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The three tasks
Message court
Short message
Write a message to describe, tell or explain to one or more people whose status is given. Match tu or vous to the reader.
Article / billet
Article or post
Write an article, letter or forum post that recounts an experience with your commentary and opinion.
Comparer deux avis
Compare two views
Two short opinion documents on a social issue. Summarise both, then argue your own position.
How the sixty minutes are spent
The three tasks are not equal, and treating them as if they were is the most common planning mistake. Tâche 1 is short and mechanical and should be finished quickly. Tâche 3 is the one that carries the highest level and needs the most thinking time, so it must not be reached with eight minutes left.
A budget that works for most candidates is roughly twelve minutes for tâche 1, twenty for tâche 2 and twenty-five for tâche 3, with a couple of minutes left over. Write the three finishing times on your paper before you start, then hold to them even if a task feels unfinished.
Read the prompt twice
The first read tells you the situation, the second tells you who the reader is and how many points you must cover. Underline every explicit instruction.
Fix the register
A friend or a relative takes tu. A manager, a landlord, an office or an unknown reader takes vous. Decide once, then keep it from the greeting to the sign-off.
Plan in five bullets
One for the opening, three for the body, one for the closing. If a required point has no bullet, you are about to lose the first criterion.
Write once, cleanly
Short sentences you control beat long ones you do not. Join them with real connectors rather than commas.
Reread for four things
Word count, register, verb tenses, and agreement of adjectives and past participles.
What the examiners actually grade
The grid used by France Éducation internationale looks at whether you did what the instruction asked, whether the text is organised and coherent for its purpose and reader, how varied and accurate your vocabulary is, and how accurate your morphology and syntax are. In that order, and the first one is the gate. A beautiful text that answers a slightly different question scores badly.
Organisation is worth more than most candidates expect. Paragraphs, a visible opening and closing, and connectors such as d’abord, ensuite, en revanche and c’est pourquoi are what turn a list of correct sentences into a B2 text.
Openings that always work
- Salut Marie, j’espère que tu vas bien. informal
- Bonjour Madame, Monsieur, formal, unknown reader
- Je vous écris au sujet de… stating the purpose
Connectors that raise the level
- tout d’abord · ensuite · enfin sequence
- en revanche · pourtant · alors que contrast
- c’est pourquoi · par conséquent consequence
Closings
- À bientôt, j’attends ta réponse. informal
- Dans l’attente de votre réponse, je vous prie d’agréer mes salutations distinguées. formal
The mistakes that cost the most
- Starting to write before deciding between tu and vous.
- Forgetting one of the points listed in the prompt.
- Using passé composé where the sentence describes a background or a habit, which needs the imparfait.
- Writing one block with no paragraphs, which makes the organisation invisible.
- Summarising your own opinion in tâche 3 before you have summarised the two documents.
- Leaving no time to check adjective and past participle agreement.
If tenses are the part that slows you down, the verb conjugation guide covers the passé composé and imparfait pairing in full, and the grammar guide covers connectors, relative pronouns and comparison, which are the three structures that separate a B1 text from a B2 one.
Questions people ask
What happens if I write fewer words than the minimum?
The task is capped, and on the TCF Canada grid that means the content criterion cannot rise above the lowest band whatever the quality of your French. Count in tens as you write: a line of your handwriting or a line on screen is a known number of words once you have measured it in practice.
Should I write a draft first?
Not a full one. Sixty minutes for three texts leaves roughly ten, twenty and twenty-five minutes per task. Spend two or three minutes on a bullet plan, write once, and keep the last two minutes of each task for a reread that checks agreement, tense and register.
Does handwriting or spelling matter?
Spelling is part of the language criterion, and repeated errors on very common words do cost you. Accents matter too. Where you are unsure, choose the simpler word you can spell rather than the impressive one you cannot.
Can I use the same opening every time?
Yes, and you should. A fixed, correct opening and closing costs nothing in marks and saves the seconds you need for the content. What must change every time is the middle, because that is where the prompt is answered.