HSK 3.0 Speaking Test: Parts and Times

On the official sample set, the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) 3.0 speaking test is not one paper. Levels 1 and 2 have no speaking file. Levels 3, 4, 5, and 6 each have a separate speaking paper: 15 items and about 15 minutes at Level 3, then 5 items and about 20, 23, and 23 minutes. Levels 7-9 put speaking inside the same booklet, 5 items and about 20 minutes on that cover. The second global trial required Levels 3 to 6 to be registered with the matching speaking test. The 13 December 2026 launch notice does not say that. This page is the part-by-part account of those speaking papers, including the preparation lines the covers fold into the total.

English Wikipedia calls the HSK the Chinese Proficiency Test, a standardized test of Standard Chinese for non-native speakers. The speaking files below were compiled by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC). They sit in the official sample ZIP that the HSK overview links under the download name HSK3.0考试样题.zip. That overview is published by CTI Co., Ltd. It calls the revision the new HSK: a move from the current six-level system to a "Three Stages, Nine Levels" framework covering elementary, intermediate, and advanced proficiency. It does not assign the digits 1-3, 4-6, or 7-9 to those stages. It says the test assesses listening, speaking, reading, and writing, plus translation at advanced levels. It does not print these item counts. The counts below are the ones printed on the speaking samples.

Levels 1 and 2 have no speaking file. The pairing sentence is the 20 September 2026 trial, not the launch notice.

What the pages that already rank leave out

On 20 October 2026, the pages compared for "hsk 3.0 speaking test" were HSKMock's HSK Speaking Test guide, SayMei's HSK exam guide, Second Language's HSK 3.0 guide, Hanlexon's HSK 3.0 speaking guide, and Vision Chinese's oral-exam comparison. HSKMock still explains the older three-level HSK Speaking Test and prints question counts the HSK Speaking Test (HSKK) overview does not. SayMei and Second Language print sample-style totals, and SayMei states that the 13 December sitting requires the paired speaking test. Hanlexon and Vision Chinese print a scoring rubric and a Level 3 length the sample paper does not. None of them sets every speaking sample's parts, item counts, and preparation lines next to the trial notice, and none keeps the three Levels 7-9 speaking times as three documents.

Those five pages are third party. They are not the source of the numbers below. This page does not repeat their rubrics or their Level 3 lengths.

Levels 1 and 2: no speaking file

The official sample set has no speaking PDF and no speaking MP3 for Level 1 or Level 2. The written papers are a different set of files. Every written cover, with sections, items, and minutes, is in HSK 3.0 Exam Format. This page does not repeat that table.

The notice at chinesetest.cn/notice, titled HSK3.0第二轮全球试行考试通知, is the second global trial on 20 September 2026. Its duration table gives Level 1 one sitting, at 14:00 local time, and Level 2 one sitting, at 9:00 local time. Neither row has a speaking line. Levels 7-9 are not in the table at all.

Levels 3 to 6 on the September trial

For that trial only, the same notice says HSK 3-6 must be registered together with the speaking test of the same level. The Chinese line is 重要提示：HSK3-6级需与对应级别口语同时报名。 Speaking is a later sitting on the same day, in local time: Level 3 at 16:20, about 15 minutes; Level 4 at 11:30, about 20 minutes; Level 5 at 16:20, about 23 minutes; Level 6 at 11:30, about 23 minutes. A note says those clock times are local, that a paper exam includes 5 minutes for personal information and 3 to 5 minutes to fill the answer sheet, and that the speaking exam includes preparation time. The speaking covers say the same thing about preparation: it is inside the total, not an extra block after it.

The launch notice sets the worldwide launch on 13 December 2026. The text fetched on 20 October 2026 does not mention speaking, a pairing rule, a fee, or a pass mark. It says further test information will be released on the Chinese Test Service website. Do not copy the September pairing onto that sitting. Registration windows for 13 December 2026, and the short note on how one test center describes pairing, are in Should You Take HSK 2.0 or HSK 3.0 in 2026?.

Four speaking sittings on that trial timetable. The times include preparation. They are not the 13 December 2026 notice.

Level 3: 15 items, about 15 minutes, including 6 minutes of preparation

The file is HSK口语/HSK（三级）口语样卷.pdf. Three parts, 15 items. Listen and repeat, 听后重复 (tīng hòu chóngfù), in pinyin, is 8 items. Picture talk, 看图说话 (kàn tú shuō huà), is 5 items. Answering questions, 回答问题 (huídá wèntí), is 2 items. The exam is about 15 minutes, and the cover counts 6 minutes of preparation inside that total.

Items 1-8 are 10 seconds each. Items 9-13 are 15 seconds each. Neither block prints a separate preparation line. Items 14 and 15 each give 3 minutes to prepare and 1.5 minutes to answer. The two 3-minute blocks add to the 6 minutes named on the cover. Item 14 asks 请介绍一下你的一位家人. A gloss, not an official translation: introduce one person in your family. Item 15 asks 你喜欢做什么样的工作？为什么？ A gloss: what kind of work do you like, and why?

Adding the printed per-item times gives 8 times 10 seconds, plus 5 times 15 seconds, plus 2 times 1.5 minutes: 5 minutes 35 seconds. The 10-second and 15-second lines are not labeled as answer time. Only items 14 and 15 say 回答时间. Adding the 6 minutes of preparation gives 11 minutes 35 seconds. The cover says about 15 minutes. Both figures are on the paper. The paper does not say what the remaining minutes are, so this page does not assign them to playback or to anything else.

The 6 minutes of preparation are the two question blocks. Items 1-13 have no preparation line of their own.

No speaking answer key for Level 3 was in the set. The paper states no rubric and no pass mark. The words for this level, in syllabus order with pinyin and a short English gloss, are on the Level 3 word list. That page is the list, not the speaking script.

Level 4: listen and retell, 5 items, about 20 minutes

The file is HSK口语/HSK（四级）口语样卷.pdf. Three parts, 5 items. The first part is 听后复述 (tīng hòu fùshù), listen and retell, not the Level 3 听后重复. It is 2 items, 40 seconds each, with no separate preparation line. Picture talk is 1 item: 3 minutes to prepare and 2 minutes to answer. The paper's word for that answer slot is 答题时间. The two questions each give 3.5 minutes to prepare and 2 minutes to answer, and those lines say 回答时间. The exam is about 20 minutes, including 10 minutes of preparation.

The preparation blocks are 3 + 3.5 + 3.5 minutes, which is the 10 minutes on the cover. The printed per-item times add to 40 seconds + 40 seconds + 2 + 2 + 2 minutes, which is 7 minutes 20 seconds. The 40-second lines are not labeled as answer time. Together with the 10 minutes of preparation, that is 17 minutes 20 seconds. The cover says about 20. The paper does not explain the difference.

Item 4 asks 如果给你七天假，你打算怎么安排？ A gloss: if you were given seven days off, how would you arrange them? Item 5 asks 刚到一个新公司工作时，为了使自己更快适应环境，你会怎么做？ A gloss: just after starting at a new company, what would you do so that you adapt sooner? The written paper for this level, and the competency line, are in HSK 3.0 Level 4. That guide stops at the cover total and leaves the preparation split to this page. The entries are on the Level 4 word list.

3 + 3.5 + 3.5 = 10 minutes of preparation. The two retell items have no preparation line.

No speaking answer key for Level 4 was in the set. The paper states no rubric and no pass mark.

Levels 5 and 6: the same clock, different prompts

The files are HSK口语/HSK（五级）口语样卷.pdf and HSK口语/HSK（六级）口语样卷.pdf. Each is three parts and 5 items, about 23 minutes, including 10 minutes of preparation. The timing lines match. Listen and retell is 2 items, 1.5 minutes each, with no separate preparation line. Picture talk is 1 item: 3 minutes to prepare and 2 minutes to answer. The two questions each give 3.5 minutes to prepare and 2.5 minutes to answer. Picture talk says 答题时间, and the questions say 回答时间, as on the Level 4 paper.

Preparation is again 3 + 3.5 + 3.5 = 10 minutes. The printed per-item times are 1.5 + 1.5 + 2 + 2.5 + 2.5 = 10 minutes. The 1.5-minute lines are not labeled as answer time. The sum of those printed lines is 20 minutes. Each cover says about 23 minutes. Neither paper explains the gap.

What changes is the prompt. At Level 5, item 4 asks 你认为互联网对你的生活产生了哪些影响？ A gloss: what effects do you think the internet has had on your life? Item 5 quotes 活到老，学到老 and asks how you understand that sentence and what you think. At Level 6, item 4 asks what you share with your parents' generation and what is different. Item 5 quotes 最好的投资就是投资自己 and asks whether you agree, and why. Those English lines are glosses, not official translations and not model answers.

The prompts differ. The printed times do not. Preparation again adds to 10 minutes.

No speaking answer key for Level 5 or Level 6 was in the set. Neither paper states a rubric or a pass mark. The entries are on the Level 5 word list and the Level 6 word list.

One comparison: items, cover minutes, and named preparation

Level	Parts on the speaking sample	Items	Cover time	Preparation the cover names
1 and 2	No speaking file
3	Listen and repeat 8; picture talk 5; questions 2	15	About 15 minutes	6 minutes
4	Listen and retell 2; picture talk 1; questions 2	5	About 20 minutes	10 minutes
5	Same three parts as Level 4	5	About 23 minutes	10 minutes
6	Same three parts as Level 5	5	About 23 minutes	10 minutes
7-9	Inside the booklet: 5 items on the cover	5	About 20 minutes on the cover	None printed on items 87-91

Level 3 is the only separate speaking paper that still uses 听后重复 and that still has 15 items. From Level 4 the first part is 听后复述, and the paper is 5 items. The trial durations match these cover totals: about 15, 20, 23, and 23 minutes, and the trial note says speaking includes preparation. They do not add a second preparation block on top of the cover.

The printed per-item times plus the named preparation are shorter than the cover on every separate paper: 11 minutes 35 seconds against about 15 at Level 3, 17 minutes 20 seconds against about 20 at Level 4, and 20 minutes against about 23 at Levels 5 and 6. That arithmetic adds the lines the paper prints. It is not a recording of the audio, and it is not a correction of the cover. The cover's 约 means "about."

From Level 4 the item count stays at 5. The cover minutes and the named preparation do not stay still.

Levels 7-9: speaking is part 5, and three clocks disagree

Levels 7-9 do not have a file under HSK口语/. Speaking is section 5 of HSK/HSK（七—九级）样卷.pdf, the same booklet as listening, reading, writing, and translation. The cover says 口语 (kǒuyǔ) is 5 items and about 20 minutes, inside an exam of 91 items and about 200 minutes. The other four parts, and the disagreement between this cover and the live English page on the whole exam, are in the format post. This section keeps only the speaking clocks.

The printed tasks are not the Level 3-6 set. Item 87 is 应用读说. A gloss, not an official translation: if you are in charge of this medical volunteer service, at the mobilization meeting, tell the physician volunteers the schedule and the notes, and say something encouraging. The line under it is 3 minutes. Items 88-90 are 听材料回答问题, answer after listening, marked 30 seconds, 30 seconds, and 2 minutes. The paper does not print the question wording for those three items. Item 91 is 观点表达, marked 3 minutes, and it does not print a prompt in the text. No 准备时间 line appears on any of the five.

Those printed times add to 3 minutes + 30 seconds + 30 seconds + 2 minutes + 3 minutes = 9 minutes. The cover says about 20 minutes. The paper does not reconcile them.

The English Levels 7-9 page, fetched on 20 October 2026, is a third document. It says the exam has 98 questions and takes about 210 minutes. Its speaking block is section 1 with 1 item, section 2 with 3 items, and section 3 with 1 item, about 24 minutes. The 1 + 3 + 1 count matches the sample's one 应用读说 item, three listen-and-answer items, and one opinion item. The minutes do not match the cover's about 20, and they do not match the 9 minutes of printed item times. The page's schedule prints 16:40-17:10 as translation and speaking together. That is a 30-minute block for two sections, not a fourth speaking length.

About 20, 9, and about 24 are three documents. 16:40-17:10 is translation and speaking together.

The answer key for this booklet marks speaking items 87, 90, and 91 as 略, omitted. Items 88 and 89 have reference answers. Those answers are not copied here. The key states no full score, no pass mark, and no rubric. The entries for the combined list are on the Levels 7-9 word list.

The same English page says the report has five scores, listening, reading, writing, translation, and speaking, plus a level. Level setting cites the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education, the 2021 standard (GF 0025-2021), and names four labels: Below HSK (Level 7), HSK (Level 7), HSK (Level 8), and HSK (Level 9). Each skill's report score on that page runs from 0 to 100. The page does not print numeric cuts between those four labels. The sample paper does not state this scale. Whether the December 2026 sitting uses it is not said on the sample or on the launch notice.

How this differs from the HSK Speaking Test (HSKK)

The older oral exam is still a different test. The 2009 introduction describes the test of that year as two independent parts: a written test of six levels, and an oral test of elementary, intermediate, and advanced, with sound-recording devices. That oral test is not a speaking paper for each written level.

The HSK Speaking Test (HSKK) overview fetched on 20 October 2026 still describes three levels, elementary, intermediate, and advanced, conducted as an audio recording. It does not state how many items each level has, or how many minutes it takes. Any page that prints those counts is going beyond that overview. This page does not fill the gap.

The September trial's fee table is the place that puts the two names in one row, and it is a fee sentence. HSK（三级） plus HSK（三级）口语 is equated to HSK（三级） plus HSK口语（初级）, the elementary HSK Speaking Test. Level 4 plus Level 4 speaking is equated to Level 4 plus the intermediate HSK Speaking Test. Level 5 plus Level 5 speaking, and Level 6 plus Level 6 speaking, are each equated to that written level plus the advanced HSK Speaking Test. Levels 1 and 2 fees are unchanged, and the notice says to ask the local center. No currency amount is printed. The equivalence does not describe the 15 items at Level 3 or the 5 items at Levels 4, 5, and 6. It does not say those papers are the old HSKK under a new title.

Three HSKK levels on one page that prints no times. Four 3.0 speaking shapes, with times taken from the samples. The fee table in the section above is not drawn here.

What the papers do not print

The covers do not say which document the 13 December 2026 sitting will use: the sample, the English Levels 7-9 page, or another notice that is not up yet. Audio durations in the ZIP were not measured. Nothing read here says how many months a level takes.

What a recognition check can and cannot tell you

Recognizing a word and producing it on a clock are different skills. Passive vs Active Chinese Vocabulary is the page for that gap. The speaking samples are the timed check: repeats or retells, a picture, and questions, or, at Levels 7-9, item 87, three listen-and-answer items, and an opinion.

Chinese Copilot's free HSK 3.0 level test does not measure any of that. It is a recognition estimate: 119 words drawn fresh each run from the 2025 HSK exam syllabus, 17 from each of Levels 1 to 6 and 17 from the combined Levels 7-9 list. You mark whether you recognize the word. There is no account. Answers stay in the browser. It typically takes 5-10 minutes. The result is an approximate level from 1 to 6, or the combined HSK 7-9 range, plus a stage: Elementary (初等), Intermediate (中等), or Advanced (高等). That stage is the label this test returns. It is not a digit map from the syllabus overview. The test is not a speaking score, not a pass, and not a prediction of how the timed paper would go. The word source and the thresholds are on the methodology page.

More on the new exam, level by level, is in our HSK 3.0 guide.

Sources

• Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, English Wikipedia. Secondary overview of the exam's name. Not a source for item counts or minutes.
• Pinyin, English Wikipedia. Secondary overview of the romanization used in the glosses.
• HSK overview: About the New HSK, CTI Co., Ltd., chinesetest.cn, fetched 20 October 2026. Three stages and nine levels without a digit map, five skills including speaking, and the link to the sample ZIP. No speaking item counts on this page.
• Official sample ZIP, linked from the HSK overview as HSK3.0考试样题.zip. HEAD on 20 October 2026: Content-Length 395,322,335, Last-Modified 9 September 2026. Speaking papers read from that set: HSK口语/HSK（三级）口语样卷.pdf through HSK口语/HSK（六级）口语样卷.pdf, and section 5 of HSK/HSK（七—九级）样卷.pdf. No Level 1 or Level 2 speaking file.
• HSK 3.0 second global trial notice (in Chinese), chinesetest.cn, fetched 20 October 2026. 20 September 2026 only: Levels 3 to 6 register with the matching speaking test; local speaking times; preparation included; fee equivalence to HSKK levels, with no currency amount.
• HSK 3.0 launch notice, chinesetest.cn, fetched 20 October 2026. Worldwide launch on 13 December 2026. The fetched text does not mention speaking.
• HSK Speaking Test (HSKK), chinesetest.cn, fetched 20 October 2026. Three levels, audio recording. No item counts or minutes on the page.
• HSK Levels 7-9, chinesetest.cn, fetched 20 October 2026. 98 questions, about 210 minutes, speaking 1+3+1 and about 24 minutes, five report scores from 0 to 100, four labels under GF 0025-2021, no numeric cuts.
• Introduction on the new HSK test, chinesetest.cn, issued 2009-10-14. A written test of six levels plus a separate oral test of elementary, intermediate, and advanced, recorded. Not the 3.0 per-level papers.
• HSKMock, HSK Speaking Test guide, third party, fetched 20 October 2026. Still the three-level speaking test. Not a source for 3.0 item counts.
• SayMei, HSK exam guide, third party, fetched 20 October 2026. Compared for what it covers and for the 13 December pairing claim the launch notice does not make.
• Second Language, HSK 3.0 guide, third party, fetched 20 October 2026. Cover-style speaking column and a Level 3 split.
• Hanlexon, HSK 3.0 speaking guide, third party, fetched 20 October 2026. Prints a rubric and a Level 3 length the sample does not. Those claims are not used.
• Vision Chinese, oral-exam comparison, third party, fetched 20 October 2026. Prints a rubric and a length the sample does not. Those claims are not used.