The key ideaOn test day, points are also lost before the test: arriving late, a forgotten ID, too short a night. All of that is settled the day before.
The day before: prepare what the centre will ask for
Reread your convocation: it gives the place, date and time. According to France Éducation international, a late candidate is not admitted to the room, and no one is admitted once the listening test has started.
Prepare a valid photo ID. Documents shown in digital form are not accepted: bring the original. Your centre tells you which documents it accepts.
- Convocation printed or at hand, with the exact address
- Original, valid photo ID
- A blue or black pen
- The route checked, with a thirty-minute margin
The evening before: stop revising
One last short set is enough to keep the rhythm. Start nothing new: a notion discovered the day before creates more doubt than points.
Reread your notes instead: your connectors, the structure of your introduction for the first speaking task, your most frequent grammar mistakes. Then close everything.
The morning: arrive before you need to
At the entrance an invigilator checks your identity, you sign the attendance sheet and, for TCF Canada, your photo is taken. Count that time in your arrival.
In the room, phones are switched off and belongings put away. Only your ID, your convocation and your pen stay on the table. No document, dictionary or device is allowed during the tests.
During the test: what you have already rehearsed
In listening, every recording is played only once, and the question comes after the audio. That is exactly the format of your sets: you know what to expect.
In writing, complete all three tasks and keep to each task’s word count. A missing or too-short task can get the paper assessed as “A1 not reached”. And do not learn a text by heart: reciting a memorized text is treated as fraud.
Checklist
- My convocation and my original ID are ready.
- I know the route and I arrive thirty minutes early.
- I have a blue or black pen.
- I learned nothing new the day before.
- I know I must complete all three writing tasks.
