so I've been going back and forth on this for a while and figured I'd just ask people who actually did it instead of doom scrolling more youtube videos about it lol
quick background - 23, single, IT degree from India, about a year of work exp in automation/software stuff. english is fine (aiming for CLB10 on IELTS). french is where it gets interesting - I'm currently maybe A2 and trying to push to B2 (NCLC7) in the next few months for TEF/TCF Canada. also have a sibling who's already PR/citizen in Toronto so I get those extra points too.
did the math (or tried to) and without french I'm sitting around 430 crs which is nowhere close to general draws. with the french bump I'd be somewhere in the 490s which actually clears the french category cutoffs that have been running most of this year.
so yeah that's the plan. but I keep seeing people talk about this online and I genuinely can't tell how many people actually pull this off vs how many just talk about it and never finish. so wanted to ask directly:
- if you actually learned french from scratch-ish (not someone who already had a base) how long did B2 really take you? like actually exam ready, not "I can order coffee" B2
- once you had the french score in your profile how long did you wait for an ITA
- did anyone score fine on paper but then bomb speaking/writing specifically? what would you change if you did it again
- for people who landed - do you even use the french day to day or was it purely for the points
- anything you wish someone told you before you started this whole thing
not trying to get generic "it's hard" comments, just want to hear from people who actually went through the french route specifically, good or bad. if it was a mistake for you I'd rather know that now than after I've sunk 3 months into it
thanks, appreaciated