TEF Canada writing Section A: continuing the news story

What the official instructions say

The TEF Canada writing test, run by CCI Paris Île-de-France (Le français des affaires), has two separately timed parts: Section A (25 minutes) and Section B (35 minutes), 60 minutes in total.

In Section A you are given the opening of a newspaper article from the faits divers column, the short news items about accidents, minor crimes or unusual everyday events. You must finish the article in several paragraphs, writing at least 80 words.

• Time: 25 minutes for this section.
• Length: 80 words minimum. Only a minimum is set; there is no maximum.
• Form: several paragraphs that carry on from the article.

No maximum does not mean “write as much as you can”: in 25 minutes, always keep a few minutes to proofread.

How Section A is marked

At CCI Paris Île-de-France, each paper is marked independently by two language-teaching specialists, using a standardised grid that places the overall performance on the CEFR scale. The criteria set out in CCI’s sample tests fall into two groups:

• quality and effectiveness of the text: fit to the situation (respect de la situation), overall structure, clarity of the information, and the ability to develop, nuance and add detail (développer, nuancer, préciser);
• range and control of written French: vocabulary, syntax (sentences, tenses, moods), spelling.

For Section A, that turns into very concrete questions:

• Does your text read as the rest of the same article? Same people, same place, same moment, same news tone: that is what fitting the situation means here.
• Does the story move forward? Paragraphs, an event that relaunches the story, an ending.
• Is it clear who does what, and when? A news story has to stay easy to follow from start to finish.
• Do you develop? A time, an age, a witness’s reaction: precise details rather than a three-line summary.
• Are your tenses under control? Tenses and moods are part of the criteria; in Section A, that mostly means past tenses.

Since 11 December 2023, TEF Canada writing has been scored out of 699, with its own NCLC conversion bands: NCLC 7, for example, runs from 428 to 471 points. Your results also show an « Équivalence ancien score » (old-scale equivalent: 310 to 348 for the same NCLC 7). IRCC’s Express Entry page, updated 16 October 2026, says this is the figure to enter in an Express Entry profile, because the new score is not compatible with the system. All the bands are in our NCLC score chart.

A 4-step method

1. Note the facts in the opening (2 minutes)

Write down who, where, when and what happened. In the example below: six neighbours who had never spoken to each other, a lift stopped by a power cut, a building in the Plateau-Mont-Royal in Montreal, a Saturday evening, a two-hour outage. These facts are fixed: your continuation builds on them and never changes them. Read the headline too, when there is one: « Concert improvisé dans un ascenseur » (“improvised concert in a lift”) already tells you what will happen.

2. Plan three paragraphs (3 minutes)

1. What happened next: first reactions, what the people do to get out of the situation.
2. The twist: the unexpected event that makes the story worth telling.
3. The outcome: how the story ends, and what changed afterwards.

Decide on the ending before you write, so you do not run out of time when it is time to wrap up.

3. Write like a journalist (15 minutes)

• Stay in the past, in the opening’s tense system: passé composé, imparfait, plus-que-parfait (see the tense table).
• Third person, neutral tone: you are the reporter, not a character in the story.
• Precise facts: a time, a first name, an age, a place.
• A quoted witness: one short sentence in quotation marks brings the story to life.
• Time markers to link events: « d’abord », « c’est alors que », « peu à peu », « deux heures plus tard ». Our guide to French linking words has more.

It is not a letter: no « Chers lecteurs », no « Bonjour », no signature.

4. Proofread (5 minutes)

Check in this order: the facts of the opening, past tenses, past participle agreement, accents, then the word count.

One opening, two continuations: B1 then C1

This opening was written for this site, like all our practice prompts: it is not a real exam question.

Answer 1 — estimated B1 (117 words)

The answer respects the situation: the six neighbours, the power cut, the two hours. It follows a clear three-paragraph plan and the story has an ending. What keeps it at B1: short sentences often linked with « et », everyday vocabulary, no quoted witness, and a spoken-style line, « C’était vraiment sympa » (“it was really nice”), which gives the narrator’s opinion instead of telling the story. There is also a sequence-of-tenses error: after « il a dit que », French needs « était » and « fallait », not « est » and « faut ». Estimate: B1, roughly NCLC 6 if Section B is at the same level.

Answer 2 — estimated C1 (171 words)

Same opening, same facts, but the grader sees the difference straight away:

Estimate: C1, roughly NCLC 9 if Section B is at the same level. Both answers are well above 80 words; the second is longer because it develops the story, not because it pads it out.

Which past tense for what?

The opening already gives you the system to follow: « a bloqué » (passé composé), « se trouvaient » (imparfait), « ne s’étaient jamais parlé » (plus-que-parfait). Keep those tenses to the last line.

Costly mistakes

• Contradicting the opening. Seven neighbours instead of six, a ten-minute outage, the story moved to Quebec City: the grader reads your text as the rest of the same article, and every contradiction shows.
• Switching to the present. « Les voisins ont peur, un homme sort sa guitare… » breaks the opening’s system. The present belongs only in a quote or for what is still true today.
• Switching to « je ». « J’étais dans l’ascenseur… » turns the article into a personal account. To give someone a voice, quote a witness.
• Writing too little. Under 80 words, the instructions are not met. Count before time runs out and keep a margin.
• Leaving the story unfinished. Stopping at the twist leaves the reader with no outcome: we never learn how the neighbours got out.
• Writing a letter. « Chers lecteurs », a closing formula or a signature have no place in a news article.

Section A FAQ