PSLE Chinese Oral: the Passage and the Video Conversation

Updated 2026-10-11 · by Coastline Tutors

Coastline Tutors writes these guides from SEAB and MOE documents and published Singapore figures; each claim links to where it comes from.

The format

口试 (Oral) is part of Paper 3 of PSLE Chinese Language and carries 50 marks, 25 percent of the subject (SEAB, 0005):

Before the oral, candidates have 10 minutes to read the passage silently and watch the video clip, and may do both as many times as they like within that time. The oral itself takes about 10 minutes. Since 2017 the Mother Tongue oral has been conducted in the e-Examination format (SEAB).

Listening comprehension is the other part of Paper 3: about 30 minutes, 10 multiple-choice questions, 20 marks.

Why the conversation matters most

The conversation alone is 30 marks, 15 percent of the subject: three quarters of what the whole 50-minute composition paper is worth (40 marks), earned in a few minutes of talking. It cannot be memorised: the examiner asks about the video and then about the child’s own experience and views.

How to practise at home, even without Chinese at home

• Watch a short clip together (a news item or a cartoon in Mandarin) and ask the child to say what happened, in three or four sentences.
• Then ask one opinion question: 你觉得呢? 为什么? A full answer has a view, a reason and an example.
• Read aloud a short passage from the school textbook every day, marking unfamiliar characters to look up.

For families where nobody speaks Mandarin at home, spoken practice with a tutor is the part that home revision cannot replace. See Primary Chinese tuition.