The TCF Canada exam

Four tests wearing one name

Ask a candidate what the TCF Canada is and you will usually hear “a French test”. Singular. One level to reach, one subject to study, one thing to be good at.

We think that single word is where a lot of preparation goes wrong. The TCF Canada is four tests that happen to share a day, and they do not even measure you on the same scale.

France Éducation international (FEI), which runs the test, sets out the four sections plainly. Listening, reading and writing are sat in a group; speaking is sat alone, across a table from an examiner.

Every section except speaking can be sat on paper or on a computer; your centre decides which, and tells you. Speaking is never on a screen.

Two sections count, two are judged

Look at the last column of that table again. It splits the exam down the middle, and the split matters more than any single task.

Is there negative marking?

No, and it is the most useful fact about the counted half. FEI’s handbook says only right answers score: a wrong answer and a blank answer are both worth zero. So a blank is never the safe choice. Answer everything, even when you are guessing.

The same handbook says the questions get harder as the paper goes on. In reading, that turns time into the real enemy: a minute spent wrestling with an early question is a minute stolen from the hardest ones at the end. FEI’s own advice is not to waste time taking notes in the multiple-choice sections.

The judged half forgives less

Writing and speaking are read by people, and they are read for what you do with your French as much as for the French itself. Our guides to the speaking tasks and the writing tasks go through what the markers listen and read for, task by task.

What they share is this: FEI sends back a mark, not comments. And since the sessions of 1 September 2026, FEI has suspended re-marking of speaking and writing, with the service due back in autumn 2027.

On the judged half, the mark you get on the day is the mark you keep.

Your weakest section is your level

Here is the part that changes how we would spend a month of preparation. IRCC does not read your TCF as one result. It reads four, each converted to a Canadian level (NCLC), and for Express Entry’s Federal Skilled Worker Program it asks for NCLC 7 in all four abilities.

There is no average. A brilliant reading score cannot lend points to a weak speaking mark. The candidate who reaches NCLC 9 in three sections and NCLC 6 in the fourth has, for that requirement, not reached NCLC 7.

So the question to ask is not “how good is your French?” but “which of your four sections is lowest, and by how much?” Our guide to tracking your progress sets out the full table of scores and levels.

Where candidates go wrong

FEI says the TCF is not built on a course syllabus: it measures how well you use French in general. That is true, and it is also why so many candidates prepare in general and lose marks in particular. In our view, the costliest mistakes are mistakes of format, not of French:

• Preparing for the section they fear, usually speaking, and coasting on the one they think is safe, which then comes back lowest.
• Leaving multiple-choice answers blank, though a guess costs nothing.
• Replaying listening in practice, then meeting recordings played once on the day.
• Writing past the word range, which can sink a whole writing paper.
• Learning model answers by heart, which FEI treats as fraud.

None of these needs better French to fix. Each needs practice in the exam’s own shape.

Which guide to read for what

The guides on this page take the judged half one section at a time, because that is where knowing the format pays most.

• The speaking test: its three tasks in 12 minutes, who leads each one and why memorised answers fail. Read the speaking guide.
• The writing test: three tasks on one 60-minute clock, how FEI counts a word and the five cases that can rate a paper “A1 not reached”. Read the writing guide.

Around the whole exam sit a few rules worth knowing before you book:

If a section comes back short, our guide to retaking is about how to use those 20 days.

Practise each section on its own terms

If the TCF Canada is four tests, then practice should be four kinds of practice, each on its own clock, each telling you where you stand.

That is how Salut Canada is built. Each section is a timed test of its own:

• listening and reading scored the moment you finish, on the 699-point scale, with the NCLC level beside the score;
• writing marked out of 20, with corrections and a model answer;
• speaking with an examiner that takes you through the three tasks at the exam’s timings.

Sources

FEI, TCF Canada page: the four sections, their questions and clocks, the computer option, results within 15 working days, two years’ validity, 20 days between sittings, re-marking suspended from 1 September 2026 and due back in autumn 2027, FEI’s advice to candidates. FEI, Manuel du candidat TCF: recordings played once, progressive difficulty, scoring from 100 to 699 with only right answers counted, marks out of 20 and the NCLC table. IRCC, Language testing (Express Entry): the TCF Canada scores for each NCLC level, NCLC 7 in all four abilities for the Federal Skilled Worker Program, results under two years old. Checked on 25 October 2026.