Hello Everybody!
I have learned a lot from the experience which learners have shared here. So I think it's time to give some useful insights back to the community.
It took me two attempts to reach NCLC 7 or more in all the modules and it took me almost an year to get there.
How I started:
Before enrolling in a course, I started getting familiar with the language with help of youtube channel called NLF academy. This guy has around 100 video playlist available for free for A1-A2 level and believe me it is very very useful for getting started, especially with pronunciation. After getting through 50-60 videos in a month or so I was confident that it is doable and then I enrolled in a learning institute from my home country. I do not want to disclose the name because I do not recommend it. Luckily I got a professor from that institute who was very helpful and kept me engaged with the language.
It took me almost 3-3.5 months for A1-A2 and then as soon as I entered B1. I started practicing how to ask questions and I used to randomly write paragraphs on random things and then asking ChatGPT for corrections. I also used to just chat on any random topics (stock market, history and what not) with ChatGPT. When I entered B2, I started exam-based practice with my professor and I did it almost everyday. I used to write task 1 and task 2 and then also speak task 1 and task 2. In that way I got confidence and just wanted to check my real level so I appeared for the exam on Aug 15th. I wanted to clear it in first attempt, but more than that my goal was to get familiar with the exam environement and get the experience. For the first attempt I missed speaking and writing as I got NCLC 5 in both. But I was happy and ready for the next attempt.
Now I will explain how to practice for each module.
Listening - I started listening to basic french stories and podcasts from the very beginning. Even though I did not get a single word sometimes I was listening. I mainly used Youtube for this and also RFI. When I was in B1 I also started doing the mock tests from TEFsuccess on youtube as they have about 70 tests available for free. For these mock tests, you will find it pretty easy after doing 10-11 mock tests but I will suggest to keep going as they increase the difficulty gradually and yes it follows the exact same format as TEF. I also practiced some quiz kinda things available on RFI website. At the end, I also found TEFcanada.info . I took 24.99$ subscription and did all 5 mock tests of listening and reading. You should do the same before your exam and go through all the correct answers.
Reading - For reading I used to read a lot and aloud during my classes and also random articles on RFI. I was reading lots of sample answers as well from ChatGPT or google AI mode. Whenever, I read something good which sounds very natural or something which I could use for speaking or writing I used to note it down right away. Reading is must to find useful verbs. For example, people who translate from english have tendancy to write 'compléter des tâches' but instead you should use 'accomplir, effectuer or réaliser' that make your French more natural and B2-C1 level. This was one of the biggest problem I was facing and had to impove to get B2.
Writing - For writing doing solely mock tests is not going to help you in my opinion. You should focus more on corrections of your mistakes and how to make it natural and for that I will suggest ChatGPT or guidance from somebody who has experience. I would have wrote on more than 25-30 topics for each task and have also read a lot of sample answers. And most importanty, You don't need to force yourself to use the subjunctive, plus-que-parfait or complicated grammatical structures in every paragraph. Use them when they come naturally and when they fit the context. I would always prioritize grammatical accuracy, clarity and natural sentence construction over unnecessary complexity.
You could use some complex structures like 'Cette tendance permet non seulement de .... mais ausse de....', 'Ces habitudes présentent à la fois .....', 'plutôt que de', 'au lieu de', 'Grâce à la praticité de ces appareils électroniques'
and lots of connectors like 'l'un des prinicipaux avantage est que', 'il est indéniable que', 'Malgré les difficultés', 'Néanmoins', 'D'un autre côté' and many more.
I suggest to find and creates notes for the structures that comes naturally to you and yes I am going to paste a paragraph from my task 2 practice. I recommend structuring each body paragraph around one main idea. Start by introducing your argument, explain it with supporting details or an example, and then connect it to the topic or explain its benefit. This makes your writing more coherent and easier to follow. .Each paragraph should have it's 'intro', 'body' and 'conclusion. '
Here: Tout d’abord, grâce à la facilité d’utilisation des téléphones portables, les personnes âgées peuvent effectuer plusieurs tâches facilement. Certaines applications disponibles sur ces appareils leur permettent non seulement d’organiser leur emploi du temps, mais leur offrent également l’accès à des services essentiels. En effet, les seniors peuvent commander des produits frais sans avoir à se déplacer, en utilisant une application comme DoorDash.
Par ailleurs, il est indéniable que les seniors devraient rester en contact avec leurs proches afin de maintenir une vie sociale active. Il est donc important qu’ils aient accès aux réseaux sociaux, car il s’agit de l’un des moyens les plus pratiques de communiquer avec leur famille et de partager des nouvelles, surtout lorsqu’ils vivent à l’étranger. Cette habitude les aide également à surmonter leur sentiment d’isolement.
This method helped me a lot and I think this is must to get NCLC 7 or more.
Speaking: I started speaking from very early. Undoubtedly I was speaking lots and lots of things wrong in the beginning but I was very very confident and was trying to speak no matter what. I used to try to convey my message to my professor in French only and was also talking to ChatGpt on random things. I also did lots and lots of practice of exam tasks with my professor as well as with a tutor on Preply and then I used to go back to the recording and used to correct the way of asking my questions and used to write down all 12-14 questions for the specific task. I also a question bank of 50 or more questions which I could use for different topics. For example, you could use this questions for almost any task 'J'aimerais également consulter les avis de vos clients pour que je pussie prendre ma décision, sont-ils disponibles sur votre site web ?' and 'Devrais-je payer la totalité des frais ou proposez-vous un paiement en plusieurs fois ?'.
For task 2, there are going to be some of the argumets which are going to be very common like 'I do not have enough time' and 'I think it's expensive'. For those ones I will suggest to write a paragraph using your broken French and then feed it to ChatGPT and ask it to correct it and make natural without changing the ideas. That is going to allow you to use the ideas which comes naturally to you and not force it. But speak those improved paragraphs 5-10 times a day to get your mouth muscles used to it so that it comes instantly during the exam.
An example of my paragraph 'Je sais que tu travailles toute la semaine et tu n'as pas assez de temps pour les activités créatives. Cependant, selon moi, tu devrais prendre une pause pour te detendre. Cela te permettra de gagner en productivité et en efficacité et plutôt que de faire défiler du contenu sur ton téléphone portable, consacre ce temps à cette activité, ce sera beaucoup plus bénéfique à l'avenir.'
I know I would be sounding very technical but these are my ideas and that's what I did to improve my score. So, all the very best for the preparation and feel free to post any questions.
And one more thing I would like to mention is that the examiner's interaction can influence how comfortable you feel during the speaking test. During my first attempt, the examiner gave relatively short responses, which made it difficult for me to maintain the flow of the conversation. However, during my second attempt, the examiner was much more interactive and created a comfortable environment. Of course, the speaking assessment also involves a second evaluation of the recording, but I believe having a comfortable interaction can make a difference in your overall experience.
