TEF Canada writing: how many words for Section A and Section B?
Section A: minimum 80 words. Section B: minimum 200 words. There is no official maximum — but padding past the point you can keep accurate costs you marks, not gains them.
TEF Canada Writing (Expression écrite) is two sections in 60 minutes. Section A (about 25 minutes) asks you to continue a factual news story — a fait divers — in at least 80 words. Section B (about 35 minutes) asks you to express and justify an opinion in at least 200 words.
Why the confusion? Prep blogs circulate figures like "100–150" or "80–120" as if they were the rule. They are not. The official CCI Paris presentation states only the two minimums — 80 and 200. Treat those as floors, not targets: aim comfortably above (roughly 100–120 and 220–250) so a miscount never drops you under the minimum, which is penalised.
The safest habit is to write to the idea, not the word count — a well-developed 230-word Section B beats a padded 300-word one every time, because the raters score range, structure and accuracy, not length.
Official CCI Paris / Le français des affaires presentation, verified July 2026 (cross-checked against the live page).