Épreuve
Production écrite
Level
A1
Time
30 min
Marks
/25
The writing paper game plan
Thirty minutes, two tasks, 25 points. What the form asks, what the 40-word message asks, and how to share the clock between them.
By the end of this lesson
- Say what each of the two writing tasks asks for, what it is worth, and how many minutes it deserves.
- Break any consigne into seven questions before you write a single word.
- Name the five criteria the examiner marks in Exercise 2, and see where the easy points sit.
- Count your words the way the exam counts them, then finish with a short three-pass reread.
Thirty minutes is not much, and the writing paper spends them on two very different jobs. One is a form you fill in. The other is a short message you write from scratch. Students lose points here without making a single grammar mistake, just by giving one task the other one's minutes.
This lesson is your map of that half hour. You'll see what each exercise is worth and how to read the consigne (the printed instructions) in seven questions. Then you get the five-criterion grid for the second task and a way of counting words you can trust.
Two tasks, one half hour
Production écrite is the third paper of the day. It runs for 30 minutes and it is marked out of 25. Those 30 minutes cover both exercises together. Nobody rings a bell between them, so you can do them in either order.
Exercise 1 hands you a form to fill in. It might be a library card, a sports club sign-up, a hotel booking or an arrival form on a plane. There are usually 9 or 10 fields, and each correct field is worth 1 point, so the task carries 10. There's no word minimum, because most fields want one word or a number.
Exercise 2 asks for a real piece of everyday correspondance: a postcard, an email, or a note left on a table. The printed consigne states the minimum, 40 words. Aim for 40 to 60. That task is worth 15 points, which is more than half the paper.
| The exercise | What you hand in | Points | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A completed form, about 9 or 10 fields | 10 | about 10 min |
| 2 | A short message, 40 words minimum | 15 | about 20 min |
| Total | 25 | 30 min |
Ten minutes on the form and twenty on the message is the split that works. The form has a fixed number of fields, so it stops on its own once they're filled. The message has no ceiling, and it's the one that swallows time.
So start with the form if the clock worries you. Having ten easy points already won changes how you write the rest. Whichever order you pick, write your switch time in the corner of the paper. At minute 10, you move.
Point d'étape 1/4
0 / 3
Q1How long does the whole writing paper last, and how many tasks does it hold?
Q2What is Exercise 1 worth, and what does it ask you to hand in?
Q3The consigne for Exercise 2 prints a length. What does it ask for?
Seven questions that decode the consigne
The consigne is the short instruction printed above the task. It tells you the situation and what you have to produce, and every word of it is worth points. Read it twice before your pen moves.
Then run it through seven questions. They take about a minute, and they hand you the whole content of your message.
- Qui ? Who is writing. It's you almost every time, so this one is settled fast.
- À qui ? Who receives it. This answer picks tu or vous, and it picks your greeting and your closing line.
- Où ? Where you are. A place gives you one concrete detail for free.
- Quand ? A day, a date or a time. The examiner is looking for exactly these.
- Quoi ? The situation itself: a holiday, a party, a favour you need.
- Pour dire quoi ? What the message has to do: invite, thank, tell, ask, refuse.
- Comment ? The shape: postcard, email, note, or short letter.
Consigne type · production écriteA1 · exercice 2 · 15 points
Vous êtes en vacances au bord de la mer. Vous écrivez une carte postale à votre amie Léa. Vous racontez vos journées, vous parlez du temps et vous proposez de vous voir à votre retour. (40 mots minimum)
ENYou are on holiday by the sea. You write a postcard to your friend Léa. You tell her about your days, you talk about the weather, and you suggest meeting when you get back. (40 words minimum)
Now count the verbs in that consigne: racontez, parlez, proposez. Three verbs means three moves, and each one is checked on its own. Cover two out of three and you lose content points, even if your French is clean. That's the most expensive mistake at A1. Not grammar. A missing move.
The second question pays twice, so give it a second of thought. Léa is a friend, so the whole card stays in tu, and a warm opener like Coucou fits. Write to a school or a landlord and it becomes vous, with Bonjour Madame on top.
Point d'étape 2/4
0 / 3
Q1Which line lists the seven questions that decode a consigne?
Q2A consigne asks you to give your news, invite a friend, and ask for a reply. You cover two moves out of three. What happens?
Q3You are writing a postcard to a friend called Léa. Which opening fits?
Where the 15 points of Exercise 2 come from
Your message is marked on five criteria, and each one carries 3 points. Knowing them tells you where to spend your twenty minutes.
| What the examiner marks | Points |
|---|---|
| Réalisation de la tâche: every move is made, in the right shape and length | 3 |
| Cohérence et cohésion: your sentences follow each other and link up | 3 |
| Adéquation sociolinguistique: tu or vous, greeting, closing formula | 3 |
| Lexique: your vocabulary, and the spelling of those words | 3 |
| Morphosyntaxe: your grammar and your endings | 3 |
| Total | 15 |
Each line is scored on four levels: 0, then 0.5, then 2, then 3. A 2 means solid A1 work on that line, and a 3 sits just above it. So the distance between an empty line and a decent one is two whole points.
Now look at the first three rows. The task, the linking and the register come to 9 of the 15 points. None of them ask for better French than you already have. They ask you to cover every move, to join your sentences, and to pick the right form of address.
The last two rows are your 6 points of language. That's where a simple correct sentence beats an ambitious broken one. Il fait beau is worth more than a conditional you're not sure of. Spelling is judged inside lexique, and a phonetic spelling of a less common word is tolerated at this level.
Give cohérence a second look, because candidates underrate it. It carries 3 points, exactly as much as your grammar line. Three or four linking words are enough at A1: et, mais, alors, parce que.
The 10 points of Exercise 1 work differently. Each field stands alone at 1 point, so a blank line costs one point and nothing worse. Fill every line, and invent a believable detail when the prompt doesn't give you one.
Point d'étape 3/4
0 / 4
Q1Exercise 2 is worth 15 points. How much does each criterion of the grid carry?
Q2Add the criteria for Exercise 2 together. Which line is the real grid?
Q3One criterion rewards linking words like et, mais and alors. Which one is it, and what is it worth?
Q4You leave one field of the Exercise 1 form blank. What does it cost?
Counting words, and the last five minutes
You need to know what 40 words look like in your own handwriting. And you need to know it before exam day.
The exam counts words in a simple way. Every group of letters standing between two spaces is one word. So j'ai is one word, not two. Aujourd'hui is one word, and est-ce is one word too. The rule works in your favour, because those short linked forms look like two words on the page.
Now the rule that makes the count non negotiable. A text under half the expected length scores zero on the whole exercise. Against a 40-word minimum, that means 19 words or fewer earns nothing at all, however good the French inside it is. So 40 is not a target you approach. It is a floor you clear, and aiming at 40 to 60 keeps you clear of it.
Try it once at home. Write one message, count the words, then note how many lines of your handwriting they filled. On exam day you count lines instead of words, and you get those seconds back.
Modèle · la carte postale de la consigne42 mots
Coucou Léa ! Je suis à Nice depuis lundi avec ma sœur.
L'ouverture. Léa is a friend, so the greeting is informal and the whole card stays in tu. The city and the day are two facts handed over for free, and facts are what the content points reward.
Il fait très beau et je me baigne tous les matins.
Le temps. The consigne asked about the weather, so one sentence answers it. The present tense is enough here, and the little et is already doing your cohérence work.
Aujourd'hui, je visite le vieux port et je mange une bonne glace.
Vos journées. This is the raconter move, in the present tense. Two concrete actions beat one vague sentence about having a lovely time.
Est-ce qu'on se voit samedi prochain ? Bises, Sofia.
La proposition et la signature. The third verb of the consigne, proposer, gets its own sentence with a day inside it. The closing answers the opening, and that pairing is where the sociolinguistic points live.
Then keep the last three or four minutes for a reread. Three passes, in this order.
- The moves. Go back to the consigne and tick each verb against your text. This protects the 3 points of réalisation de la tâche, the line that checks whether every move was made.
- The sentence frame. A capital letter at the start, a full stop at the end, a question mark on questions. A comma before mais and before car.
- The endings. Check each verb against its subject, and each adjective against its noun. Those are your morphosyntaxe points.
One last thing, and it costs nothing. Write so the examiner can read it. A word nobody can decipher earns no point, however correct it was in your head.
Point d'étape 4/4
0 / 3
Q1How many words does the form j'ai count as?
Q2Which punctuation mark goes before mais in a French sentence?
Q3What is the first thing to check when you reread your message?
Key takeaways
- Thirty minutes, 25 points, two tasks in one window. About 10 minutes on the form, about 20 on the message.
- Exercise 1 is a form of about 9 or 10 fields, 1 point per correct field, 10 points. There is no word minimum.
- Exercise 2 is a short message worth 15 points, on five criteria of 3 points each. Aim for 40 to 60 words, because 19 or fewer scores zero.
- Seven questions decode any consigne: qui, à qui, où, quand, quoi, pour dire quoi et comment.
- Every verb in the consigne is a move you have to make. Miss one and you lose content points.
- A group of letters standing between two spaces counts as one word, so the form j'ai counts as one.