Two minutes about yourself, with no time to prepare
The exam opens with the only tâche that gives you nothing to read and no paper to plan on. The examiner asks about your life, your work, your studies — and the clock is already running.
- Speaking time
- 2 min
- Preparation
- 0 s
- Order in the sitting
- 1 / 3
- Notes allowed
- 0
What the entretien dirigé asks
The examiner opens the conversation and asks about you: where you are from, what you do, what you studied, your family, your plans in Canada. The questions are ordinary and the answers are not fact-checked. What matters is that you keep talking, in French, for two minutes.
Because it comes first and unprepared, tâche 1 sets the tone the examiner carries into the rest of the sitting. It is also the most rehearsable tâche on the paper: the question pool is small, and every candidate is asked some version of the same five things.
- No preparation time — the clock starts with the first question.
- Questions cover you: origins, work, studies, family, plans.
- Two minutes of continuous speech is the real requirement.
On the clock
02:00
The examiner starts the clock and does not stop it. Running short costs you as much as running over.
Against the other tâches
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.
How to prepare a tâche you cannot prepare
The tâche gives you no preparation on the day, which is exactly why it rewards preparation beforehand.
Practise tâche 1- 1
Build five blocks — origins, work, studies, free time, why Canada — of about thirty seconds each. Almost any question maps onto one of them.
- 2
Answer in three sentences, not one. 'Je suis ingénieur' is a dead end; the fact, an example and a reason fills the time and shows range.
- 3
Prepare the follow-up, not just the answer. Examiners ask 'pourquoi ?' and 'depuis quand ?' more than anything else.
- 4
Do not recite. A memorised paragraph is audible, and it collapses the moment the examiner asks something adjacent to it.
Frequently asked questions
Two minutes, and there is no preparation time before it.
Personal ones: where you live, what you do for a living, what you studied, your family, your hobbies, and what you plan to do in Canada.
No. The examiner is marking your French, not verifying your biography — though inventing a life you cannot discuss fluently makes the tâche harder, not easier.
Yes, and doing it in good French — 'pourriez-vous répéter, s'il vous plaît ?' — costs you nothing. Answering the wrong question does.
Keep going
The rest of the TCF Canada preparation, one page per thing you have to get right.
Rehearse your two minutes
Record tâche 1, get it transcribed and marked, then record it again. Three free evaluations to start.
No credit card required
This is a practice tool, not the official TEF/TCF exam. Scores and levels are estimates to guide your preparation.