It’s more vicious than Sauron…
More notorious than Lord Voldemort…
And scarier than Iso-Rölli in the Rölli Amazing Tales movie!
As you might have guessed, I’m talking about…
😱😱😱 The YKI test 😱😱😱
…a.k.a. the worst nightmare of many Finnish learners – but it doesn’t have to be!
In this article, we’ll go through the basics of the YKI test: what it is, why you might want to pass it, and what the insides of YKI actually look like.
I hope that peeling back the curtain and breaking the YKI test down to its different pieces helps you approach it with more confidence – and subsequently pass it!
“YKI” (Yleinen Kielitutkinto) is the Finnish National Certificate of Language Proficiency that proves that you know a language at a certain level. You can get the YKI certificate in 9 different languages, but this article focuses on Finnish.
YKI is THE certificate that you can use for proving your Finnish skills when you:
apply for a job in Finland
need to prove your Finnish level to your employer
apply for a study position at a Finnish university
apply for Finnish citizenship
For the first 2, you might be able to use a different type of certificate or diploma. Most universities require the YKI certificate, but some might organise their own test.
But for the Finnish citizenship, YKI is the only certificate that is officially recognised.
Side note #1! 🙋 Any kind of certificate that you might get from an independent Finnish course, can only prove that you’ve completed that particular course – it doesn’t have official value.
Side note #2! 🙋 Another way to prove your Finnish skills for the citizenship is to have a diploma from a Finnish comprehensive school, upper secondary school, vocational school or a university.
And to make things more difficult, at the time of writing the Finnish government is preparing new legislation that proposes adding an YKI certificate as a requirement also for the permanent residence permit.
This is why foreigners in Finland are queuing up to attempt the intermediate-level YKI test and pass at least the proficiency grade 3 – these are the minimum requirements for the citizenship.
But so what kind of proficiency does that mean exactly?
The short answer is: B1 – and for a full description of what is required at that level, check out this article.
You can take the YKI test at 3 different levels, all of which have 2 proficiency grades: basic (grades 1-2), intermediate (grades 3-4) or advanced (grades 5-6).
Funnily enough, these numbers 1-6 correspond to the CEFR levels A1 to C2, but of course the Finnish authorities didn’t want to call them that 😅
The YKI test consists of 4 parts: speaking, listening comprehension, writing and reading comprehension.
For the citizenship, you need the grade 3 in at least two of the above, but they have to combine written and spoken skills and cannot both be comprehension.
Now let’s look at what kind of exercises you need to ace in each section!
This section mainly assesses your ability to understand the main messages of different texts and your capability to deduce unknown words from the context.
The test is simple:
You read 6 different texts that can be letters, messages, emails, adverts, newspaper articles and stories.
Then, you answer a combination of multiple-choice, true-or-false and open-ended questions.
Remember that this section only lasts 60 minutes so you have about 10 minutes per text.
Doesn’t sound too bad!
Like the other comprehension section, this one assesses your ability to understand the main messages in an audio and your capability to deduce unknown words from the context.
This time, you listen to 4 different recordings. These can be voice messages, announcements, commercials, interviews or conversations. You will then answer similar questions to the previous section.
The listening comprehension takes 40 minutes and has 7 questions, so you don’t have a lot of time per question.
But the good news is that at the basic and intermediate levels, you get to listen to each recording twice!
The writing section assesses your ability to produce short and comprehensible texts that follow the given instructions.
You have to write 3 different texts that can be shorter – a card or an informal message – or longer – a letter or an opinion piece.
You have 55 minutes to complete these 3 texts, which sounds like enough for completing them in a legible handwriting – would be a shame to not pass the test just because the evaluator couldn’t read your beautifully composed letter!
Dun dun duuuuun. Speaking – the scariest of them all! But don’t worry, here’s what it looks like:
You will take the speaking section in a language lab. Normally this means that you sit in a cubicle with headphones on, with everyone else speaking around you at the same time.
Ok sounds daunting to me, maybe practise by having phone calls in a jam-packed tram or metro…
Your speeches are recorded for evaluation, which will assess your ability to communicate according to instructions, as well as your capability to speak about everyday topics and more in depth about a specific topic after a short preparation.
You have to make 4 different interventions, which include taking part in a recorded conversation and preparing a speech about a specific topic.
This section takes around 25 minutes, including the preparation, but it might feel like the longest 25 minutes of your life!
Now that you know what the YKI test looks like, one question remains… why is the YKI test more dreadful than Voldemort, Sauron and Iso-Rölli put together?
In my opinion, because it tests skills that are often not sufficiently taught at traditional Finnish classes.
The YKI test measures functional language proficiency in everyday situations that require producing and understanding of the language.
It does NOT test your grammar knowledge.
According to the assessment criteria, even at grade 3 you are allowed to make grammatical mistakes, as long as your overall message is understood.
This is why, for anyone considering taking the YKI test, I highly recommend the Natural Method – because it trains the exact skills that the YKI test measures: understanding and communicating in Finnish in everyday situations.
My online course Finnish Me: Understand is designed to get you to that required B1 level (and beyond!) in the comprehension categories, using a natural, research-backed method.
It doesn’t teach grammar, but actual understanding of Finnish – exactly what the YKI test evaluates.
If you want to finally understand real spoken Finnish (and pass the test), this is where to start.
And once you understand slowly spoken Finnish without translation, you can start practising your speaking and writing skills and finally get that Finnish citizenship!
Published on 5 September 2025.