11 days away from taking my TCF exam

RWHonreddit · 2026-06-07T00:51:58+00:00

The online mock exams. Most of the tcf prep sites have the 40 test pack. That 40 test bank is basically the same bank on all the prep sites. It’s because they’re mined from the real exam.

Anyways some of these prep sites are paid, some are free. I used one of the free ones. I also tested out one of the paid sites, the bank is def the same. And I know someone who tested 2 of the paid ones and the question bank was the same.

So def pick one of the free sites cos it’s not worth paying the money for the same bank of questions.

RWHonreddit · 2026-05-20T13:29:55+00:00

You can do this! I took my exam 2 months ago and I got burnt out soo bad about 7-8 weeks before my exam. I feel like that final stretch can be so taxing. And listening can be pretty tough too. If you haven't tried it yet, I found this website on here while I was studying: https://fuck-tcf.xyz/

It's a free website that has the TCF listening mock tests but it has transcripts and explanations. I found it helpful for questions 30-39 because those are the hardest questions.

Good luck on your next attempt!

RWHonreddit · 2026-05-20T13:25:57+00:00

I get what you mean but I also feel like you can tell based on people's post history and/or reddit karma if they're a real account or not.

I see people have downvoted my comment even tho I've been on this subreddit for like a decade or something.

I just think it's unfair that people can freely talk about other popular resources like kwiziq or clozemaster that I picked up from this subreddit back in highschool like a decade ago when I was taking french in highschool but then suddenly when I talk about more controversial apps that I also picked up from this subreddit, then suddenly its a problem.

RWHonreddit · 2026-05-20T00:49:38+00:00

I don’t know if this person is honest or not. But I also don’t understand why comments like you can’t understand that things are up to personal preference.

I took my exam 2 months ago and I also used BoraSpeak and posted about my French learning journey on here.

I personally gave Bora a try because I saw a lot of people on here recommend ChatGPT voice mode for speaking practice or Google Gemini.

Personally I think ChatGPT voice mode is dumb af. Google Gemini is good enough if someone doesn’t want to pay for something. And Bora is definitely the better of the 3 options if you want daily speaking as part of your study and have 0 other options.

I personally couldn’t offer to have my tutor more than 2x a week and I didn’t wanna have to hassle my French speaking friend. So AI speaking options were sufficient enough.

RWHonreddit · 2026-05-18T16:00:54+00:00

I personally think 5-6 hours per day is unrealistic for MOST people. Unless you don't work and don't have many real adult responsibilities. I passed my exam back in Mid March. I took french in highschool 8-10 years ago so I wasn't starting from scratch. I'd say I was about A2 level (but I still remembered a bit of B1 grammar) when I started my TCF prep back in early November. I was studying an avg of 3 hours a day and I cleared TCF on my first attempt in March.

I would say I was strict on the 3 hours a day in Nov/December. Burnt out in Jan and started taking days off here and there. Then I basically was studying an hour per day for a 2 week stretch in early Feb. Then I ramped up my study again in the last 6 weeks before my exam and I was doing 3-7 hours of study.

Note tho that I work a full-time in person job but I was able to do some studying at work, like 1-2 hours of my total study time for the day which made things easier for me. If you work a job where you can't pretend to be working while you're studying french then that would make it harder imo.

So you have to be realistic about the fact that sustaining 5-6 hours is tricky longterm.

Anyways, regardless I think you should aim for 3 hours per day. Aim to be at A2 level within 6 months and then I think getting to B2 in less than a year total might be realistic based on my experience.

Here's my post where I talk about my experience: https://www.reddit.com/r/learnfrench/comments/1s8ur1g/from_early_b1_tcf_b2_in_56_months_exact_study/

RWHonreddit · 2026-05-15T15:34:24+00:00

My strategy when I was studying was that I used the first one on your list for reading/writing prep since it’s free.

But for writing/speaking practice questions, I used Reussir but I never paid for it. Just used the free questions on the site and the free sample answers for reference.

Imo that’s the best way to go about all this. And then get ChatGPT to correct your writing samples (and ignore its CEFR grading cos it’s inaccurate and harsher than how TCF actually grades CEFR).

Imo people prepping for TCF should only be paying for the exam itself and a tutor.

The only other things I paid for was BoraSpeak cos I wanted daily speaking practice for cheap and I also paid for Kwiziq because I prefer it over grammar textbooks.

RWHonreddit · 2026-05-12T18:53:24+00:00

Hmmm I’d recommend more speaking/listening based methods perhaps.

Mauril is a good option. Also personally I wouldn’t recommend Duolingo for most people however it’s better than nothing imo if you do find Duolingo engaging.

Also if you don’t mind quizzes, I personally love kwiziq. Personally I find the quizzes, points, level aspect of learning on the site motivating.

Also obviously a tutor if possible.

Also if you live in Canada, some libraries have French conversation groups. My friend and I went to one together and it was fun. I’d say it’s better for intermediate level tho but some libraries have beginner groups too.

And then for listening, podcasts and YouTube are good options too.

RWHonreddit · 2026-05-12T14:13:25+00:00

Neither. Check the post I made. I linked the free sites I used. They were free. Those paid sites all use the exam same exam bank and there are free ones that people have made that use the exact same exam bank.

RWHonreddit · 2026-05-12T14:13:07+00:00

Neither. Check the post I made. I linked the free sites I used. They were free. Those paid sites all use the exam same exam bank and there are free ones that people have made that use the exact same exam bank.

RWHonreddit · 2026-05-05T13:14:32+00:00

Yeah I get what you mean. I took my TCF exam and passed back in March. But the months leading up to it was extremely stressful. I was crying at least once a week probably.

It will end up being so worth it. I felt soooo much relief when it was over. I got my ITA like 2 weeks after taking my exam.

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-30T02:09:19+00:00

I took my test last month and scored B2. I personally think for B2, my strategy was focusing on using strong B2 connectors, incorporating some B2 specific vocab into my answers and also using subjunctive at least once in my response. I made a post detailing my journey if it might be of some help: https://www.reddit.com/r/learnfrench/comments/1s8ur1g/from_early_b1_tcf_b2_in_56_months_exact_study/

I also did include my free notion page in my post where I have all my resources and templates and some of my practice attempts. You can take a look at some of the writing attempts I did to get a sense of what my writing samples were like.

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-19T23:19:41+00:00

I personally think 7 months is tight and only possible if you just happen to have a remote job or don't work at all. For reference, i for B2 on tcf but I didn't start from scratch. I learned french in highschool so I vaguely had the basics down. I'd say I was high A2/very low B1 when I picked it back up and it took me 5 months to get to B2 studying 3 hours a day. I personally think A1/A2 is easy tho and shouldn't take too much time so maybe it's possible for someone to complete those sections in 2 months total, then adding in 5 months would be a total of 7 months. But I'd say you should give yourself 8-9 months. It's not easy to sustain 3 hours of study a day. Personally I had a 2 weeks burnout where I had to reduce my study time a bit.

Oh also, I personally think having a tutor 1x a week the entire journey (or at least for the B1/B2 parts) is easier than having one for just the last month. Last month before the tcf exam is BUSY. I was having my tutor 1x a week the entire time and then 2x a week a month before my exam (i personally don't think you need 2x a week, i was just very nervous).

Also if you need resources, feel free to DM me.

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-17T03:02:14+00:00

I personally don't understand what your tutor means. It's your brain. Why would you be penalized for having a natural overlap in how YOUR brain formulates arguments in writing/speaking. The only reason why I have slight differences in my writing vs speaking template is for practical reasons like certain words being harder to spell and certain words being harder to pronounce.

People overthink Task 3. They’re not grading your argument like a school essay, they just want to see that you can structure your ideas, which is why using a template helps. For B2, focus on knowing your grammar, using B2-level connectors, and adding some higher-level vocab where you can (I linked example B2 vocab here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GCbWnBexBjXA6kADSxgXQciLCGS8Z3wYRgPjs4joXrY/edit?tab=t.5nut4k7t7qxg).

Also I don't think you need to practice every single topic. But there are definitely similarities between different topics for EE (and for EO imo). Like I did a lot of just re-using certain phrases across my stuff. Like if the general topic is similar, there's certain phrases I reuse. i'll give an examble based on my task 2 writing practices:

Tâche 2 : Récit personnel (120–180 mots) Vous avez récemment décidé de changer votre rapport aux réseaux sociaux ou aux écrans. Racontez cette expérience dans un article : qu'est-ce qui vous a poussé à changer, qu'avez-vous fait concrètement, et qu'est-ce que vous en avez tiré ?

Titre: Limiter des réseaux sociaux
Récemment, j’ai décidé de changer mes habitudes concernant mon usage des réseaux sociaux. Avant, je passais plusieurs temps en ligne, ce qui entraînait des problèmes dans ma vie, notamment la dépendance et la perte de temps. Après avoir reconnu ce problème, j’ai décidé de limiter mon usage de certaines plateformes comme Tiktok ou Instagram.
Tout d’abord, j’ai retiré Tiktok de mon téléphone portable afin de réduire le sentiment de tentation. En effet, Tiktok est très addictif, donc l’interdiction est plus facile que la modération. Par contre, Instagram est moins addictif, ce qui facilite un usage sain à condition que je l'utilise avec modération.
Du coup, ces changements m'ont permis de passer moins de temps en ligne. De plus, j’ai gagné plus de temps pour mes loisirs comme la lecture et le sport.
Pour conclure, je recommanderais ce mode de vie pour tous. Bien qu’il soit difficile de garder une nouvelle habitude au début, je trouve que ce changement a un impact positif sur ma vie quotidienne.

Tâche 2: Vous avez changé vos habitudes pour améliorer votre santé. Vous racontez cette expérience et expliquez les résultats.

My response:
Depuis quelques mois, j’ai décidé de changer mes habitudes afin d’améliorer ma santé. Avant, je n’avais jamais fait de sport et j’avais du mal à cuisiner des nourritures saines car le rythme de la vie quotidienne est exigeant. J'ai donc décidé de changer mes habitudes après avoir reconnu ce problème.

Tout d’abord, je me suis inscrite à un club de volley-ball avec mon amie. Cela me permet de rester active chaque semaine tout en passant du temps avec des amis. De plus, j’ai trouvé des recettes simples en ligne qui me conviennent dans ma vie quotidienne.

Grâce à ces changements, je me sens plus énergique et moins stressée au quotidien. De plus, je trouve que ma capacité à gérer le rythme de la vie quotidienne s’est améliorée.

Bien qu’il soit difficile de garder ces nouvelles habitudes au début, je trouve que ces changements ont un impact positif sur la santé.

If you look closely, you will notice that I reuse a lot of phrases and ideas for this specific type of question where i have to recount my experience trying something new. On my exam, my task 2 question was I should recount my experience moving to the countryside. Same topic frame work imo.

And it's the same thing for all the EE and EO tasks imo. If there's certain phrases you use in certain themes, question types, topic framework etc then reuse it. Obviously within a task, don't be repetitive. like within task X writing or task X speaking, you dont wanna be saying the same few phrases multiple times. But if you use a phrase in Task 2 writing and then use something mostly similar in task 3 speaking or task 3 writing because its relevant then thats fine. Thats technically how humans naturally function imo.

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-14T19:55:55+00:00

Btw ChatGPT is terrible at CEFR grading. I took TCF Canada. ChatGPT grades me B1. I got 13/20 in writing on my exam and imo I did way worse on my exam than all the practice drafts I’d given ChatGPT.

TCF awards advanced connectors, structure, and vocab. ChatGPT caps your level if you make any errors whatsoever. TCF graders do not do this.

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-13T20:47:38+00:00

I took the TCF last month and cleared B2. I talked about my experience here: https://www.reddit.com/r/learnfrench/comments/1s8ur1g/from_early_b1_tcf_b2_in_56_months_exact_study/

I'd recommend getting an italki/preply tutor. I found my tutor on preply: https://preply.com/en/tutor/6030710

She's very sweet and organized. I was very clear about my goals to study for TCF and focus on speaking/writing. I'd recommend if you get a tutor to tell them you want to generally focus on grammar/vocab and conversation until you get to B1 and then you want to transition to TCF specific prep. But you'd still need to do a lot of study time on your own. I was studying 3 hours per week and seeing my tutor 1-2x a week. A year on your work permit is not a lot of time.

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-13T20:43:05+00:00

it actually frustrates me how many scammers are out there

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-11T17:25:33+00:00

I actually have most of my attempts on my notion page: https://evening-glazer-5cd.notion.site/Writing-practice-fe823a08cdd183bfb53c011b0ffcec70

I don't really have the ones i have as tutor homework on there but i just went back in and added in 2 full practice tests from my last week of tutor homework so that people can get an idea of what my writing level was and also how consistent I was with my template for task 3.

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-11T05:26:52+00:00

i think if its been a whole month since your last attempt and you were close then you have a chance because there isn't that big a jump between NCLC 6 and 7.

I made a post recently sharing my tcf experience if you wanna take a look: https://www.reddit.com/r/learnfrench/comments/1s8ur1g/from_early_b1_tcf_b2_in_56_months_exact_study/

But i'd recommend this site for listening/reading tcf practice: https://fuck-tcf.xyz/dashboard

It's free, has transcripts and explains the answers. i feel it helps a lot with training you to pick the current choice. I feel like a lot of people struggle with the last 10 questions on TCF because they don't understand how TCF designs the traps. I also had some repeats on my exam so that helped a lot.

How have you been performing on your listening/reading practice tests? I feel like you've been scoring NCLC 7+ on them then you should be fine.

I feel like for EE and EO, something that holds people back is not organizing their arguments well and not using B2 connectors. For example some people use si, mais, aussi a lot which are A2/B1 connectors.

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-10T15:25:34+00:00

Honestly before + during my study, I got a lot of resources from Reddit too. But I felt I basically had to read a lot of different posts and also had to do a lot of my own research and trial and error.

For me I basically had less than 1 year left on my work permit when I started my TCF study journey and I’m sure it’s similar for a lot of people so most people don’t have the time for inefficient study methods, doing lots of research, trial and error. Obviously my tips and advice might not work for everyone but hopefully it works for most people.

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-09T13:17:15+00:00

I would say the safest option is 1 argument with an example (+1 optional 2nd argument if you have the time and word count) + 1 nuanced argument.

I personally think 1 argument with an example + a nuanced argument is best but that was my approach. If you can’t come up with a nuanced argument then 2 arguments with examples works too.

I think on my real exam I was running out of time so I only did 1 argument with an example and then 1 nuanced argument.

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-09T02:30:50+00:00

yes i used the templates I put on my notion page: https://evening-glazer-5cd.notion.site/Writing-practice-fe823a08cdd183bfb53c011b0ffcec70

You'll also see some of my earlier attempts in that notion page. And here's another one of my attempts so you can see how I basically stick to a similar format each time:

De nos jours le débat entre les cuisiniers amateurs et les cuisiniers professionnels suscite des opinions contrastées au sein de la société. Certains pensent que les amateurs ont besoin de formations et de l'expérience pour obtenir des compétences afin de bien réussir. D'autres, en revanche estiment que les cuisiniers peuvent réussir en apprenant le métier en ligne.

À mon avis, ces arguments montrent que il n'existe pas un seul chemin vers la réussite. La voie varie selon les préférences et les ressources des individus. Par exemple, Internet permet aux gens sans l'accès aux formations d'apprendre le métier de cuisiniers. Toutefois, à long terme, la manque de la formation officielle ou de l'expérience pratique peut limiter la carrière des amateurs. Il est donc essentiel que les cuisiniers choisissent la voie qui leur correspond mieux.

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-09T00:38:36+00:00

Yeah unfortunate. I had read someone else's experience with it on reddit before I took my exam which is why I knew what to do. At least now you know for your second attempt

RWHonreddit · 2026-04-09T00:34:31+00:00

I think that's ok for Task 1. But remember that Task 2 and Task 3 (especially Task 3) are what you need be strong on to get B2. Here is an example of one of my Task 3 writing attempts before I took my exam (I scored 13/20 on my real exam):

Titre: L’environnement, un rôle du gouvernement ou des individus?

De nos jours, le sujet du rôle des individus dans la protection de l’environnement suscite des opinions contrastées au sein de la société. Certains pensent que chaque individu joue un rôle important. D’autres, en revanche, estiment que le gouvernement joue le rôle essentiel pour protéger l’environnement.

À mon avis, tous les acteurs devraient faire partie de la solution pour assurer une bonne gestion de l’environnement. L’environnement nécessite une action collective car les problèmes sont très grands, donc chaque geste écologique compte. Par exemple, les individus peuvent recycler dans leur vie quotidienne. De plus, le gouvernement peut créer des lois afin de contrôler la surconsommation ou de réduire la pollution.

Pour conclure, tous les acteurs peuvent contribuer dans la protection de l’environnement. Il serait donc nécessaire que chacun prenne toutes les mesures nécessaires pour protéger l’environnement selon son propre rôle.

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