HSKK, the Chinese speaking exam: levels, tasks and preparation

October 13, 2026 · 8 min read

The HSKK is the Chinese speaking exam, 汉语水平口语考试. It tests how you speak, which the written HSK doesn't do at all. There's no live examiner to talk to: you hear the tasks through headphones and answer into a microphone, and your answers are recorded and scored later. The HSKK has three levels, beginner, intermediate and advanced, and the pass mark on each is 60 out of 100. Below: what the exam is, what the tasks look like, how the HSKK differs from the HSK, and how to prepare.

What is the HSKK exam

The name differs from HSK by one word: 口语 kǒuyǔ — spoken language. Put together, it's "the spoken Chinese proficiency test": 汉语 Hànyǔ — Chinese (language), 水平 shuǐpíng — level, 口语 and 考试 kǎoshì — exam. The first letters of the reading, Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǒuyǔ Kǎoshì, give the abbreviation HSKK.

The exam works like a recording session: a speaker says a sentence or asks a question, a beep sounds, and you have a few seconds or minutes to answer. There's no one to ask to repeat, and you can't go back to a task. So it's not only about vocabulary but about the habit of speaking right away, evenly and without long pauses. Words you'll meet in the instructions themselves:

• 录音lùyīnrecording; to record
• 重复chóngfùto repeat
• 回答huídáto answer; an answer
• 问题wèntíquestion
• 朗读lǎngdúto read aloud

HSKK levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced

The speaking exam doesn't have six levels like the written one, just three. The table shows how they work in the current format. Length and pass mark are the figures test centres publish; the number of tasks and the vocabulary size are approximate guides, so check the exact numbers on the official exam website.

The levels in Chinese: 初级 chūjí — beginner, 中级 zhōngjí — intermediate and 高级 gāojí — advanced. The maximum on any level is 100 points, the pass mark 60. The intermediate HSKK differs from the beginner level above all by the picture: you have to build a story yourself, not just repeat and answer. At the advanced level there's nothing to repeat any more: you retell a passage you've heard and read aloud.

With the move to HSK 3.0 the speaking part is changing too; teachers who follow the new format report that picture description is being added to it. If you're sitting the exam in December 2026 or later, ask your test centre which format your session will use.

HSKK beginner level: the tasks

When people search for "HSKK 1", they mean the beginner level, 初级. It's aimed at learners who know around two hundred of the most common words and can talk about themselves in simple sentences. There are three types of task:

• Repeat the sentence. The speaker says a short sentence, and you repeat it word for word. This is the biggest part of the exam. It tests your listening, your tones and your memory for a phrase.
• Answer briefly. You hear a simple question and answer straight away, in one sentence.
• Answer at length. There are only a few questions, and you get preparation time before answering. Here the examiners expect not one sentence but a connected answer of several.

Beginner questions are about you, your family, time, food and habits. Here are typical ones; tap the icon and repeat after the speaker the way you would in the exam:

• 你叫什么名字？nǐjiàoshénmemíngziWhat's your name?
• 你是哪国人？nǐshìnǎguórénWhat country are you from?
• 你家有几口人？nǐjiāyǒujǐkǒurénHow many people are there in your family?
• 你今年多大？nǐjīnniánduōdàHow old are you?
• 今天星期几？jīntiānxīngqījǐWhat day of the week is it today?
• 你几点起床？nǐjǐdiǎnqǐchuángWhat time do you get up?
• 你喜欢吃什么水果？nǐxǐhuanchīshénmeshuǐguǒWhat fruit do you like?
• 你有什么爱好？nǐyǒushénmeàihàoWhat are your hobbies?

Answer with a full sentence, not a single word: to 你是哪国人？ it's better to say 我是美国人。 wǒshìMěiguórén — I'm American (or your own country plus 人) than to just name the country. A short but correct answer is worth more than a long one full of mistakes.

For the longer answer, build your story from simple sentences, one per idea. For example, about yourself and your day:

• 我家有四口人。wǒjiāyǒusìkǒurénThere are four people in my family.
• 我每天八点左右起床。wǒměitiānbādiǎnzuǒyòuqǐchuángI get up around eight every day.
• 我喜欢看书。wǒxǐhuankànshūI like reading.

Three or four sentences like these in a row, linked in meaning, already make an answer. Nobody expects complex grammar at the beginner level: what matters is that you're easy to understand.

HSKK vs HSK: the difference and how they're linked

The HSK is a written exam: listening, reading and, from level 3, writing. You don't speak at all. The HSKK tests speaking only. They're two separate exams with separate scores, but now they're linked: since 2025 the HSKK has been required together with HSK 3–6 and is taken on the same day as the written part. HSK 3 comes with the beginner HSKK, HSK 4 with the intermediate, HSK 5 and HSK 6 with the advanced. HSK 1 and HSK 2 have no speaking part.

That's also why the exam costs more from level 3: the speaking part is included in the fee. Whether you can register for the HSKK alone, without the written exam, and how the pairing works in the new format, check with your test centre: the rules differ between centres and sessions. How to register, the schedule and fees are in the article about the HSK exam, and what to expect on the written part of level 3 is in the HSK 3 guide.

How to prepare for the Chinese speaking exam

• Repeat after the speaker. Play a sentence, pause the recording and say the whole thing without looking at the text. Start with sentences of five or six syllables and make them longer.
• Record yourself. The exam scores a recording, not you in the room. Record your answer on your phone and listen back: where you paused, where a tone slipped, where you swallowed a syllable.
• Speak against a timer. Set a stopwatch to the answer time and keep talking until it stops. Silence on the recording is lost points.
• Prepare stories about yourself. Family, your day, study or work, food, hobbies, your city. Five or six sentences per topic, and most beginner questions are covered.
• Watch your tones. A wrong tone changes the word, and on a recording it's especially easy to hear. How tones work and how they change inside words is in the article on tones.

HSKK mock test: and how Nomto can help

To be honest: we don't have a mock HSKK. Our HSK practice tests mirror the written part of the new exam, listening, reading and writing; there's no speaking section in them. For sample speaking tasks, look on chinesetest.cn and ask at the centre where you're taking the exam. What you can train here is everything a spoken answer is made of:

• Tones in words. The pronunciation trainer and the Pronunciation section of the course check your tone by the pitch of your voice: syllables are practiced in pairs, the way they sound in speech.
• Answering questions. In conversation with Mei, the AI asks you questions using words from the lessons you've done and corrects your answers, explaining in English. The first scenario is introductions: your name, your country, where you're from. Those are the same topics as on the beginner HSKK. We're opening the conversations gradually.
• Repeating after the speaker. Every word and sentence in the lessons has a recording, so they're easy to repeat out loud, just like the first task of the exam.

This is skill practice, not an exam rehearsal: we can't predict your HSKK score. Practice the timed format with the official samples, and for the written part read the article on HSK tests.