This book is intended for Western students of the Chinese language who wish to take the Chinese language proficiency exam (( Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi), HSK) either for academic reasons when planning to enroll for studies at a university in Mainland China or for any other professional or personal reasons. This book contains lists of vocabulary and Chinese characters that students are required to know for the six different levels of the HSK exam. It is intended as a reference guide to essential vocabulary and Chinese characters as well as to the grammar aspects that will be requested within the exam in one of the various ways of the communicative tasks assigned to the candidate. This book should be used in conjunction with the official monolingual textbooks available for each level of the HSK exam as a guide of bilingual reference throughout the preparation process for the exam at each proficiency level. There is an optional interactive multimedia application that can be used in combination with the book, its features and benefits are described on the last two pages of the book. The application can be downloaded free of charge by anyone who has purchased a copy of the book."