Épreuve
Production orale
Level
B1
Time
15 min
Marks
/25
The speaking test game plan
Fifteen minutes with an examiner, three parts, and ten minutes of prep that serve only the last one. Here is where all 25 points come from.
By the end of this lesson
- Name the three parts of the oral, their length, and the one part that gets the 10 minutes of preparation.
- Say what each part is worth and where the other 13 points come from.
- Read the scoring steps 0, 1, 2,5 and 4, so you know what a half-finished part costs you.
- Spend your 10 minutes on the drawn topic you have most to say about, in keywords.
- Hold the exam-day frame: greeting, missing words, and one clean self-correction.
Almost everyone walks into the oral knowing they'll speak French for about a quarter of an hour. Far fewer know that the ten minutes of preparation cover one part only. Fewer still know that more than half the marks have nothing to do with your ideas.
This lesson is the map of the whole épreuve (the exam paper). You get the three parts with their timings, the six lines your examiner fills in, and a plan for your ten minutes. The lessons after this one take each part apart in turn.
Three parts, one conversation
Production orale is the fourth épreuve and the only one you sit alone with an examiner. It runs about 15 minutes in the room. Before that you get 10 minutes of preparation, and those minutes serve part 3 only.
The three parts follow one another without a break, in a fixed order.
| The part | What happens | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Entretien dirigé | The examiner asks about you, your past and your plans | 2-3 min |
| 2. Exercice en interaction | You play a short scene with the examiner, from a card you drew | 3-4 min |
| 3. Expression d'un point de vue | You present a short document, give your opinion, then answer questions | 5-7 min |
Part 1, the entretien dirigé (guided interview), needs no preparation because it's about your own life. The examiner opens with a question about you, then follows your answers with more questions. Your past, your present and your plans all come up in those two or three minutes.
Part 2, the exercice en interaction (role-play), is drawn. You take two sujets (topic cards), read them, and keep the one you prefer. Then you play the scene with the examiner, who takes the other role. There's no preparation time for this part at all, so you read your card and you start.
Part 3, the expression d'un point de vue, is also drawn from two sujets. Each one is a short document on a topic of general interest, often a press extract. You say what question that document raises, then you give your opinion for about three minutes. The examiner asks a few follow-up questions afterwards, which is why the part runs to 5-7 minutes.
Consigne type · expression d'un point de vueB1 · partie 3 · 10 min de préparation
Vous tirez au sort deux documents et vous en gardez un. Vous dégagez le thème du document que vous avez choisi, puis vous présentez votre opinion sous la forme d'un exposé personnel de trois minutes environ. L'examinateur vous posera ensuite quelques questions.
So one part out of three is prepared, and it's the last one. That single fact decides how you spend your first ten minutes.
Point d'étape 1/4
0 / 3
Q1Which part of the B1 oral is the only one you prepare during the 10 minutes?
Q2How long does the role-play part last, and how much preparation does it get?
Q3What do you receive at the start of part 3, the point-of-view task?
Where the 25 points actually sit
Your examiner fills in a grid with six lines. Three of them mark the parts you just did. The other three mark your French across the whole exam.
| What gets marked | Points |
|---|---|
| Entretien dirigé | 4 |
| Exercice en interaction | 4 |
| Expression d'un point de vue | 4 |
| Lexique, over the three parts | 5 |
| Morphosyntaxe, over the three parts | 4 |
| Phonologie, over the three parts | 4 |
| Total | 25 |
Two things in that table surprise people. The three parts weigh exactly the same, 4 points each, even though part 3 lasts twice as long as part 1. And 13 points out of 25, more than half, are not about what you say. They mark the words, the grammar and the pronunciation you use while saying it.
Each line also moves in fixed steps rather than in tenths. On a line out of 4, the possible scores are 0, then 1, then 2,5, then 4. The lexique line is out of 5, and its steps are 0, 1, 3 and 5. The gap between a part you half-did and a part you finished is therefore 1,5 points. On the lexique line, each step is worth a full 2 points.
Two consequences for your revision. Part 1 is the cheapest 4 points in the exam, because nothing is drawn and you can prepare your own life at home. And steady, correct, varied French across all three parts beats one brilliant part. Those 13 linguistic points are awarded once, over everything you said.
One last number, to place the 25 in context. The four épreuves are each marked out of 25, so the diploma is out of 100 and you pass at 50. A score under 5 out of 25 in a single épreuve eliminates you, whatever your total.
Point d'étape 2/4
0 / 4
Q1How many points is each of the three parts worth?
Q2The 13 points awarded across the whole exam split how?
Q3On a criterion marked out of 4, which scores can the examiner actually give?
Q4Why does steady French across all three parts beat one brilliant part?
Your ten minutes in the prep room
You prepare one topic, alone, with a pencil and ten minutes. Here's a way to split them that leaves nothing to chance.
Give the first two minutes to reading both documents and choosing. Keep the one you have most to say about, not the one that sounds more serious. Your opinion doesn't have to be original, and it doesn't even have to be sincere. It has to be clear, supported and easy to follow.
Give the next six minutes to notes, in keywords, arrows and short groups of words. Never write full sentences, for two reasons. A sentence you wrote down gets read out, and reading flattens your pronunciation mark. And in three minutes of talking, you can't find your place again inside a paragraph.
Keep the last two minutes for your first line and your last line. Those are the two moments where candidates freeze. Knowing how you'll open and how you'll close buys you calm at both ends of the talk.
Note two concrete examples while you're at it. A B1 opinion holds up when something real sits under it, and a missing example is what stops most candidates at minute two.
Point d'étape 3/4
0 / 3
Q1You have drawn two documents for part 3. How do you choose between them?
Q2What should your notes look like during the 10 minutes of preparation?
Q3Why prepare your opening line and your closing line during the 10 minutes?
The habits that carry all three parts
Those 13 linguistic points are earned in small repeatable ways, not in one clever sentence. The habits below cost nothing and they apply to every part.
Greet the examiner at the start and take your leave at the end. It sounds like a detail, and part 2 marks how you handle the social side of a situation. A candidate who never greets loses in the role-play what they won by arguing well.
Give full answers in part 1. A one-word reply hands back the seconds you need to show what you can do. Two or three sentences per question is about the right size.
When a word is missing, go around it instead of stopping. Explain the thing, or reach for a near-word. A ten-second silence costs you more than an approximate noun, because your fluency and your pronunciation are being marked while you're stuck.
Correct yourself once, clearly, then move on. One clean repair shows control of the language. The same sentence restarted three times only shows the examiner your doubt.
Finally, speak at your normal pace and articulate the ends of your words. The phonologie line is worth 4 points, and it's the one that improves fastest when you slow down a little.
Modèle · quatre phrases pour tenir l'oral
Bonjour, madame. Je m'appelle Priya et je suis très contente d'être là.
Ouvrir. A greeting plus one short sentence about yourself. It sets a polite frame in five seconds and gets your voice going before part 1 proper.
Pardon, pouvez-vous répéter la question, s'il vous plaît ?
Faire répéter. Asking for a repeat is normal, and it costs you nothing on the grid. Answering the wrong question, on the other hand, costs you task points.
Je ne trouve pas le mot exact. C'est le papier qu'on signe quand on commence un travail.
Contourner un mot. You keep speaking while you hunt for the word contrat. The examiner hears a candidate who can explain, and that is exactly what the lexique line rewards.
Hier, je suis allé, pardon, je suis allée au marché avec ma sœur.
Se reprendre. One repair, said calmly, then the sentence continues. Self-correction is a sign of control, as long as you do it once and keep going.
Read this lesson again the week before your oral. The three parts and the six lines of the grid are what turn fifteen unknown minutes into fifteen minutes you've already pictured.
Point d'étape 4/4
0 / 3
Q1A word you need has disappeared mid-sentence. What is the best move?
Q2In part 1, the examiner asks about your last holiday and you answer in one word. What does that cost you?
Q3You hear yourself make an agreement error. What is the right reaction?
Key takeaways
- The oral runs about 15 minutes with the examiner. Preparation lasts 10 minutes and it serves part 3 only.
- Entretien dirigé 2-3 min, exercice en interaction 3-4 min, expression d'un point de vue 5-7 min.
- Each part is worth 4 points, so a weak part 1 costs you exactly what a weak part 3 costs.
- 13 of the 25 points mark your French across the whole exam: lexique 5, morphosyntaxe 4, phonologie 4.
- In the prep room, keep the topic you have most to say about and write keywords, never full sentences.