The short answer
The DELF tests four skills, listening, reading, writing and speaking, each scored out of 25 points, at every level from A1 to B2. The preparation that moves a score most: read the official grille d'évaluation for your level properly rather than skimming it, work through real past papers, rehearse the oral out loud instead of in your head, and sit one full timed mock exam about two weeks before the date.
The DELF (Diplôme d'études en langue française) is the gold-standard French language certification, recognised worldwide by universities, employers and immigration authorities. Whether you're sitting A1, A2, B1 or B2, the exam always tests the same four skills, and the same preparation strategies apply across all levels. These are the 7 tips I give every student before their exam date.
Before any of this, be sure of the level you are preparing. If you are not certain, the French level test on this site takes six minutes and tells you which band you actually hold, not the one you hope for.
1. Know the Format Backwards
The DELF has four parts: listening, reading, writing, and speaking, each with its own timing and its own scoring out of 25 points. Before anything else, download the official grille d'évaluation (marking grid) for your level and read it properly, not skim it. Knowing exactly what earns points, and what doesn't, changes how you prepare from day one rather than leaving you guessing on exam day.
2. Practise With Real Past Papers
Official sample papers exist for every level, and there's no substitute for working through them under real conditions: timed, no dictionary, no pausing the audio to relisten. Simulating the actual exam experience, uncomfortable as it feels the first few times, is what builds the stamina and pacing you'll need on the day. Afterwards, go through every wrong answer and understand exactly why you lost the point, not just that you did.
3. Don't Neglect the Oral
Many students over-prepare the written sections and under-prepare the oral, simply because writing feels more like traditional "studying". The speaking component is worth as many points as any other section, and it's the one skill you genuinely cannot improve by reading alone. Practise responding to prompts out loud, ideally with a teacher or conversation partner who can push back and ask follow-up questions the way a real examiner will. That is how my DELF and DALF preparation lessons are structured: timed oral practice, with the marking grid open in front of us.
4. Learn the Marking Criteria
Examiners mark against a fixed grid, not a gut feeling, and for the written sections they're specifically looking for coherence, range of vocabulary, grammatical accuracy, and whether you actually completed the task as asked. A technically perfect paragraph that doesn't answer the question loses far more points than a slightly imperfect one that does. Write with the grid open in front of you until checking it becomes automatic.
5. Build Exam-Specific Vocabulary
Each level has typical recurring themes that show up year after year. B1 papers, for example, often circle back to the environment, technology, and social issues, while A2 leans more on daily routines, travel, and shopping. Rather than studying vocabulary at random, build small themed banks around the topics most likely to appear at your level, and you'll walk in with language ready to reach for instead of having to construct it live.
6. Manage Your Time
In the writing section, spend the first five minutes planning your structure before writing a single sentence: a plan costs you a little time up front but saves far more later by preventing a messy, hard-to-follow answer. In listening, always read the questions before the audio starts, so you know exactly what to listen for. And never leave a blank: an imperfect attempt almost always earns more points than nothing at all, since blanks are scored as zero regardless of how close you might have gotten.
7. Take a Mock Exam 2 Weeks Before
Two weeks before your exam, sit a full timed mock under real conditions, all four sections, back to back, exactly as it will happen on the day. This is what surfaces your genuine weak spots rather than the ones you assume you have, and gives you enough time to target them specifically in your final two weeks of revision rather than reviewing everything equally. Marking your own mock honestly is the hard part, and it is where working with a teacher earns its keep.
For extra vocabulary practice alongside your revision, my DELF Junior flashcards (available in the shop) cover exam-relevant themes for A1, A2 and B1, give the pronunciation of every word with a Listen button, and work offline on any device. Each level also has a free web version you can start right now: A1, A2 and B1, sixty cards each.
Preparing for the TCF instead of the DELF? The same 7 principles apply, but the format and marking grid are different (still deciding which exam to sit? see TCF vs DELF vs TEF first). My Réussir le TCF guide is built specifically for the TCF's speaking and writing sections, with the official scoring criteria, 9 themed vocabulary sheets, and 3 full timed mock exams with corrected, annotated B2-level answers.