CSCA Professional Chinese Syllabus 2026 — Humanities and STEM Streams

Two Papers, Two Syllabuses, One Format

Professional Chinese on the CSCA is two separate papers: Humanities Chinese (文科中文) and STEM Chinese (理科中文). Each has its own official syllabus (2025 edition). You register for one of them, and both are sat in the same slot on the first exam day. This page sets out what the two syllabuses say, what they leave unsaid, and how to prepare.

Not sure which one is yours, or whether you need the paper at all? Start with Humanities Chinese or STEM Chinese?

Paper Format

• 80 questions in 90 minutes: about 68 seconds a question, the fastest pace of any CSCA paper.
• Marked out of 100, reported separately from your other subjects.
• Single-answer multiple choice only. No listening, no speaking and no writing.
• In Chinese only. Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry can be taken in English; this paper cannot.
• Six question types, the same in both streams.

The Six Question Types

Both syllabuses name the same six types, all of them single-choice. They name the types without describing them, so the third column is our explanation of what each name means.

Type	Pinyin	What you do	Where to practise
识解汉字	shíjiě hànzì	Recognise and understand characters: the right character, reading or meaning inside a word	Vocabulary & Characters
选词填空	xuǎncí tiánkòng	Choose the word that fills the gap in a sentence	Vocabulary & Characters, Reading Comprehension
辨析词语	biànxī cíyǔ	Tell near-synonyms and look-alike words apart	Grammar & Sentence Structure
选词成段	xuǎncí chéngduàn	Choose the words that complete a whole paragraph	STEM Chinese or Humanities Chinese
补全语句	bǔquán yǔjù	Choose the part that completes a sentence: patterns and connectives	Grammar & Sentence Structure
阅读理解	yuèdú lǐjiě	Read a passage and answer questions on it	Reading Comprehension, then your stream's module

Neither syllabus says how many of the 80 questions each type gets. Our mock papers split them 8, 16, 12, 10, 10 and 24, in the order of the table, with reading the largest share. That split is our own reading of the syllabus, not a figure from the CSCA.

Humanities Chinese (文科中文)

What it is for. The syllabus says the paper checks that you have the Chinese needed for first-year humanities classes at a Chinese university. It expects you to follow what is taught in those classes and note the main points, to recognise the written forms that specialised articles use, to skim and scan a text for its key terms, and to read simple specialist books with the help of reference tools.

What the texts are about. Literature, philosophy, law, education, history, art and other humanities. The syllabus lists the majors it has in mind: Chinese language and literature, philosophy, law, political science, education, sociology, ethnology, Marxist theory, public security, physical education, foreign languages and literature, journalism and communication, history, art theory, music, dance, drama and film, fine arts and design.

In practice. Expect argument and commentary rather than conversation: claims, evidence and contrast, in the vocabulary of law, education, history and the arts. Our Humanities Chinese module covers the terms, two sets of humanities reading and paragraph completion.

STEM Chinese (理科中文)

What it is for. The syllabus says the paper checks that you can study science and engineering in Chinese in the first year of a degree. It expects you to tell professional Chinese from everyday Chinese, to know a good range of science and engineering vocabulary, to read first-year textbooks in mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing on your own, to follow academic papers with reference tools, and to state basic theories and concepts in properly formal Chinese.

What the texts are about. The syllabus groups its topics in three:

• Basic concepts: mathematical symbols and how formulae are expressed, physical laws and chemical equations, the terms for basic laboratory operations.
• Course content: the basic concepts of advanced mathematics, the principles of university physics, basic chemistry, and programming terms.
• Academic settings: describing an experiment, reading charts and data, reading academic papers, taking part in class discussion.

In practice. Expect procedure, cause and effect, and data: how a quantity changes, what a chart shows, why a method was chosen. Our STEM Chinese module has the terms of mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing, lab work and data, chart reading, two sets of science reading and paragraph completion.

What the Syllabus Does Not Say

The syllabuses are brief: a purpose, a format table and a list of topics. Several things you will see stated with confidence online are in neither of them:

• No HSK level. Neither syllabus sets an HSK equivalent, and an HSK certificate does not replace the paper. The one exemption, for Chinese Language majors holding HSK 4, is the university's to grant.
• No number of questions for each type, and no marks for each type.
• No classical Chinese. Neither syllabus names it, so treat it as enrichment once the core is secure.
• No sample questions yet. In November 2026, csca.cn offered sample questions for Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry and none for either Chinese paper.

How to Prepare

1. Secure the base. Characters, core vocabulary and sentence patterns serve both streams: Vocabulary & Characters, then Grammar & Sentence Structure.
2. Build reading speed. At 68 seconds a question there is no time to read a passage twice: Reading Comprehension.
3. Move into your stream's register. STEM Chinese or Humanities Chinese, then real texts from your own field.
4. Sit timed papers. A full mock paper of 80 questions in 90 minutes shows whether your pace holds to the end.

Study checklist: the question types and topics of both streams on a sheet to tick off as you go: CSCA Professional Chinese checklist (PDF).

Where the Official Syllabus Is

On csca.cn, open Test Prep and choose Examination Syllabus under Humanities Chinese or STEM Chinese. The syllabus is the China Scholarship Council's document and carries a notice that it may not be republished without its authorisation, so we describe it and point you to it rather than copy it. The other papers are summarised in our CSCA syllabus guide.