Good afternoon Wise Ones
Having read in this group that the requirement for carte de resident is changing to B1 I decided to put in for mine in order to see what hubby is up against.
So…my Delf B1 exam is in February but I’m curious to know how the « written » exam is taken.
Do you literally write on a piece of paper, or do you have a computer (presumably there’s no spellcheck). If there’s a computer, does it count your words for you?
Any experiences of people who have taken this exam would be appreciated.
Thanks.
We did ours a year ago. No computers used, everything written. It was like being back in school, complete with the clock on the wall and the invigilator telling us when we could turn over our papers!
EDIT: I suppose the process may very by centre but since it’s a national thing where an exam paper is set by a central body and everyone at the exam centres takes it at exactly the same time, I imagine there is little room for variance.
Oh wow! That’s scary!
How do you do your word count? Is « il y a » three words? What about « c’est »?
To be honest, you do get a reasonable amount of time to do the bits with a word count and I erred on the side of caution rather than trying to do an exact number of words.
I would have counted "il y a " as 3 and “c’est” as two but who knows?
What I would add though is that we did our exam having done pretty well nothing in preparation in the full expectation of failure! We thought that, since I hadn’t done an exam in over 40 years, it would give us an opportunity to see what it was like so that we’d be prepared for a second go. The director of the exam centre said that, based on my emails, she expected me to pass without any further study. My brain is distinctly fading and my partner is seriously dyslexic but we both passed. Very few people fail apparently - at that centre at least!
Thanks, Angela, that’s reassuring.
My concern for my husband is that he’s dyslexic so 
I know it’s a significant amount of money for a trial run but I was staggered that we passed, so it was worth it! We didn’t have much chance of getting a B2 though as that’s a great deal harder…
Go for it! It’s better than you would think. It was suggested to me that i threw in a coupleof subjunctives into the main essay-type bit but I’m not at all sure it was necessary. I used my standard ones “autant que je sache” and “il faut que je fasse (something)” 
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Great. Thanks for the tips. Il faut que je fasse l’effort 
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I learnt the subjunctive from my dentist.
As I sat there, wide mouthed, he said ‘Qu’est ce que vous voulez que je fasse?’ I was confused, all I could think of was that face meant opposite, and nothing could I find in my consciousness even remotely related to my gob.
Seeing my confusion, he said, in perfect English ‘what do you want me to do?’
My posh schooling must have been very deficient, I had no idea it was there and that I had used it in my native language, many times. 
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Lest we forget the importance of the subjunctive…
“If I were you
Be that as it may
Use a subjunctive every day”.
(Michael Rosen)
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I think I need to know which centre that was
Your approach sounds exactly the right way
Wow! Thanks, that’s so useful!
Now go and charge your battery
Could I confirm that this is an exam taken at the end of five years residence to obtain the ten year residence permit?
I’ve lost the plot… it’s too early am for me today… no sleep last night… sorry
Must be the latter - we are moving in Jan if all goes well as EU citizen and spouse thereof (me)
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It was Alliance Française in St Malo. I don’t think you need the B1 though Karen - you’re here under the Withdrawal agreement aren’t you? I did it for my naturalisation application but if I’m rejected, I’ll need a B2 to reapply (fat chance of me getting that…)
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In that case @George1 will know ALL the details 
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Depends on how severe and what coping measures he uses.
I am also dyslexic and obtained C1 French and B2 Dutch, my native language is German. So it is possible.
A dyslexia joke, it is an anagram of daily sex; well I think it is.
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Thanks, that’s reassuring. Love the joke.
If it is any help, I did have a reasonable level of spoken French, but I was struggling with the writing and grammar; French is not a “transparent” language, unlike German.
I started from the very basics using children’s text books and with the help of a professeur de français I built up an understanding on how the language is constructed. I now get critical when persons use que instead of dont and news broadcasters when they do not correctly use the various tenses of the subjuntif.
But that’s me.
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