Below the word minimum, your task drops to the bottom of the scale.
Time is running out, you are on the last task, and you decide to hand in something short and clean rather than something long with mistakes. It feels like the safe call. It is the one choice the scale punishes without even looking at your French.
What it costs
A task handed in below the required word minimum is graded "A1 not attained": the floor of the scale, even without a single mistake.
The same penalty hits a missing task, an off-topic answer or an unreadable paper. The word count is part of the prompt, not a piece of advice.
Key points
- Three tasks to write in 60 minutes, and the longest one comes last.
- Every prompt states a word range. The minimum is not a suggestion.
- Short and clean is riskier than long with a few mistakes.
Why task 3 is almost always the one that falls
The three tasks share a single 60-minute block. You polish the first one, you develop the second one, and you reach the third with ten minutes left and the longest text still to write. Nobody stops you to warn you. You hand in the opening of a well-built argument, and that task is graded at the floor while the other two are graded normally.
Count your words before test day, not during
The only setting worth adjusting is knowing your real pace: how many words you actually write in ten minutes while thinking at the same time. You measure it once, on a real timed task, and it changes how you split the hour for good. Our written expression topics run under exam conditions, with detailed feedback task by task.
Ready to reach CLB 7?
An examiner cannot grade what you did not write. Go measure your pace on a timed task before the timer is the real one.
Assess your level for free and practice in the official TCF Canada format.