The CSCA spans five papers - Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, STEM Chinese, and Humanities Chinese - with Mathematics mandatory for every applicant. For each exam we provide a targeted vocabulary word list, a concept and principles list, and a bank of practice questions, and your curriculum draws only on the papers you actually need.

Mathematics - 48 questions in 60 minutes, calculator-free. Coverage spans sets and inequalities (set operations, quadratic and rational inequalities); functions (domain and range, monotonicity, parity; power, exponential, logarithmic and trigonometric functions; arithmetic and geometric sequences; and the basics of derivatives and calculus); geometry and algebra (analytic geometry of lines, circles, ellipses, hyperbolas and parabolas, along with vectors, complex numbers, and solid geometry); and probability and statistics (classical probability, mean and variance, and the normal distribution).

Because there's no calculator and the pace is relentless, we teach mental-maths and test strategies alongside the content itself.

Physics and Chemistry - subject papers that begin with a diagnostic to place your level, then build through the core concepts, principles, and practice questions most likely to appear, with the technical vocabulary you'll need to read and answer at speed.

STEM Chinese - 80 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes, entirely in Chinese. This paper draws on the vocabulary of the Maths, Physics and Chemistry exams and expects roughly 600-1,000 STEM-specific technical terms to be actively learned. Question types include character recognition (identifying the correct reading or character among similar-looking ones), vocabulary fill-in-the-blank (choosing the term that fits a science sentence - for example distinguishing 加速度, 速度 and 位移 in a passage about motion), paragraph completion (selecting the phrase that coherently fills a gap in a short science passage), and reading comprehension (answering questions on a physics explanation, a lab procedure, or a data description). A working level of HSK 4-5 plus subject-specific technical terms is the foundation we build on.

Humanities Chinese -100 questions in 90 minutes, testing general Chinese proficiency alongside humanities-domain vocabulary and comprehension.

Every student's plan is tailored: after the diagnostic we tell you which papers you need, how many classes each will take, and which areas to prioritise given your timeline.