汉语水平口语考试
The HSKK speaking exam — and how to practise for it
The HSKK is the spoken Chinese proficiency exam — a separate test from the HSK, with its own certificate and its own three levels. This page sets out exactly what is on each paper, then lets you practise three of its formats out loud, scored in your own browser.
HSKK (汉语水平口语考试, Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǒuyǔ Kǎoshì) is the speaking half of the Chinese proficiency exam system. It comes in three independent levels — 初级 (paired with HSK 1–2), 中级 (HSK 3–4) and 高级 (HSK 5–6). Every level is marked out of 100, the pass mark is 60, and the result is valid for two years. You speak into a microphone and your recording is graded afterwards by a human examiner — there is no conversation with an interviewer.
Passing HSK does not give you an HSKK result: they are booked, sat and certified separately. Most scholarship schemes and Chinese-taught degree programmes that ask for HSK 4 or 5 also name an HSKK level, usually 中级.
Speak an HSKK prompt out loud
Pick a level and a format. Your browser listens, transcribes what you said and shows you which characters came through. Nothing is recorded and nothing is uploaded.
What is on each HSKK paper
HSKK 初级
HSK 1–2For learners who can already say a couple of hundred words. Nothing on this paper asks for an opinion — it asks who you are, what you did, and what you like.
- 27 questions in total
- 17 minutes, of which 7 are preparation
- About 200 words expected
- Marked out of 100, pass 60
- Exam paper shows pinyin
HSKK 中级
HSK 3–4The level most scholarship and degree applications name. The pinyin support is gone, and two of the three parts want continuous speech rather than a sentence.
- 14 questions in total
- 21 minutes, of which 10 are preparation
- About 900 words expected
- Marked out of 100, pass 60
- Exam paper is characters only
HSKK 高级
HSK 5–6Six questions, and every one of them is long-form. This paper is not testing vocabulary any more; it is testing whether you can hold an argument together out loud.
- 6 questions in total
- 24 minutes, of which 10 are preparation
- About 3,000 words expected
- Marked out of 100, pass 60
- Exam paper is characters only
Question counts and timings follow the published 考试大纲. They have been revised before and can be again — confirm against the current outline on the official exam site before you book.
Say something, immediately
The recording starts whether you are ready or not, and silence scores nothing at all. A plain answer delivered fluently beats a clever one that arrives after eight seconds of thinking. Have an opening sentence ready for any question: 我觉得这个问题很有意思。
Fill the time
At 中级 and 高级 you are given a length to speak for, and most candidates stop far too early. Two reasons and one example will fill a minute and a half; a single opinion will not. Practise adding 比如说…… to everything.
Repeat exactly, not approximately
听后重复 is not comprehension — it is memory and articulation. You hear the sentence once. Practise holding a whole clause in your head before you start speaking, rather than repeating it in pieces as it arrives.
Tones survive speed, mumbling does not
Examiners mark intelligibility. Slowing down helps far less than opening your mouth properly and finishing each syllable — which is exactly what the recogniser on this page rewards, and why a red result is worth more to you than a green one.
What is the HSKK?
HSKK (汉语水平口语考试, Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǒuyǔ Kǎoshì) is the spoken counterpart of the HSK. It is a separate exam with its own registration, its own certificate and its own three levels — 初级, 中级 and 高级 — and it is recorded rather than marked live: you speak into a microphone and your recording is graded afterwards. Passing HSK 4 does not give you an HSKK result.
Do I have to take the HSKK as well as the HSK?
Not for the HSK certificate itself, which stands on its own. But most scholarship schemes, many Chinese-taught degree programmes and a good number of employers ask for an HSKK level alongside an HSK level, most commonly HSKK 中级 — so in practice the people who need HSK 4 or 5 usually need an HSKK result too. Check the exact requirement of the programme you are applying to, because it is set by them, not by the exam board.
Which HSKK level should I take?
The levels pair with the written exam: 初级 with HSK 1–2, 中级 with HSK 3–4, and 高级 with HSK 5–6. They are independent exams, so you can sit any level without having passed the one below it, and you can sit an HSKK level that does not match your HSK level. If a programme names a level, take that one; otherwise take the one that matches the HSK you are studying for.
What is the pass mark?
Every HSKK level is marked out of 100 and the pass mark is 60. There is no separate score per section — you get one number. Like the HSK, the result is valid for two years.
How is the HSKK marked?
By human examiners listening to your recording, on pronunciation, fluency, grammar and how fully you answered. That is the honest limit of the practice on this page: your browser can tell you whether the words you said came out clearly enough to be recognised, which is a real and useful signal, but it cannot judge whether an answer was a good one. For the open questions the drill checks that you produced Chinese at the length the level expects and gives you a model answer to compare yourself against.
Does this page record or upload my voice?
No. Speech recognition runs inside your browser through the Web Speech API; only the text it produces is used to score you, and it is discarded when you move on. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and there is no account to store it against. The audio you hear is native model pronunciation fetched from this site.
Which browsers does the speaking practice work in?
Chrome and Edge on Windows, macOS, ChromeOS and Android. Safari on iPhone and iPad does not support in-page speech recognition yet — you can still play every prompt and practise out loud there, but the automatic scoring will not run.
How long is the HSKK exam?
初级 is about 17 minutes, 中级 about 21, and 高级 about 24 — and a large part of each is silent preparation time (7 minutes at 初级, 10 at the other two). The actual speaking is much shorter than the sitting, which surprises people: at 高级 six questions is the whole paper.