TEF Canada changed. Most guides didn't.
A large share of TEF advice online — including highly-ranked pages — still describes a test that no longer exists (60 listening questions, sectional scores out of 360/300/450). Here is the current format, with an honest label on what's officially confirmed versus reported. Verified July 5, 2026.
The current test (official sources)
| Section | Now | Old guides say |
|---|---|---|
| Compréhension orale (listening) | 40 questions, 40 min | 60 questions |
| Compréhension écrite (reading) | 40 questions, 60 min | 50 questions |
| Expression écrite (writing) | 2 sections, 60 min (fait divers ≥80 words + opinion letter ≥200) | unchanged |
| Expression orale (speaking) | 2 sections, ~15 min | unchanged |
| Scoring | Every skill 0–699, attestation states your NCLC per skill | Sectional scales /360, /300, /450 |
Question counts per CCI Paris's official presentation pages; scoring scale per IRCC's live equivalency charts (tests taken after December 10, 2023). If you tested before December 2023, different conversion tables apply — check canada.ca's date-matched charts.
Reported September 2025 tweaks (not yet on CCI's own prep pages)
Multiple specialist prep providers consistently report that since September 1, 2025 themicro-trottoir (street-interview) listening items offer 3 answer choices instead of 4 and that some interview audio can be played twice. CCI Paris's detailed prep pages haven't been updated to confirm this. We flag it as reported rather than official — if you're testing soon, prepare for both possibilities; neither changes what skill is being measured.
Your NCLC 7 targets on the current scale
| Skill | NCLC 7 needs (/699) |
|---|---|
| Listening | 434–461 |
| Reading | 434–461 |
| Writing | 428–471 |
| Speaking | 456–493 |
IRCC equivalency chart. NCLC 7 in all four skills is the French-bonus threshold for Express Entry. All levels: CLB/NCLC converter.
How to tell if a guide (or a mock test) is stale
- It says 60 listening / 50 reading questions → pre-2025 content.
- It quotes writing scores out of 450 → pre-Dec-2023 scale (worse: some mix eras in one table).
- It tells you to compute your NCLC from an "ancien score" column → only ever applied to attestations from tests taken Dec 2023 – May 2024.
Practise the current format
Our TEF Canada practice is built to the 40/40 structure with progressive-difficulty listening (micro-trottoir items included), plus writing tasks scored by an AI examiner against the official criteria with an NCLC estimate on the current /699 scale — free. Or sit the full mock.