The HSKK speaking exam, explained
The written HSK does not test speaking at all. The exam that does is the HSKK (汉语水平口语考试), and most learners meet it the day a university application asks for it. It has three levels rather than six, it is recorded rather than conducted by an interviewer, and it passes at 60 of 100. Here is what each level asks you to say and how to train for it.
Under the new standard, speaking stops being optional. The revised exam taking effect from July 2026 registers a spoken component alongside the written paper from level 3 upward, rather than selling it separately. Levels 1 and 2 still have no speaking test. If your booking is for the new format, you are sitting the spoken exam whether or not anyone asked you for it — see the new HSK, explained.
The three levels
| Level | Pairs with | Vocabulary | Length | Pass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HSKK 初级 Beginner | HSK 1–2 | ~200 words | ~17 min, including 7 min preparation | 60 / 100 |
| HSKK 中级 Intermediate | HSK 3–4 | ~900 words | ~21 min, including 10 min preparation | 60 / 100 |
| HSKK 高级 Advanced | HSK 5–6 | ~3,000 words | ~24 min, including 10 min preparation | 60 / 100 |
What each level asks you to do
Beginner
- Listen and repeat. A short sentence plays, you repeat it. Fifteen items, and they are marked on pronunciation and tone, not on understanding.
- Listen and answer. Ten short questions, each answered in a sentence.
- Answer two questions in Chinese, read from the paper, in at least five sentences each. Ordinary questions: your family, your studies, what you did on the weekend.
Intermediate
- Listen and repeat. Ten longer sentences.
- Describe two pictures, for about a minute each.
- Answer two questions printed on the paper, for about two minutes each — opinion questions rather than facts about you.
Advanced
- Listen and retell. Three short passages, each retold in your own words.
- Read a passage aloud, marked on fluency, pronunciation and phrasing.
- Speak on two prompts for about two and a half minutes each, with a short preparation window.
What the graders reward
Every task is recorded and graded from the recording, so nobody can rescue you with a follow-up question and nobody hears you hesitate at the start unless you leave the silence in. Three things move the mark:
- You keep talking for the whole window. An answer that stops at 20 seconds when the task allows 120 loses points no matter how correct it was. Length is scored.
- Tones survive under pressure. The repeat tasks are pure pronunciation, and the longer tasks are marked on comprehensibility. A learner whose tones collapse when they improvise scores below one with a smaller vocabulary and stable tones.
- The sentences are patterns you control. Reaching for a construction you half-know produces a sentence the grader has to decode. Reaching for one you own produces a fluent answer.
How to prepare when you have nobody to talk to
The HSKK is a monologue exam, which means the practice that matches it is also a monologue: record yourself answering a prompt for the full time, listen back, and fix one thing. Most learners skip the listening-back step and it is the step that works.
Beyond that, the ordinary answer is the right one. Get real conversational mileage, because the exam's opinion prompts are the same moves a conversation asks for — a comment, a reason, an example, a question back. The comment and question method is how to get that mileage from your first weeks, with a small kit of memorized comments and questions that keeps a native speaker talking while your own sentences catch up.
In GraphChinese: speaking is trained from lesson one rather than added before an exam, and every lesson's vocabulary arrives inside sentences you are asked to produce. There is also a study snapshot you can hand to a voice assistant so it drills you at your actual level instead of inventing HSK 5 words at an HSK 2 learner — see using an AI tutor for Chinese.
Registration
You register for the HSKK on the same site as the HSK, pay a separate fee, and frequently sit it on the same day as the written exam. If a program has asked you for both, register for both at once — the HSKK runs on fewer dates than the HSK in many centers. See how to register for the HSK for the full walkthrough.
Frequently asked questions
What is the HSKK?
The HSKK (汉语水平口语考试) is the spoken Chinese exam that runs alongside the written HSK. It comes in three levels — beginner, intermediate and advanced — and is registered, paid for and sat separately from the HSK.
What is the HSKK pass mark?
60 out of 100 at all three levels.
Which HSKK level goes with which HSK level?
HSKK Beginner is normally paired with HSK 1–2, HSKK Intermediate with HSK 3–4, and HSKK Advanced with HSK 5–6. A university that wants spoken proficiency usually names both, for example HSK 4 with HSKK Intermediate.
How is the HSKK recorded?
You speak into a microphone in a room with other candidates, and your answers are recorded and graded later by an examiner. There is no interviewer and no conversation — every prompt comes from the recording, and you answer into the silence.
Do you have to take the HSKK?
Only if the institution asking for your Chinese requires it. The HSK certificate stands on its own for many purposes, but degree programs taught in Chinese and scholarship applications frequently ask for an HSKK level too.
Speaking is not a phase you add at the end. GraphChinese trains it from lesson one with a memorized kit of comments and questions, so the HSKK prompts are moves you have already made hundreds of times. The whole course, HSK 0 through HSK 6, is $49 once for lifetime access.
Start at your true level