mandarin Steps editorial team Reviewed

Mandarin Steps helps early-stage Chinese learners find their level and drill the right vocabulary, in frequency order, without guessing. I built it to answer the two questions that stalled me when I started, where am I and what do I learn next, with current, sourced information and free tools. I am also honest about a real source of confusion the whole field shares: the exam now has two live structures, and I keep both straight for you.

Who runs Mandarin Steps?

I do. I write and maintain every page here myself, and I am an independent publisher with no affiliation to Hanban, Chinese Testing International, or any official HSK body. HSK is a registered testing program; I describe it for accuracy and never brand this site with it or imply endorsement from the organizations that administer it.

  • Independent publisher, not affiliated with any HSK testing body.
  • Every word count and rollout fact carries a sourced, dated verification.
  • The placement check and word lists are free with no signup or install wall.

The HSK 3.0 versus 2.0 freshness policy

The reason this site exists is that the HSK exam is mid-transition. The nine-level HSK 3.0 standard was announced in 2021, but the rollout has been uneven, and many test centers still administer the old six-level HSK 2.0 exam. Most competing resources show only the old six levels. That is the gap I set out to close: I present both, I put a 2.0/3.0 toggle on every word list, and every rollout fact here carries the date it was last verified against a primary source, so you can see for yourself how current it is instead of trusting a page that may have quietly gone stale.

My editorial standards

These are the rules I hold every figure and claim on this site to, and the reason a page here can be trusted the day you read it, not just the day it was written.

Every figure is sourced and dated

Word counts, level structures, and rollout status each cite a primary source and carry a visible last-reviewed date. A word count that is out of date teaches a wrong answer, so provenance is not optional.

Every claim carries a verified-on date

The HSK 3.0-vs-2.0 facts show the date they were last checked against a primary source, so you can judge how current a figure is rather than take an unverifiable freshness promise on faith.

Confirmed vs approximate, never blurred

Where a figure is a heuristic (a rough level-to-level mapping, a study-time estimate) we label it as such rather than dressing it up as an official HSK number.

No faked credibility signals

No invented pass rates, no fake reviews, no claimed affiliation with any HSK body. Corrections are welcome and I fix errors quickly.

Free tools, and why they stay free

The placement check and the vocabulary drills are free, with no signup and no install wall, and they always will be. Knowing your level and knowing which words come next is the part every learner should just get to have. I would rather earn your attention with work that is genuinely useful than fence it off behind an email box.

My connection to Wordbrush

I made an app specifically for spaced-repetition learning of Chinese. It's called Wordbrush, and I've built it carefully over a series of months to specifically solve for my desire to learn as quickly and efficiently as possible. So I'm a little biased, but I think it's pretty awesome (and so do the other people who have used it). You will meet that recommendation in a few contextual asides and on one clearly labelled recommended-app page. The placement check and the word lists do their job whether or not you ever install it.

Contact

Found a word count that has drifted, a broken step, or a rollout fact that has changed? Tell me and I will fix it. Reach me through the Urban Algorithm contact page. Urban Algorithm LLC is the company I publish Mandarin Steps under.