Liebert William from China For HSK1 and HSK2, only listening and reading, No writting test, But for HSK3, HSK4, HSK5, HSK6, they all need writting So you had better learn how to write it if you want to master higher level Chinese Please note that China Mainland uses simplified characters, while China, Taiwan and Hongkong use traditonal characters. My advice is that you learn simplified one, which is easier and most popular. Hope it helps

I have never done any HSK exams, but as I Chinese learner I can give you my opinion on whether or not you need to learn to write. I actually had a chat with my friend about this the other night. I myself feel like the characters I can write, I recognise easier because I am simply more familiar with them. Even though there are a lot of strokes in characters like 疇、覆、襲、擊、釁、讓 and 關, I always recognise them more easily that say for example 腥 or 肇 because I have simply never really studied these characters, and can't write them. I myself learn Chinese characters the same way kids learn them - by writing them out again and again by hand. If I didn't do this, I have no idea how I would learn them. Therefore, even though we all forget how to write Chinese characters when it comes to writing essays, I would nevertheless recommend studying them through writing them out. I wish you the best of luck with your Chinese studies and your exam! Laurence

I know very little about HSK but I did OPI Mandarin a while back. I'm sure you'll find some sample tests on Google. Best of luck!