60 minutes · 2 tasks
TEF Canada writing: what it actually looks like
Two communicative tasks, not academic essays. Section A gives you about 25 minutes to continue a news-style text in at least roughly 80 words. Section B gives about 35 minutes to state and justify a position in around 200 words minimum.
Writing
Expression écrite
60 minutes · 2 tasks
How it works
- Section A: continue a factual, news-style text. Minimum around 80 words.
- Section B: take a position and defend it. Minimum around 200 words.
- Two independent assessors mark your work against standardised grids.
- The grids weigh communication, vocabulary, grammatical control and organisation - not a raw error count.
What goes wrong
- Treating the word minimum as the goal. Clearing 200 words with no structure scores worse than 210 well-organised ones.
- Pasting a memorised essay onto an unrelated prompt. Assessors read for relevance to this situation.
- Forgetting Section B is an argument. Position, reason, concrete example, second reason, counter-argument, conclusion.
Where your score needs to land
For NCLC 7, writing needs at least 428 on the 0–699 scale - well above the 400 that counts as generic CEFR B2. Convert your score.
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- All four skills in real exam format
- Scored on CCI's assessment dimensions
- Results in NCLC, per skill