Expression orale

Twelve minutes of French that decide a quarter of your file

The speaking paper is the shortest of the four and the one candidates arrive least prepared for. Three tâches, face to face, no second attempt. Here is what each one asks and how to rehearse it against the real clock.

Practise speaking Sit the speaking test 3 free writing + 3 free speaking corrections

Total sitting: 10 min
Tâches: 3
Preparation, in total: 2 min
Marked out of: 4 - 20

How the speaking exam runs

You sit with an examiner for about ten minutes and work through three tâches in a fixed order. Only the second gives you preparation: two minutes with a sheet of paper before you start speaking. The first and the third begin immediately.

The examiner is not there to help you. In tâche 2 they answer your questions and volunteer nothing; in tâche 3 they listen. What is marked is range, accuracy, fluency and how well the answer fits what was asked — not whether the content is true.

Tâche 1: two minutes, no preparation, about you.
Tâche 2: two minutes to prepare, three and a half to ask your questions.
Tâche 3: two and a half minutes to defend a position, no preparation.

What the evaluation gives you

Speaking is the section candidates practise least, because practising it alone usually means talking to nobody.

Recorded against the real clock

The preparation and speaking timers are the exam's, to the second, so two minutes thirty stops feeling like a suggestion.

Your transcript, graded

What you actually said is transcribed, scored on the CEFR scale and marked up like a written answer — hesitations and repetitions included.

A partner for the interaction

Tâche 2 needs somebody to question. The AI plays the examiner in role, so the one tâche you cannot rehearse alone becomes the one you can.

How the practice works

Four steps, from the first recording to one you would be happy for an examiner to hear.

1
Pick the tâche
One of the three spoken tâches, on its own or as a full twelve-minute sitting in exam order.
2
Prepare, then record
The preparation clock runs, then the recording starts. Neither waits for you, exactly as on the day.
3
Read your transcript, marked
What you said, written down and corrected — the fillers, the repetitions and the tense you dropped all become visible.
4
Record it again
The second take of the same tâche, right after reading the correction, is where a speaking mark actually improves.

What the examiner is listening for

Four things that move a speaking mark, none of which is knowing more words.

Practise speaking

1
Filling the time. An answer that stops at ninety seconds of a two-minute tâche loses marks that no amount of vocabulary earns back.
2
Connectors. D'abord, en revanche, cela dit, en fin de compte — they cost nothing to learn and they are what makes an answer sound structured.
3
Self-correction. Catching your own gender or tense error out loud reads as control, not as weakness.
4
Registre. Tâche 1 is conversational and tâche 3 is not. Using the same voice for all three flattens the mark.

Frequently asked questions

About ten minutes in total: two minutes for tâche 1, five and a half for tâche 2 including its preparation, and two and a half for tâche 3.

During the two minutes of preparation for tâche 2, yes — you are given paper. Tâches 1 and 3 have no preparation, so there is nothing to take notes from.

Tâche 2 needs somebody to question, so the app plays the examiner: it answers the questions you ask, in role, and the exchange is evaluated afterwards like any other attempt.

The real exam is recorded by the centre. Here your answer is recorded and transcribed so the evaluation can point at what you actually said, and both stay in your history.