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Optimizing HSK Study with MaxRank

Short Version

I've put together a PDF containing the revised HSK vocab for levels 1--6, sorted in such a way to maximize word learning rate. The list was sourced from Lingomi, with sorting applied using the MaxRank method. I have found this particular presentation of the list to be especially useful; so I put it here in hopes that others can also benefit.

HSK Vocab Levels 1--6, MaxRank Ordered (PDF)

What is the Revised HSK Vocab List?

I'm interested in taking the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK), the official test of Chinese ability. Both old and revised versions exist; here I focus on the revised version only. The revised HSK is divided into six levels, and the HSK commission publishes an exhaustive list of words for each level.

Why Ordering?

The HSK lists that I've found are all provided in alphabetical order of the pinyin romanizations. I reorganized the materials to put the most important vocab first, within each HSK level.

What is "MaxRank" Ordering?

According to the MaxRank technique, the difficulty of a word is the maximum of the frequency ranks of the component characters. That is, if a word is composed of characters with frequency ranks \(r_1, r_2, \ldots, r_n\), the word's difficulty is:

\[\text{difficulty} = \max(r_1, r_2, \ldots, r_n)\]

Words are then sorted by ascending difficulty within each HSK level.

Why MaxRank Ordering?

MaxRank allows the learner to maximize his words-to-characters-known ratio. By positioning words containing less common characters later in the study sequence, a learner first masters the most frequently occurring characters and the many words built from them, allowing better comprehension building before tackling rarer characters.

Originally published on Quasiphysics.