Help Centre

The Mandarin Temple Guide

bù chǐ xià wèn — “Never be ashamed to ask”

Everything the platform does, written out — for learners, Pro subscribers, tutors, parents and schools. Start with a search, or pick a section.

Rather ask a person?

Talk to us

Start here

What Mandarin Temple isA tour of the whole product in five minutes — what it teaches, who it is for, and how the pieces fit together. 5 min Your first weekOrientation Day, then the handful of habits that make everything after it stick. 6 min AI credits explainedWhat a credit is, where your starting balance came from, and why it went down by 15. 5 min What Pro unlocksEverything behind the paywall, feature by feature, so you can tell whether you need it. 6 min

Browse by section 84 articles

Getting started 6What Mandarin Temple is, how to set up your account, and what to do in your first week.For learners 16Every study surface — the dictionary, HSK lessons, flashcards, the four skill studios and your progress.HSK exam guides 10What each HSK paper asks of you, how HSK 3.0 differs from the old scale, where to sit it, and what the certificate is actually worth.Pro & credits 6What a paid plan unlocks, how AI credits work, and what each AI feature costs.For tutors 18Run circles, set homework and see what your learners actually did between lessons.For parents 7Set your children up, give them their own logins, and follow their progress safely.For institutions 9Onboard a school: tutors, students, seats, analytics and the evidence behind them.Account & privacy 6Your profile, notifications, what we measure, and how to take your data with you.Troubleshooting 6When audio will not play, progress will not save, or something simply looks wrong.Still stuck? Write to us. A person reads every message, and anything we answer twice ends up here as an article.

汉语水平考试 · For anyone sitting the HSK

The HSK exam guides

One guide per level, written from the paper rather than around it — what each section asks, how long you really get, and what the band behind it contains. Plus what changed in HSK 3.0, how to register, and what the certificate is actually worth.

Browse the HSK guides Where and how to sit it

What is actually on the paper

Every section, its real timing and its question count, per level — drawn from the same configuration our mock papers are built from, so the guide and the practice cannot disagree.

Which level to sit, and where

A finder that puts the syllabus load, the paper and what the certificate is used for side by side before you pay a fee. Registration itself goes to the official portal, which is the only place it stays correct.

What the certificate is worth

Where HSK is genuinely required, what HSK 3.0 changed about the old six-level scale, and the four things commonly said about it that are not true.

Every level, and what it costs you at the desk 7 papers

Testing time only — levels 1 to 6 add eight to ten minutes before the clock starts, for filling in your details. Every figure comes from the configuration our own mock papers are generated from.

The HSK guide 10 articles

Written from the syllabus and the paper format, with the figures rendered from data rather than typed into prose — so a page cannot quietly disagree with the practice test beside it.

A guide to taking the HSK 1 (HSK 3.0)Everything the HSK 1 paper asks of you: 40 questions in 32 minutes, no writing section, and the 500 words and 54 grammar points behind them. 6 min A guide to taking the HSK 2 (HSK 3.0)The HSK 2 paper in full: 60 questions in 47 minutes, still no writing section, and what changes from HSK 1 besides the word count. 6 min A guide to taking the HSK 3 (HSK 3.0)HSK 3 adds a writing section and doubles the paper. What the three sections ask, the 950 words and 81 grammar points behind them, and how to pace 80 questions. 7 min A guide to taking the HSK 4 (HSK 3.0)The HSK 4 paper: 100 questions in 95 minutes across listening, reading and writing — and why this is the level most often written into a requirement. 7 min A guide to taking the HSK 5 (HSK 3.0)HSK 5 in detail: 100 questions in 115 minutes, 40 of them writing, and the shift from understanding sentences to understanding what a text is doing. 7 min A guide to taking the HSK 6 (HSK 3.0)The HSK 6 paper and its single most feared task: read a 1,000-character article, then rewrite it as a summary with the source taken away. 8 min A guide to taking the HSK 7-9 (HSK 3.0)The band that did not exist under HSK 2.0: 210 minutes, five sections including translation and speaking, and one paper that places you at 7, 8 or 9. 9 min HSK 2.0 vs HSK 3.0: what actually changedNine levels instead of six, a three-way scale of characters, words and grammar, and a band above the old ceiling. What is different, and what it means for a certificate you already hold. 8 min Where and how to sit the HSKHow registration works, the difference between the paper and internet-based tests, what to bring on the day, and how to find a test centre near you. 7 min What an HSK certificate is actually worthWhy HSK exists, where it is genuinely required in China, what it does for study, work and visas — and the claims about it that are not true. 8 min

Registration, fees, dates and test centres are run by CTI, not by us — source: www.chinesetest.cn. When you are ready to practise under the clock, every level here has one full mock paper open without an account.

教学工具 · For anyone who teaches

The Teaching Board

A slide editor built for Chinese. Drag real dictionary entries, HSK lessons and grammar points onto slides, present the deck onto your learners’ screens, and set what is on the slide as homework. It opens with no account and a lesson already on it.

Open the board Start with the overview

Build it from real Chinese

Drag a dictionary entry, an HSK lesson, a grammar point or a reading straight onto a slide — alongside stroke order, tone cards and a 田字格 grid. 24 teaching tools, no clip art.

Put it on their screens

Present to a circle and every learner follows your slide as you move. They can raise a hand and answer a quick check; they cannot move a thing. No video — it sits beside the call you already run.

Set the slide as homework

Because a card points at the real lesson rather than copying it, what is on the slide can be set as homework that marks against a learner’s own progress.

Or print the whole deck

One page per slide, straight to PDF, free on any plan and with no account at all. The offline fallback for a room with bad internet.

Start from a lesson, not a blank page 6 ready-made layouts

Every one is a real, complete lesson — slides in teaching order, a running order with minutes against each stage, and Chinese you could teach this afternoon. Swap the words for your own.

First lessonA 30-minute trial for a total beginner: 你好, their name, the four tones.
New wordsPresent a vocabulary set, drill it, then make the class say it. About 45 minutes.
One grammar pointOne pattern — 的 for who owns what — noticed, drilled, then used. 45 min, HSK 1-2.
Character writingThree characters that share 女 — take apart, watch, then write. 40 min, HSK 1.
Speaking and tonesA pronunciation clinic: hear the four, then record and match the contour. 30 min.
Review and checkRecall first, then check — a 40-minute HSK 1–2 review that tests before it tells.

The Teaching Board guide 9 articles

Every part of it, written from what the board actually does — including, in each one, what it does not.

The Teaching BoardA slide editor built for Chinese: what it is, what is on the screen, and how to get a lesson onto it. 7 min Putting content on a slideThe Content column: searching 21,000+ dictionary entries, HSK lessons, grammar and readings, and dragging one onto a slide. 7 min Every widget, and what it is forAll 23 tools in the library, grouped the way the palette groups them, and the three a teaching seat adds. 9 min Slides, decks and templatesBuilding the deck: adding and duplicating slides, the six templates, the six backgrounds, and how saving works. 7 min Lesson FlowA running order with minutes against each stage, and one clock. What it does, and the several things it does not. 5 min Presenting to a circlePutting the deck on your learners’ screens, raised hands, a quick check, and what a learner can and cannot do. 8 min Sharing, printing and homeworkThe three ways a board leaves your screen — an unlisted link, a PDF, and a slide set as homework — and what each one gates on. 7 min The free teaching toolsSix board widgets as standalone pages that need no account, remember their settings in the address bar, and print nothing. 6 min Teaching with a board at homeBuilding a lesson on the Teaching Board to sit beside your child with — what a parent account can do, and what it cannot. 7 min

Who it is for

Tutors and teachers: Prepare a lesson once, teach it live, and set what is on the slide as homework. Start from one of six ready-made lessons rather than a blank page.
Teaching assistants and new tutors: The layouts are lesson plans you can read. Open “First lesson” and you have the shape of a trial lesson, with the timings already on it.
Learners and self-teachers: It is free to open and needs no account. Build your own revision deck out of the dictionary and the HSK lessons, and print it.
Parents at the kitchen table: Everything above, minus the three classroom tools. One article says exactly what a parent account can and cannot do. Teaching with a board at home

There is also a page that explains the board to someone who has never seen it — what the Teaching Board is — and six of its tools as free pages that need no account at all.