The Putonghua Proficiency Test or Putonghua Shuiping Ceshi (PSC) is an official test of spoken fluency in Standard Chinese (Mandarin) intended for native speakers of Chinese languages.
The test was developed in October 1994 by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, the Institute of Applied Linguistics at Beijing Language and Culture University and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television.
[1] Specified standards of achievement in the test are required for many jobs in broadcasting, education and government.
[2] The test consists of five sections:[1][3] There are sixty literary selections used in the fourth section of the test,[4] including: Candidates who pass the test are given a Certificate of Putonghua Proficiency Level at levels 1, 2 or 3, each of which is subdivided into grades A and B:[8][9] By 2010, the test had been taken more than 35 million times.
As it requires strict adherence to the phonology of Standard Chinese, including such features as retroflex initials, erhua and the neutral tone, the test gives an advantage to native speakers of the Beijing dialect and closely related varieties over speakers of varieties lacking these features.