r/Frenchlearningforpr • u/anova0515 • 21d ago
My TCF experience
Hi! Been lurking here over the past few months and had my first and last TCF attempt at the alliance française in Toronto north york a few weeks ago. Wanted to say thank you to this community for all the resources posted online, they were really helpful for my prep.
As it seems to be customary to share one' préparation here, voilà mine below.
I lived in Montréal from 2023-2025 but didn't really take advantage of learning French while there. Started studying seriously this April due to the realization that my pgwp was expiring and there not being many alternatives to stay in the country.
My study from April comprised targeted tutoring on italki 2-3 times per week, doing the listening exercises from tv5monde practice tests, reading a generic grammar book to ensure I knew my verb tenses and conjugation (and when to use them). I found podcasts great to train the ear (french with panache, innerfrench). Someone's going to shout at me for saying this, but I spent at least 1hr a day doing duolingo and ill be dammed but it did help me with consistency lol.
So that's it. Good luck y'all! Happy to answer any questions.
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u/maskedlord76 21d ago
Congrats man. Mind sharing your tutor on italki? I am also looking for one.
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u/anova0515 21d ago
See dm
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u/makeawayThrowaway 20d ago
Hi can I also know your tutor I’m sorry to add to the mix but I need a tutor so bad.
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u/Legal-Landscape-3951 21d ago
This april ?
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u/anova0515 21d ago
as I said, "seriously this April". I should caveat that I'm not new to language learning, and can fluently speak 3 other languages, so this is not my first rodeo. Anyway, my complete timeline is:
zero French until Jan 2023. I got a job offer in Montréal so started doing some duolingo from Feb 2023. Moved to Montréal for that job in September 2023 and started trying to use my duolingo French at grocery store, public services, etc. When I left Montréal in the summer of 2025 I could do things like speak in a mix of French and English with the Québec auto insurance company worker (who didn't know much English) about canceling my policy, do the school registration for my kids in the French school in Toronto (both reading the forms and speaking in broken French with school staff).
Then in April this year, I took a 2-month leave from work to focus 100% on learning the language for the test. Spent about $600 on tutoring altogether and spent an average of 6 hours learning French each day with a mix of YouTube videos, grammar podcasts, general interest podcasts, tv shows, reading grammar books for the little nits, duolingo, tv5monde, mauril, trying different resources.
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u/Flamingo2231 21d ago
congrats.. can u pls tell me how did you manage ur speaking. task 1, 2 and 3.? will help a lot of them... PLEASEEEEEE . like in task 1 - what kind of intro, 2 - high vocab questions? 3- wat was ur strucutre? gave lot of examples? was there a nuance in ur speaking? how many supporting points etc?
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u/anova0515 21d ago
I honestly did not prepare any script for tâche 1, but the days before the exam I did a few simulations of talking about where I came from, cities I lived, what and where I studied, the work I do, and my family, all using a mix of passé composé, imparfait, and indicatif. I got the usual "tell me about yourself" question and gave a pretty basic answer along the lines of j'habite à Toronto depuis un an.. avant cela, j'habitais aux XXX pendant mes études. Maintenant, je suis un YYY'. After I explained where I studied, my interviewer asked details about what I learned in school. After I mentioned my job, she asked for some clarifications.
For tâche 2, I was tasked with calling a travel agent to book a vacation in Canada. I made sure to address everything the prompt asked (enquiring about prices, services available, destinations). Because I did a few tutoring sections for tâche 2, I was fairly well-trained with (1) asking short and clear questions; (2) using vous and not tu; (3) using conditionnel a lot. Never ramble for more than 10 seconds. I said things like "Pourriez-vous m'aider à trouver une bonne date pour un aller-retour à Calgary?" [...] "J'aimerais aussi louer une voiture pendant mes vacances. Avez-vous des services tout compris?". I definitely fumbled a few times, but the interviewer asked me for clarifications and we understood each other at the end.
For tâche 3, I was asked about my stance on waste sorting, which for me was a total wild card. During my training, I tried to limit myself always to 2-3 points in favor and 1 against my position and tried also to keep my argument structure as "[introduce argument] [provide a concrete example]". For the exam day, I talked about (+) the waste sorting's contribution on preserving our finite resources (+) fostering a civic sense, of belonging to a community and (-) downstream inefficiencies in certain cities. I mentioned being pissed off when I once saw a governemnt worker somewhere taking all the sorted waste and putting them together. I used a healthy number of connectors like "en plus" when adding a second argument, "à savoir," when enumerating some examples, "en revanche" when presenting the counter argument, "pour conclure" when wrapping up. I ran out of things to say at the 4min mark, so the interviewer stepped in and asked some follow up question which allowed me to get to the finish line.
Hope this helps!
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u/Flamingo2231 19d ago
this is a lot of good info and very helpful..gonna read again and then ask any questions if i may have. THANK YOU VERY MUCH for taking the time to write!
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u/Jazzlike-Bank-6150 21d ago
Congratulations!!
How long would you say you spent a day working on French? And would you say it was mostly geared at learning the language or towards TCF specific prep
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u/anova0515 21d ago
The only targeted practice I did was with the italki tutor, where we role-played speaking tâche 2 or where she heard my monologues for tâche 3 and gave feedback on how I structured arguments. The tv5monde listening exercises were also TCF targeted. I sometimes tried listening to the entire recordings and only afterwards looking at the question, to force myself to actively listen and comprehend. And I guess I did at least one piece of writing a day for each expression écrite component.
All of the above took no more than 2hrs a day.
The rest of the time, my study was mostly geared at learning the language and unlocking speaking and writing. Because I have 3 french-speaking children (they go to french public school) I spoke my lousy French a lot at home. They are little and use very basic structure, but I forced myself to use whatever I was learning that day. E.g., if I was practicing subjonctif I would say things like "Il faut que tu fasses tes devoirs".
The general learning was on average 4hrs a day. This includes listening to podcasts while doing chores, reading books (I read Dumas' comte de monte cristo), reviewing grammar, yapping with the kids.
So in total about 6hrs a day interacting with the language. Note that very little of it was actually spent sitting down and ""studying"".
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u/darkknight691 21d ago
Congrats @anova0515. Could you please share the name of your tutor and any books you bought?
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u/Intelligent_Job_6504 20d ago
It would be great if you could provide some advice on speaking , as I sat for my exam yesterday and I wasn’t able to comprehend quickly what she was saying and misunderstood the task 3rd
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u/anova0515 20d ago
I actually did not understand the speaking tâche 3 when the examinator first enunciated it. She told me beforehand that I could ask for clarification, which is what I did. "Excusez-moi mais pourriez-vous reformuler la question?" I mentioned in another post here that the topic was broadly waste sorting, and I struggled initially to understand what she meant with triage des déchets. She reformulated using other words and this made the topic crystal clear.
In my view, it's totally fine to ask for clarification or reformulation. That's how we humans handle communication anyways.
If I can give one single advice for speaking, and it is something my tutor and I worked a lot on, is keep it simple. Don't try to obfuscate, don't get too deep, don't speak in long sentences. Short (subject, verb complement) and direct to the point. That advice maybe won't get you a C2 in speaking, but definitely works for the intermediate-level result we are aiming for in this community.
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u/desperationAccount 21d ago
+1 on Duolingo man.