The most reliable free materials are all on the official website
When preparing for the CSCA, your first step should be to get hold of the official materials rather than rushing to collect question banks. The preparation section of csca.cn offers free downloads of the 2025 edition of the exam syllabus for each subject.
- Official sample questions for Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry are available to download.
- A vocabulary list for Academic Chinese is also available to download.
- All of these are officially published preparation materials.
Official materials are not just "one more resource"; they are also the standard by which you judge whether other materials are reliable. Treat the syllabus as the authority on the scope of your review, and the sample questions as the reference for question types and difficulty. If you are unsure whether a resource is worth your time, go back and compare it with these two: knowledge points that are not in the syllabus can be set aside for now, and question types that do not appear in the sample questions do not need a lot of your time.
How to use the syllabus
The syllabus is for planning your study, not just for reading through once. You can copy each item in the syllabus into a checklist and tick each item off once you have learned it.
This has several benefits:
- Progress is visible; you will not end up "having flipped through a lot of the book but being unable to say what you have mastered."
- When reviewing, you do not need to work out again where you are weak; whatever is not ticked on the checklist is a gap.
- Near the exam, you can go through only the unticked items, which saves time.
When copying the checklist, if an item is too general, break it down into several small actions you can check for yourself. "I understand it" does not count as complete; "I can independently answer a related question correctly" does. For how exactly to word the items, follow the original text of the syllabus.
The Mathematics syllabus has four modules:
- Sets and inequalities
- Functions
- Geometry and algebra
- Probability and statistics
The Physics syllabus has five modules:
- Mechanics
- Electromagnetism
- Thermal physics
- Optics
- Modern physics
The modules are also useful for allocating your time. Do not spread your effort evenly across every module; first do a set of official sample questions, see which module you get the most wrong in, and start reviewing from that module.
How to use sample questions
Do the official sample questions at the pace of the real exam. In the real exam, Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry are all 60 minutes for 48 questions, averaging 75 seconds per question; when doing sample questions, time yourself at about 75 seconds per question as well. You can only get a feel for this pace by completing a full set within the time limit.
When doing sample questions, note the following:
- Do not use a calculator, because calculators are strictly prohibited in the real exam. Practise under this restriction from the start, so that you will not be unable to calculate on exam day.
- Finish the whole set before checking answers; do not look up information or open books in between.
- After finishing and checking, classify your wrong answers by knowledge point; do not just mark them "wrong".
- After classifying, return to the syllabus and see which item you have not yet mastered; leave the corresponding item on the checklist unticked for now.
If you do not finish within the time limit, the practice is not wasted: you can see whether the problem is that you get stuck on a certain module or that your overall speed is insufficient. The two cases need different remedies: for the former, go back and review knowledge points; for the latter, practise your answering pace.
Be careful with "past papers" found online
"Past papers" circulating online are not necessarily reliable. The official "Integrity Exam Commitment Letter" requires candidates to keep exam questions, answers and scoring criteria confidential, and not to record, copy or share them.
As a result, "past papers" shared online usually come from candidates' recollections after the exam and may differ from the original questions: details in the question stem may be missing, the options may appear in a different order, and answers may be misremembered.
You can still use these questions to get familiar with the question types — for example, to see what the questions look like and roughly how many steps a question involves. But where they conflict with the official syllabus or sample questions, the official materials take precedence. Anything clearly beyond the scope of the syllabus does not need to be studied specially just because it appears in a "past paper".
Official mock test for the Home-based Test
Candidates taking the Home-based Test must complete a personal test of the exam system and at least one centralized mock test.
The personal test and the centralized mock test are mainly opportunities to get familiar with the exam system and your equipment, not times to practise questions. Use them to confirm that your camera, microphone, network and exam client are working properly, and to go through the processes of logging in, answering and submitting, so that you will not be flustered on exam day. For specific times, refer to official notices.
If you fail to complete these tests and as a result cannot take the exam on the day, fees are non-refundable.
What can you use for free on CSCA.PRO
After registering, you can use some free features without purchasing a membership:
- Study 2 different knowledge points per day, including explanations and practice.
- Ask the AI 20 times per day.
- The Mathematics 15-minute diagnostic can be taken free 2 times; the 3rd time requires a 7-day wait.
Free quotas are limited, so it is even more important to use them in this order: study knowledge points after you have read the syllabus, so that you first know what you need to learn; then use AI questions to solve specific places where you are stuck, which is much more useful than asking generally "how should I review?"
Suggested order:
- First read the official syllabus.
- Do the official sample questions.
- Use the diagnostic to find your weak modules.
- Go to the Learning Center to review by knowledge point.
The reason for this order is: the syllabus gives the scope, sample questions give the level, the diagnostic gives direction, and the Learning Center gives content. If you skip the earlier steps and go straight to drilling knowledge points, you can easily drill a lot of content that is not tested in the syllabus at all.