How to use this site
SmartMigrate was built to help the international community through one thing: getting permanent residency in Hungary. Moira, the Permanent Residency Assistant, works out whether you are eligible, which documents are yours and how the application is made — and passing the Hungarian cultural knowledge exam, the kulturális ismereti vizsga, is one of the steps along the way.
So the platform covers the whole of it: it helps you prepare, apply and pass — six chapters, practice questions, mock exams and vocabulary, in Hungarian and English side by side. This page explains how it all fits together and how to get the most out of it.
One thing worth knowing first: anything you can click carries a green line down its left edge and a small arrow — on this page and throughout the material. Everything else is there to read. More on that below.
CONTENTS
The Permanent Residency Assistant
Start here if you are not sure the card is yours yet. The Permanent Residency Assistant is the whole procedure, end to end: Moira takes you through which card is open to you, the papers, the form, the fee, the fingerprints, the wait and the renewal — with the cultural knowledge exam sitting inside it as one of the steps.
Five of its steps are read. Three are worked through, and they answer about you rather than in general:
- Which card is yoursA few questions about your permit, your years here and your family, answered for both cards at once — the national residence card and the EU residence card, which are shut out by very different lists of permits. Free, with no account: whether either card is open to you is the question you arrive with.
- Your own document listThe official list runs everyone’s papers, your family’s papers and families of documents where any one will do into a single wall. The deck asks the handful of questions that decide which of them are actually yours, and counts them off as you gather them. The cultural knowledge exam certificate is one of them.Needs an account
- What it will cost youEvery fee the authority charges for the card, plus the exam that comes before it, added up for you — nothing is counted until you add it. Applying from abroad is priced in euros, and the fees nobody budgets for, like an appeal or a replacement card, are on the same list.Needs an account
Signed in, your answers are remembered and you can delete them at any time. Signed out, nothing you enter leaves the page — no account, no record, nothing sent anywhere.
Preparing for the cultural knowledge exam
The exam is the step of that procedure this platform teaches, and everything below is how you pass it. It is a written exam sat in Hungarian: twelve questions in sixty minutes, two from each of six topic areas — the national symbols, the history, the literature and music, the institutions of the Fundamental Law, your rights and duties, and everyday life in Hungary and Europe.
The six chapters are those six topics, and the practice questions, the mock exams and the vocabulary are all pointed at the same paper. If you want the rules of the exam itself — where you sit it, what it costs, what happens if you fail — About the exam is the page for that.
Start with the words, not the chapters
Before anything else, open Vocabulary and choose the card marked “Start here”.
That list is not a chapter. It is the basic Hungarian the exam questions are written in — words like mikor (when), hány (how many), sorolj fel hármat (name three). Plenty of people know the material perfectly well and still lose marks because they misread the question.
Spend a little time there first. Everything after it gets easier.
The five things you will use
- LearningThe six chapters. This is the exam material.
- PracticingPractice tests: a full mock exam, drills by topic, and your own mistakes.Needs an account
- VocabularyHungarian word lists and seven word games, one set per chapter.
- SearchFind any word anywhere in the material. The magnifying glass stays in the top bar.Needs an account
- Permanent Residency AssistantMoira walks you through the residence card itself, step by step. The exam is only one step of it.
What you can read for free
Chapter 1 — Hungarian national symbols — is completely free: the reading, the vocabulary and the practice questions. So are About the exam and the permanent residency guide. Everything else needs an account.
How the chapters work
Chapters are read one screen at a time, with a picture beside the text and Prev / Next at the bottom. You turn pages rather than scroll through a wall of text.
Three things are built into every chapter:
Quick checks
Every few screens the chapter pauses and asks three questions about what you have just read. They are not scored — they are there because being asked about something is what makes it stick. Get one wrong and it simply suggests you page back and look again.
Use the "Next question" button to move through a check — not the "Next" arrow beside it, which turns the page and leaves the check behind.
A matching exercise
Chapters 2 and 3 only. Match names to works, years to events, places to what happened there.
The closing practice test
Every chapter ends with 12 exam-style questions. Read the chapter through and score 60% or more, and it is marked complete.
Your best attempt is the one that stands, so an off day never undoes a good one. Each go draws a fresh set of questions, so it is worth coming back to.
Studying in Hungarian, English, or both
The EN | EN+HU | HU switch in the top bar changes the material itself:
- EN + HUBoth languages, Hungarian first with the English underneath. Best for learning.
- HUHungarian only, once you are confident.
- ENEnglish only, for getting the gist of a chapter quickly.
Buttons like Submit and Next stay in English either way. The switch appears only where there is something to switch — the chapters, the practice screens and search.
Finding your place
- The sidebar on the left lists all six chapters and the contents of the one you are in. On a phone it is the Contents button.
- The bookmark button at the bottom saves where you stopped. One per chapter — setting a new one replaces the old.
- Where a chapter covers dates, a row of dates under the screen lets you jump between periods.
Practice tests and mock exams
The Practicing tab is separate from the practice built into each chapter — it is where you test yourself across everything you have learned.
- Mock Exam
- 12 questions, two from each of the six topics, marked the way the real exam is. It is scored in points: 16 out of 30 passes. Questions are worth different amounts, so nine right out of twelve can still be a fail.
- Practice by Topic
- One topic at a time, as much as you like. Nothing to pass, just practice.
- Review My Mistakes
- Every question you have got wrong, kept until you get it right.
- My Progress
- Where you are strong and where you are not.
The site remembers which questions you have already seen and shows you the less familiar ones first, so a second mock exam really is a different paper.
Learning Hungarian vocabulary
There is a word list for every chapter, plus the “Start here” list of basic Hungarian. The Hungarian always comes first, with the English meaning underneath.
- Hide meanings — covers the English so you can test yourself. Click a card to peek.
- Add your own words — saved to your account, and they appear in the games too.
Then seven ways to drill them, easiest first:
- Flashcards
- Match
- Write the word
- Mixed-up letters
- Missing letters
- Word search
- Crossword
All of them ask for the Hungarian, since that is the side you are learning. Type it right but miss an accent, and it is accepted with a gentle note rather than marked wrong.
What the colours and marks mean
- Navy blue
- A button, or the answer you have picked.
- Soft green
- A box of information to read.
- Deep green
- Correct — or a box that does something.
- Red
- Wrong, or something needs your attention.
- Yellow highlight
- The key phrase to remember.
- “Extra” label
- Extra information that will not be asked in the exam, but you might find interesting.
When to click a box, and when not to
Chapters are full of boxes. Only some of them do anything.
Do not click
A plain soft-green box with a simple border. It is just information — a name, a date, a duty. Nothing is hiding behind it.
Do click
A box with a coloured line down its left edge and a small arrow. Those two marks always mean “this does something”.
You will find the second kind on chapter 3’s literary eras, the coat of arms and the coronation regalia.
Other things that respond
- Cards that flip over — the national symbols in chapter 1.
- Cards that open — the ministries, the hungarikums, the fundamental rights.
- Maps — point at a name to light up the place, or the other way round. The Budapest map also zooms and pans.
- The Hungarian flag — touch a stripe to see what the colour stands for.
- An arrow in the corner of a screen — reveals the next part of a step-by-step section.
- A play button — a recording, such as the Himnusz.
Never clickable: pictures, headings, and the numbers beside a screen.
Answering questions
It works the same way everywhere on the site.
- Pick an answer — it turns blue. Nothing is locked in yet.
- Press Submit.
- Green is the right answer, always shown. Red is your answer if it was wrong. Everything else fades.
Multiple-choice options are shuffled every time, so do not memorise “it is B”.
For typed answers, a hint blanks out just the words you need to supply. Missing accents are forgiven, exactly as in the real exam.
A simple study routine
- The "Start here" basic Hungarian vocabulary list.
- That chapter's own vocabulary list — use Hide meanings to test yourself.
- Read the chapter, answering the quick checks honestly.
- The chapter's closing practice test — aim for 60% or better.
- Practicing, then that topic's drill.
- Vocabulary, then the word games.
- Review your mistakes regularly.
- Try a Mock Exam once you have covered a few chapters — 16 out of 30 passes.
Work through all six chapters this way and you will have read the material, been tested on it several times over, and sat the exam in practice conditions before the day itself.
