Preparing for TEF/TCF Canada writing on your own
If you don’t know how to approach the TEF/TCF writing section, spend an hour over a tiny piece of text and can’t tell whether you’re improving or just wasting time, this post is for you. I’ll explain how to practise writing on your own and make real progress. ⠀
This is my advice: ⠀
- Write each text on a new topic. This way you will have a chance to enrich your vocabulary. Before you sit down for your next task, find 4-5 articles on this topic on the Internet, and maybe even more if you don’t understand it at all. For me it's renewable energy, for example. I can go back to it forever and still only understand 20%. We write down expressions and constructions we like from the articles, and try to understand the topic. ⠀
- For the first text on a new topic, don’t set yourself any restrictions, don’t set an alarm clock, relax, take as much time as you need. Try to write a good, thoughtful essay, using the words that you have in your notebook and following the general rules for this type of text - a letter, an essay, depending on what the task is before you. ⠀
- Confused? Don't know what else to add? Go to the Internet and search there. Forgot a grammar rule? Open the textbook. Imagine that you are absolutely free at this stage. ⠀
- Put your creativity aside for a while. And then come back and write the text again, but with a timer. After that, analyze what was easy, what was difficult, whether you managed to do everything, what words you forgot or, on the contrary, were able to use right away, etc. ⠀
Remember that in each exam you have 60 minutes for the written part. ⠀
In TCF it is distributed approximately like this:
- Tâche 1: 5-10 min
- Tâche 2: 10-15 min
- Tâche 3: 45-35 min ⠀
To TEF:
- Tâche 1: 20 min
- Tâche 2: 40 min ⠀
And it’s better to leave at least 5 minutes for checking. You will sleep more peacefully. But this is not certain.
Read other useful articles:
How to overcome the language barrier
How to correctly read the adjective ‘Plus’