The new TEF format from December 2023

Many people planning to take TEF Canada or TEFAQ may already know about the upcoming format changes. They affect reading and listening; speaking and writing remain unchanged. The changes take effect on December 11, 2023, so we have very little time to adapt.

What are the goals of these changes?
The desire to make the exam more realistic, more oriented towards the French-speaking community and more enjoyable to take. They promise that TEF will have more texts and audio recordings from the French press. And also that navigation between tasks will become more convenient.

In short:
The number of questions in reading and listening will decrease, but the length of the sections will remain the same.
Some complex question formats will disappear and will be replaced by simpler ones.

According to this link I wrote in detail about the old exam format.

Now let’s look at the current changes in two sections:

LISTENING:
Will disappear: Tasks to determine the radio rubric (former section B) and the phonetic part at the end of the test (former section D).
Will change: Questions where you need to put pictures in the correct order (previously this was section A), exercises based on voice messages on answering machines and announcements (previously this was section B), as well as exercises in the format of “street interviews” (formerly section C).
There will be more audio recordings and a radio report will appear.

READING:
Will disappear: Phrases that need to be organized, as well as paraphrasing tasks (completely old sections C and D).
Will change: texts with omissions (old section B).
There will be more texts, sentences with missing words and quick reading tasks based on short texts and graphs will appear.

More detailed information and guides can be found at official website, there is also a link to a textbook with the new format.

I am attaching screenshots with a detailed description of the types of exam questions.

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