G3 Higher Chinese Language · K355 · formerly 1116
The O-Level Higher Chinese oral: the paper with no PSLE equivalent
Higher Chinese at PSLE has no oral component at all. At secondary level it has one, and it is worth 20% of the subject — 40 marks for a prepared report and a discussion. So this is not a harder version of a paper your child has sat before. It is a paper they have never sat, in a format that is closer to the English oral than to the Chinese one. Everything below is taken from the syllabus document and cited.
There is nothing to practise on here yet.
What you can read today is the exam itself — the format, the marks and the published band descriptors, taken from the syllabus and cited. Practice is being built and will be here in time for the 2027 orals. This page will say so the day it opens, and not before.
Why is this paper new, when Higher Chinese is not?
Because PSLE Higher Chinese has no oral. Syllabus 0015 has exactly two papers — 写作 and 语文应用与阅读理解 — and neither is spoken. A child can take Higher Chinese right through primary school and arrive at Sec 3 having never been marked on speaking Chinese.
| PSLE Higher Chinese (0015) | Marks |
|---|---|
| 写作 Writing | 40 / 40% |
| 语文应用与阅读理解 Language use and comprehension | 60 / 60% |
| Whole subject | 100 |
The two papers account for the entire subject, which is why the absence is a fact rather than an omission on our part: there is no third paper for an oral to be hiding in.
It is worth being plain about what this means in practice. A Higher Chinese child has usually had more Chinese, not less — but the speaking has never been examined, so there is no band, no past scorecard and no teacher comment to calibrate against. The first measurement is the real one.
PSLE figures from the archived SEAB syllabus 0015 document, §2 and §3.
What is in the O-Level Higher Chinese oral?
Two parts in one paper lasting about 20 minutes, worth 40 marks in total, 20% of Higher Chinese: a 口头报告 of up to two minutes, worth 20 marks, and a 讨论 with the examiner, worth 20 marks. The two halves are worth exactly the same.
| Part | Marks | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 口头报告 Oral presentation | 20 / 10% | 考生必须根据所提供的话题，结合录像短片的内容，呈献一个不超过 2 分钟的口头报告。 |
| 讨论 Discussion | 20 / 10% | 主考员将根据口头报告的内容，跟考生进行讨论。 |
Read the second row again, because it is the structural fact of this paper: 主考员将根据口头报告的内容，跟考生进行讨论 — the examiner discusses the content of the report. Part 2 starts from what the candidate chose to say in part 1. A report that raises three ideas and develops one has left two obvious places for the discussion to go; a report that says everything in two minutes has left nowhere.
Source: SEAB syllabus K355 (PDF), read 13 September 2026. Listed on SEAB’s G3 syllabus page.
What happens in the 10 minutes of preparation?
The candidate is given a topic and a video clip, and has ten minutes to prepare the report. The syllabus is explicit that the clip may be watched more than once and that notes may be taken: 考生在限定的时间内，可以多次观看录像短片，也可以记下要点.
The notes matter. This is a prepared two-minute report, not an answer to a question, and two minutes of continuous speech is longer than it sounds when nothing is written down. Ten minutes is enough to watch the clip twice and still have six or seven minutes to shape what to say.
The topics are drawn from a published range: 个人、家庭、学校、生活、社会、国外事件 — the self, family, school, daily life, society, and events abroad. That last one is the widest of the six, and it is the one a candidate cannot prepare for by reflecting on their own experience.
How is it different from the Chinese oral?
Four ways: there is no reading-aloud component, there is no listening paper, the first part is a prepared monologue rather than a conversation, and the second part follows from the candidate’s own report rather than from the clip. The paper is also longer — about 20 minutes against about 15 minutes.
| Higher Chinese (K355) | Chinese (K320) | |
|---|---|---|
| Reading aloud | None | 朗读短文 10 / 5% |
| First spoken task | 口头报告 20 / 10%a prepared report, up to 2 minutes | 会话 40 / 20%a conversation about the clip |
| Second spoken task | 讨论 20 / 10%on the content of the report | None |
| Listening paper | None | 20 / 10% |
| Oral paper total | 40 / 20% | 50 / 25% |
| Length | about 20 minutes | about 15 minutes |
A student taking both Chinese and Higher Chinese sits two different oral papers, and practising one does not cover the other. The transferable part is the Chinese itself. The task is not transferable at all: reading a passage aloud and delivering a two-minute argued report have almost nothing in common beyond the language they are in.
How is the Higher Chinese oral marked?
Each 20-mark part carries two published sub-marks: 14 for the substance and 6 for 语文表达. Both run in four bands, 等级 1 down to 等级 4, with 等级 1 the best.
第一部分 口头报告 — 20 marks
口头报告 Oral presentation · 14 marks
Judged on 相关性、组织性和发展观点 (relevance, organisation, and developing the point).
| Band | What the descriptor says |
|---|---|
| 等级 111–14 marks |
|
| 等级 27–10 marks |
|
| 等级 34–6 marks |
|
| 等级 41–3 marks |
|
语文表达 Language use · 6 marks
Judged on 流利度、清晰度 (fluency and clarity).
| Band | What the descriptor says |
|---|---|
| 等级 16 marks |
|
| 等级 24–5 marks |
|
| 等级 32–3 marks |
|
| 等级 41 mark |
|
附录C adds a footnote about what the report is for, and it changes with the clip:
- 议论性／说服性录像短片的口头报告，主要目标是影响他人所想和所做。
- 说明性／描述性录像短片的口头报告，主要目标是让观众了解自己的想法，并产生共鸣。
An argumentative or persuasive clip asks the candidate to change what the listener thinks or does; an expository or descriptive one asks them to make the listener understand their view and feel the same way. Same two minutes, different job — and the band descriptors reward the report that knows which it is.
第二部分 讨论 — 20 marks
讨论 Discussion · 14 marks
Judged on 参与讨论 (taking part in the discussion).
| Band | What the descriptor says |
|---|---|
| 等级 111–14 marks |
|
| 等级 27–10 marks |
|
| 等级 34–6 marks |
|
| 等级 41–3 marks |
|
语文表达 Language use · 6 marks
Judged on 流利度、清晰度 (fluency and clarity).
| Band | What the descriptor says |
|---|---|
| 等级 16 marks |
|
| 等级 24–5 marks |
|
| 等级 32–3 marks |
|
| 等级 41 mark |
|
Band descriptors transcribed from K355 附录C, p.9 and K355 附录C, p.10.
How much of the paper is the Chinese itself?
12 of the 40 marks — the 语文表达 criterion appears in both parts, at 6 marks each. The other 28 are for what is said: the ideas, how they are organised, and how well they are supported.
The same six-mark scale is used in both halves, word for word. Fluency and clarity are therefore assessed twice, and a candidate who speaks haltingly loses in both places — but the arithmetic still says that nearly three quarters of this paper is carried by having something to say and saying it in order.
That is not the intuition most families bring to a Higher Chinese oral, where the assumption is usually that the language is the whole test. It is also the harder half to practise alone, because judging whether an argument was developed requires someone to argue back.
Does any of this change under the SEC in 2027?
The code changes from 1116 to K355. The paper does not: the same report and discussion, the same 40 marks, the same 20% of the subject, the same preparation with a video clip.
From 2027 the O-Level, N(A) and N(T) become one certificate — the Singapore-Cambridge Secondary Education Certificate — with subjects sat at G1, G2 and G3. G3 is the standard the O-Level set. SEAB states that assessment formats and standards are unchanged, and for this paper the syllabus document bears that out line by line.
SEAB has not yet published the 2027 examination timetable. Any specific 2027 oral date quoted anywhere today is not yet knowable.
Common questions
- Does PSLE Higher Chinese have an oral exam?
- No. PSLE Higher Chinese (0015) has exactly two papers — 写作 and 语文应用与阅读理解 — and neither is spoken. The Higher Chinese oral at secondary level is the first one a Higher Chinese candidate sits for a mark, and it is worth 20% of the subject.
- How is the O-Level Higher Chinese oral different from the Chinese oral?
- There is no 朗读短文 and no listening paper. Instead of a conversation about a video clip, the candidate delivers a prepared 口头报告 of up to 2 minutes, and the examiner then discusses the content of that report. The paper is 40 marks against 50 for Chinese, and runs about 20 minutes against about 15 minutes.
- How many marks is the O-Level Higher Chinese oral worth?
- 40 marks, which SEAB states as 20% of the Higher Chinese subject. It splits evenly: 口头报告 20 marks and 讨论 20 marks.
- Can you take notes during the Higher Chinese oral preparation?
- Yes. The syllabus says so explicitly — 考生在限定的时间内，可以多次观看录像短片，也可以记下要点 — so the clip may be watched more than once and notes may be taken during the 10 minutes of preparation.
- How is the Higher Chinese oral marked?
- Each 20-mark part is published as two sub-marks: 14 marks for the substance (口头报告 or 讨论) and 6 marks for 语文表达. Both run in four bands, 等级 1 down to 等级 4, with 等级 1 the best. Across the whole paper that puts 28 of the 40 marks on what is said and 12 on how it is said.
- Does the Higher Chinese oral change under the SEC in 2027?
- The code changes from 1116 to K355. The paper does not: the same report and discussion, the same 40 marks, the same preparation with a video clip.
Last checked against the SEAB syllabus documents on 13 September 2026. This page was updated on 2026-09-13. OralPrep is not affiliated with SEAB or MOE.