The list is not the lesson
It is late, and another speaking mock has just ended. The list of errors comes up, and you could have written it yourself:
- the agreement you missed last week;
- the answer delivered in one long breath;
- the moment in Tâche 3 when the argument runs dry and you start saying the same thing in other words.
You know exactly what to fix. And next week the list will look the same.
This is the trap of preparing alone, and the most diligent candidates fall into it hardest.
A list of mistakes is a diagnosis. It is not a cure.
Knowing that you drop the subjunctive does not stop you dropping it at speed, with a stranger waiting for the end of your sentence. That is exactly the situation the TCF puts you in: twelve minutes of speaking with a real examiner, who asks, follows up and does not wait for your best paragraph.
What a person across the call adds
AI practice is a superb way to find your faults. What it cannot be is a person across the call.
- Tireless
- There at midnight
- As often as you like
- Hears the hesitation before the mistake, and the word you steered around
- Interrupts, asks why, hands your last sentence back to you, the way an examiner will
- Corrects you in the moment, while the sentence is still in your mouth, and makes you say it again
That second attempt, straight away, in front of someone, is where a habit actually breaks.
Book the level you are, not the one you need
Classes come in three programmes: A1, eight months from your first words, A2, six months of everyday exchanges, and Exam prep, a month on the exam itself, which you can extend a month at a time.
A1 and A2 are levels of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), the scale French is taught by almost everywhere. Canada scores you on another, the NCLC.
The two were never built as one, and the internet is full of confident conversions. The most useful source is the least quoted: the 2019 study the Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks, which maintains the NCLC, published to relate them.
| Level | What you can do | NCLC, roughly |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Use everyday expressions and very basic phrases; introduce yourself and answer simple questions, if the other person speaks slowly and helps. | 2 |
| A2 | Understand frequent expressions about family, shopping, work and surroundings; handle simple, routine exchanges. | 3–4 |
| B1 | Follow clear standard French on familiar matters; cope with most everyday situations; describe experiences and plans and briefly give reasons for an opinion. | 5–7 |
| B2 | Understand the main ideas of complex texts; talk with native speakers with enough fluency and spontaneity that neither side strains; argue a viewpoint, its advantages and its drawbacks. | 8–9 |
The real target
Read the last column with one finding in mind.
- What IRCC’s French-language proficiency category in Express Entry asks for, in all four abilities
- NCLC 7
- Where the study places Benchmark 7: a very strong B1 with elements of B2
- B1+
The common advice that you need B2 is not wrong so much as blunt. The real target is the top of B1, pushing into B2, which is good news for anyone who has been told they are far away, and a warning for anyone who thinks a comfortable B1 is enough.
Choose honestly
Booking does not test you or check your level: you choose. Choose honestly. Pick the line that describes what you already do without effort, not the one you need on your result.
If that line is A1 or A2, that is your programme; Exam prep works on the exam itself. Not sure? Book a free 30-minute consultation, and a teacher hears your level first.
A class pitched slightly below your ambition, where you speak all hour, will do more for you than one above it where you mostly listen.
Group or one-to-one
A class is a group, with a limited number of seats, or a one-to-one: you and the teacher. Either meets on set days each week for its programme’s months, on a video call.
The choice matters more than it looks.
- What the exam is made of: conversation with people you did not script
- The quiet education of hearing other learners make, and fix, the mistakes you make too
- The whole hour on your own habit
- If one error has survived every list for a month, that is a one-to-one’s work
Times and calendars
- Every time shows in your own time zone, wherever the teacher is.
- Add the sessions to your calendar.
Don’t settle for a time you will miss
The class you skip teaches nothing.
If no open class fits your week, ask for a one-to-one:
- your programme;
- the parts of the day you can really attend: morning, afternoon or evening.
A teacher can answer with a class made for you.
Between classes
A class is a few hours a week, and the exam asks for more. Between sessions, Salut Canada’s practice runs on:
- the four sections;
- the speaking examiner at the exam’s timings;
- drills made from your own errors, which give the teacher something real to work on.
The practice finds the mistakes; the class is where you unlearn them in front of someone.
Its marks are practice feedback. Only FEI marks the TCF, and Salut Canada is not FEI.
Sources
Council of Europe, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, global scale of the Common Reference Levels; Brian North and Enrica Piccardo, Aligning the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), research report, Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks, 2019; IRCC, Express Entry: category-based selection; checked on 25 October 2026. FEI, TCF Canada page, checked on 24 October 2026.