Government of Canada · Updated September 2026

The SLE French test, explained

The Second Language Evaluation, or évaluation de langue seconde, is how the Public Service Commission of Canada decides whether you can hold a bilingual federal job. Three separate tests, three letters on a job poster, and one of them, the oral, is the reason most people are reading this page. Here is what each test actually contains, what separates a B from a C when you open your mouth, and how validity, retests and rescores really work.

Sourced only from canada.caCurrent formats as of September 2026Level B vs level C, side by side

Mocko does not have practice tests for the SLE yet. This is our guide to the exam while we build them. What is live on Mocko today is French and English exam prep: TEF, TCF, CELPIP and Versant. If you want to practise for the SLE here, say so at the bottom of this page and we will prioritise it.

SLE at a glance

Every figure below comes from the Public Service Commission of Canada or the Treasury Board Qualification Standards in Relation to Official Languages, checked in September 2026. The SLE runs in both directions, English and French. This guide covers the French version.

Who runs it	The Public Service Commission of Canada (PSC). In French, the évaluation de langue seconde (ELS).
What it certifies	Second official language proficiency for a bilingual federal position. Not an immigration or citizenship test.
Number of tests	Three, sat separately: Reading Comprehension, Written Expression, Oral Language Assessment.
Levels	A (basic), B (intermediate), C (advanced), plus X (below A) and E (indefinite exemption from retesting).
Reading	60 multiple-choice questions, 50 scored, 90 minutes supervised. Unsupervised version: 25 questions, 45 minutes.
Writing	65 multiple-choice questions, 55 scored, 90 minutes supervised. Unsupervised version: 30 questions, 45 minutes. No essay.
Oral	20 to 40 minutes including instructions, live on Microsoft Teams with a PSC-certified assessor, camera on.
Pass mark	None. Each position carries a linguistic profile, and you meet it skill by skill or you do not.
Validity	Five years if the 30-day retest period was respected, then indefinitely for the position you hold, unless its profile is raised above your level. An E never expires.
Retest waiting period	30 calendar days per test. Sit it sooner and the result is void, and the clock restarts.
Who accepts it	Federal departments and agencies. Results are held centrally by the PSC and are portable across the public service.
Fee	You cannot pay to be tested. The organisation that orders the test covers it, at prices listed only on the PSC extranet.
CEFR or NCLC equivalence	None published. The Qualification Standards define A, B and C with their own descriptors and map to no other scale.

Who has to sit the SLE

Anyone being appointed to a bilingual position in the federal public service has to prove proficiency in their second official language, and the Appointment Policy allows only PSC-approved SLE tests to do it. That covers two very different people: the public servant who wants to move up into a CBC job, and the member of the public who applied to a bilingual posting on the GC Jobs site. Both take the same tests, and neither books them personally.

Reading a linguistic profile

A bilingual position carries a three-letter profile, and the order never changes: reading comprehension, then written expression, then oral communication. So a CBC position needs level C in reading, level B in writing and level C in oral. BBB needs level B in all three. Where a skill is not required at all, the profile shows a dash in its place, as in B-B. The highest profile a bilingual position can carry is CCC. The levels are cumulative: someone at level C can do level A and level B tasks too.

BBBLevel B in reading, level B in writing, level B in oral communication.

CBCLevel C in reading, level B in writing, level C in oral communication.

B-BLevel B in reading and in oral. Written expression is not required for the job.

Already a public servant

If you are in a selection process, the hiring organisation arranges the test. If you want to be tested for any other reason, you go through your manager and your HR division. Public servants, including members of the Canadian Armed Forces, cannot book a test directly with the PSC. Meeting your position’s profile is also what makes you eligible for the bilingualism bonus, an annual payment of $800 under the National Joint Council directive, provided your deputy head certifies that you hold SLE results matching the profile.

Applying from outside

Members of the public sit exactly the same tests, but only by invitation from the HR team of a federal organisation, and only after applying to a bilingual position. You cannot be tested in anticipation of future employment. One route worth knowing: a non-imperative appointment lets a person take the job first and reach the required levels within two years, with language training at public expense.

The three tests, one at a time

The first correction to make: the Test of Oral Proficiency, the TOP that older guides and half the forum threads still name, no longer exists. It was replaced on 6 April 2021 by the Oral Language Assessment, which runs on Microsoft Teams. The reading and writing tests kept their names and are still multiple choice.

Test of Reading Comprehension

Tests 633 and 634 · 60 multiple-choice questions, 90 minutes

Only 50 of the 60 questions count. Ten are unmarked pilot items, unlabelled and spread through the paper.
Two question types: choose the best word or group of words for a blank, and answer a question about a text.
Texts are workplace documents: emails, memos, letters, bulletins, extracts from reports and research papers.
Administered online and supervised, with a paper version only in exceptional circumstances.
A 25-question, 45-minute unsupervised internet version also exists, in the Candidate Assessment Tool.

What is being judged. Level B wants the main idea, specific details and the difference between a main and a secondary idea. Level C adds inference, fine points of meaning and comfort with specialised or unfamiliar material.

Test of Written Expression

Test 654 · 65 multiple-choice questions, 90 minutes

Only 55 of the 65 questions count. Again, ten are pilot items that do not affect your score.
Two question types: fill in the blank, and error identification. You do not write a sentence of your own.
It measures grammar, vocabulary and the other mechanics of written French in work situations.
Administered online and supervised, with a paper version only in exceptional circumstances.
The unsupervised internet version is 30 questions in 45 minutes, also in the Candidate Assessment Tool.

What is being judged. This surprises anyone who prepared by drafting briefing notes. Nothing is composed. What is tested is whether you recognise the correct form, the right register and the right connector when four plausible options sit side by side.

Oral Language Assessment

Replaced the Test of Oral Proficiency on 6 April 2021 · 20 to 40 minutes on Microsoft Teams, camera on

A live one-to-one conversation with an assessor certified by the Public Service Commission. There is no recorded-prompt version.
Questions are about work situations. If you are not currently employed you may be asked about studies or volunteering.
The test climbs: familiar topics first to establish level A, then B-level questions, then C-level questions.
The assessor decides what to ask and when they have heard enough, so being redirected mid-answer is normal.
You may take notes as a memory aid, in key words only, and you must destroy them afterwards.

What is being judged. Your result is a global judgement of sustained performance across the whole conversation, not a total of task scores. Losing your train of thought, pausing to think, not knowing an answer and making mistakes are all listed by the PSC as things that do not affect your rating.

Level B versus level C in the oral assessment

This is the section that decides most careers, so it is worth reading the official descriptors rather than a coaching school’s paraphrase. Below is what the PSC publishes for each level, split into what you can do and how you sound doing it.

Level AUnderstands most speech on concrete, routine topics delivered slowly and clearly in standard speech.

You can

Make yourself understood in short contributions, even with very evident pauses and false starts
Talk about everyday aspects of routine activities
Handle a simple question-and-answer exchange

How you sound

Basic vocabulary and grammar, enough for routine transactions on familiar topics
Pronunciation needs close attention, though nothing stays unclear for long

Level BUnderstands the main points of clear standard speech on concrete, work-related topics at normal speed.

You can

Give a simple description of a concrete topic
Explain main points comprehensibly
Compare and discuss alternatives when complications arise
Speak with some spontaneity, though pauses for grammatical and lexical planning show in longer stretches

How you sound

Enough vocabulary and a range of simple structures for concrete, non-routine situations
Can link simple elements into a connected sequence when describing something factually
Some miscommunication, but most stretches are clear; you will sometimes be asked to repeat or clarify

Level CUnderstands linguistically complex speech on work-related topics, in standard dialect at normal speed.

You can

Give clear, detailed descriptions of complex topics
Summarise a discussion
Express and sustain opinions
Respond to complex and hypothetical questions

How you sound

Fairly natural, even delivery; the hesitations that remain are for ideas, not for words
Broad range of vocabulary and structures for complex and abstract topics, with relatively high control
Errors happen but rarely cause misunderstanding; pronunciation is clear even with an accent

The jump from B to C is not about accuracy. Read the two descriptors again. Level B already tolerates miscommunication and visible planning pauses; level C still tolerates errors, as long as they rarely cause misunderstanding. What changes is the kind of language asked of you. Level B lives on concrete topics: describe, explain, compare alternatives. Level C moves to complex and abstract ones and adds four demands that B never makes: a detailed description of something complicated, a summary of a discussion, an opinion you can hold and defend across several turns, and an answer to a hypothetical. Candidates who fail at C usually speak accurate, clean, short French. They lose the level on sustained discourse and on the conditional, not on grammar drills.

Levels, score bands and results

There is no pass mark in the way a commercial exam has one. You get a letter, and your department compares it to the position’s profile. Five outcomes exist: X, below level A; A, B and C; and E, an indefinite exemption from further testing in that skill. Reading and writing convert a raw score into a letter using published bands.

Test	X	A	B	C	E
Reading, supervised (tests 633 and 634)50 scored items	0 to 17	18 to 27	28 to 37	38 to 44	45 to 50
Writing, supervised (test 654)55 scored items	0 to 19	20 to 30	31 to 42	43 to 51	52 to 55
Reading, unsupervised internet test25 items	0 to 8	9 to 13	14 to 18	19 to 25	Not available
Writing, unsupervised internet test30 items	0 to 10	11 to 16	17 to 23	24 to 30	Not available

The Oral Language Assessment has no score band. The assessor gives a global evaluation of your sustained performance and records a letter. You cannot obtain an E on an unsupervised internet test, whatever you score.

When results arrive

For the oral, the test centre sends your result to you and to the departmental contact within five business days, followed by a feedback report that is general rather than diagnostic. For unsupervised reading and writing tests, results appear under My Tests in the Candidate Assessment Tool 48 hours after the deadline date in your invitation. For supervised tests, the organisation that ordered the test passes the result on.

Rescores and complaints

A rescore exists only for the oral assessment: request it in writing within 10 business days through the HR officer who ordered the test, and a second assessor rates the recording blind. Online reading and writing tests cannot be rescored, because the system applies the key automatically. If conditions were unfavourable, you can ask the organisation that scheduled you for a retest instead.

A retest can cost you the level you have. A valid new result replaces the previous one in the PSC system, in either direction. The same applies after a rescore: whether the second rating is higher, lower or identical, it becomes the official result. If you already hold the level your position needs, think twice before sitting the test again to chase a C.

Booking, cost and test day

There is no registration page, no session calendar and no fee. Testing is by invitation only, and the PSC states plainly that no mechanism exists for a candidate, public servant or not, to pay to be tested. Only the organisation that booked your appointment can move or cancel it.

Test day: the oral

Two pieces of original photo ID, at least one government-issued. Photocopies and photos of ID are refused.
Your PRI if you are a federal employee, or your date of birth if you do not have one.
Alone in a quiet private room, not a cubicle, and no blurred or virtual background.
Join the Teams link at least 10 minutes early, using the same device you will test on.
No notes prepared in advance, no dictionaries, no translation tools, no AI software, no live captions.
The session is recorded by the PSC and kept for two years.

Test day: reading and writing

Supervised sittings run online through the Online Testing Facility or the Candidate Assessment Tool.
Unsupervised internet versions are taken wherever you like, on a desktop or laptop, not a tablet or phone.
Do not use a VPN: network security settings can block the testing platform.
Be alone and give yourself the full uninterrupted 45 or 90 minutes.
If anything stops you finishing properly, tell your contact person immediately rather than pressing on.

Assessment accommodation: tell the person who scheduled your test as soon as possible. For PSC tests, only the Commission’s Personnel Psychology Centre can determine accommodation measures, and requests are submitted by HR through the Assessment Accommodation Request System.

How to actually prepare

The PSC says no special preparation is required for the oral assessment. That is true of the format and untrue of the French. You cannot rehearse the questions, but you can rehearse the four things level C demands that level B does not, and you can stop wasting weeks on the wrong skill.

Start with the free official material

The PSC publishes self-assessment tests for reading and written expression, online and as PDF booklets with answer keys, plus sample questions of both item types. Sit them first: they tell you roughly which letter you would land on today. The results are unofficial and cannot be used in a selection process, which is exactly what makes them safe to use.

Train reading and writing as recognition

Both are multiple choice, and nothing you write is marked. The useful drill is noticing why three of four options are wrong: a register too familiar for a note to a director, a connector that reverses the logic, an agreement that does not match. Read the kind of French the test uses, which is to say emails, memos, bulletins and extracts from reports.

Train the oral as sustained speech

Speak about your own job in French for ten uninterrupted minutes at a time, out loud. Build a bank of hypotheticals about your file and answer them in the conditional. Practise summarising a meeting. Practise holding an opinion for three turns instead of one sentence. And practise being interrupted, because the assessor will redirect you.

A word on French practice, and on what does not count

Mocko does not have SLE practice tests, and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. What Mocko does have is French speaking and writing practice with AI feedback for two other exams: TEF and TCF. The underlying skill overlaps: both ask you to sustain a monologue, argue a position and handle unfamiliar prompts under time pressure, which is the exact muscle the Oral Language Assessment tests at level C.

Be clear about the limit. TEF and TCF are different exams, graded on the CEFR and converted to the NCLC scale for immigration. They are not accepted in place of the SLE. The Appointment Policy allows only PSC-approved second language evaluation tests to assess second official language proficiency, and alternative assessment methods for oral proficiency ended on 1 October 2025. Use TEF or TCF practice to build French. Do not expect a certificate to fill a letter in a linguistic profile.

Related reading on Mocko: the PSC self-assessment tests for the official free material, Mocko Learning for structured French lessons, which language test for Express Entry if you are also weighing an immigration test, and the Mocko blog for French exam guides.

Avoid anything selling real SLE questions. PSC test content is designated Protected, the Commission monitors the web for reproductions of its assessment tools, and disclosing or using improperly obtained test content can lead to an investigation under the Public Service Employment Act. A site advertising authentic SLE items is telling you it is a liability, not an advantage.

SLE French test: frequently asked questions

What is the SLE test?

The Second Language Evaluation, or évaluation de langue seconde, is the set of three tests the Public Service Commission of Canada uses to measure second official language proficiency for bilingual federal positions: reading comprehension, written expression and oral communication, each graded A, B or C.

What does a linguistic profile like BBB or CBC mean?

The three letters are always in the same order: reading comprehension, then written expression, then oral communication. CBC means level C in reading, level B in writing and level C in oral. Where a skill is not required, the profile shows a dash instead of a letter, for example B-B. The highest profile a bilingual position can carry is CCC.

Can I use a TEF, TCF or DELF result instead of the SLE?

No. The Appointment Policy allows only PSC-approved second language evaluation tests to assess second official language proficiency, aside from the separate P code for specialised proficiency, and alternative assessment methods for oral proficiency ended on 1 October 2025. A DELF, TEF or TCF certificate proves your French for other purposes, but it cannot fill a letter in a linguistic profile.

How long are SLE results valid?

Five years, provided you respected the 30-day retest period. After that the result stays valid indefinitely for the position you already hold, as long as its linguistic profile is not raised above your level. For a new appointment, results older than five years generally do not count, with a few documented exceptions. An E never expires.

How soon can I retake an SLE test?

There is a 30-calendar-day waiting period for each test. If you sit it again before the period is over, the result is not valid and a new 30-day period starts from your most recent test date.

Can a retest lower my level?

Yes. A valid new result replaces the previous result recorded by the Public Service Commission, whether it is higher or lower. That is also true after a rescore of the oral assessment: the second rating becomes the official one even if it comes out below the first.

Can I book my own SLE test?

No. Tests are scheduled only by the human resources team of a federal organisation, after you apply to a bilingual position, or through your manager if you are already a public servant. Public servants, including members of the Canadian Armed Forces, cannot book directly with the PSC.

How much does the SLE cost?

Nothing to you. The organisation that orders the test pays for it, and the PSC states there is no mechanism for a candidate to pay to be tested. Its price list for departments sits on an extranet that is not public, so there is no candidate-facing fee to quote.

What is an E result?

E stands for exemption: your performance met the level C requirements and you are expected to keep level C indefinitely, so the PSC exempts you from further testing in that skill. On reading and writing it is a score band above C; on the oral assessment it is the assessor’s judgement. You cannot get an E on an unsupervised internet test.

What does an X result mean?

X means your performance did not meet the minimum requirements for level A. It is not a proficiency level, and it is recorded like any other result.

Is the oral test recorded, and can I ask for a rescore?

The Public Service Commission records the Oral Language Assessment for administrative purposes and keeps the recording for two years. You can request a rescore in writing within 10 business days of the results being sent, through the departmental HR officer who requested the test. A second assessor listens to the recording and rates it without knowing the original result.

Is there an official SLE practice test?

Only for reading comprehension and written expression. The PSC publishes free self-assessment tests and sample questions for those two, and states that the unofficial results cannot be used in a selection process. There is no official practice version of the Oral Language Assessment. Any site selling "real SLE questions" is a warning sign: test content is Protected, the PSC monitors the web for it, and disclosure can trigger an investigation under the Public Service Employment Act.

Formats, bands and policies on this page were checked against canada.ca in September 2026. The PSC updates its pages without notice, so confirm anything time-sensitive with the organisation that scheduled your test.

Other exams we are building

Guides to the other language certificates joining Mocko, with the format, the levels and what each one is accepted for.

DELE A2 · SpanishThe Instituto Cervantes A2 diploma, and the exam route to Spanish nationality.fide test · FrenchSwitzerland’s oral and written language test for residence and naturalisation.CILS B1 Cittadinanza · ItalianThe shortened B1 exam built specifically for Italian citizenship applications.CIPLE · PortugueseCAPLE’s A2 certificate, the language proof for Portuguese nationality.

Want to practise for the SLE on Mocko?

Practice tests for the SLE are not live yet. Email us and we will tell you the day they open, and we will use what you tell us about your exam date to decide what to build first.