TCF Canada Score Chart: Convert 699 and /20 to NCLC
Aman Batth · 8 min read ·
TCF Canada reports two scales that do not add up — 100–699 for Listening and Reading, out of 20 for Writing and Speaking. Here are the official IRCC conversion tables, what NCLC 7 actually costs you in each skill, and why your worst skill is the only one that matters.
TCF Canada gives you four scores on two different scales, and then IRCC reads them on a third. Listening and Reading come back somewhere between 100 and 699. Writing and Speaking come back out of 20. Your Express Entry profile needs neither — it needs NCLC levels.
Most candidates lose points here for a reason that has nothing to do with their French: they average the four scores. IRCC never averages them. Your lowest skill sets your eligibility, and one weak section can cost you more CRS points than a whole extra month of study would have earned.
This page gives you the official conversion tables, three worked examples, and the target you should actually be aiming at.
The official TCF Canada conversion tables
These are the equivalency tables IRCC publishes for TCF Canada. They are the same tables our own scoring engine uses to report an NCLC level on every mock, so the numbers below are what you will see on a Hilingo score report.
Verify them yourself against IRCC's official language test equivalency chart — this is the page that governs your application.
Listening and Reading — the 100–699 scale
| NCLC / CLB | Listening (compréhension orale) | Reading (compréhension écrite) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 549–699 | 549–699 |
| 9 | 523–548 | 524–548 |
| 8 | 503–522 | 499–523 |
| 7 | 458–502 | 453–498 |
| 6 | 398–457 | 406–452 |
| 5 | 369–397 | 375–405 |
| 4 | 331–368 | 342–374 |
Note that Listening and Reading are not the same table. Reading NCLC 8 starts at 499; Listening NCLC 8 starts at 503. Four points, and people do land on exactly that line.
Writing and Speaking — the /20 scale
| NCLC / CLB | Writing (expression écrite) | Speaking (expression orale) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 16–20 | 16–20 |
| 9 | 14–15 | 14–15 |
| 8 | 12–13 | 12–13 |
| 7 | 10–11 | 10–11 |
| 6 | 7–9 | 7–9 |
| 5 | 6 | 6 |
| 4 | 4–5 | 4–5 |
The /20 bands are narrow. Between NCLC 7 and NCLC 9 there are only four marks. One mark is one level from 12 upward, which is why examiner judgement on a single task moves your whole profile.
The CEFR level on your certificate
Your TCF certificate also prints a CEFR level against the 100–699 score. This is the scale France Éducation international uses, and it is not what IRCC reads:
| CEFR | Score |
|---|---|
| C2 | 600–699 |
| C1 | 500–599 |
| B2 | 400–499 |
| B1 | 300–399 |
| A2 | 200–299 |
| A1 | 100–199 |
A B2 on your certificate spans NCLC 4 to NCLC 7. "I got B2" tells you almost nothing about your Express Entry eligibility. Always convert to NCLC.
Why your lowest skill is the only score that matters
Express Entry reads your four NCLC levels separately and takes the lowest one as your French-language proficiency. There is no averaging, no rounding up, and no trading a strong Reading against a weak Speaking.
Three candidates, same total, completely different outcomes:
| Candidate | Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking | Lowest = official level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amara | 520 (NCLC 8) | 510 (NCLC 8) | 12 (NCLC 8) | 11 (NCLC 7) | NCLC 7 |
| Karim | 470 (NCLC 7) | 460 (NCLC 7) | 10 (NCLC 7) | 10 (NCLC 7) | NCLC 7 |
| Divya | 560 (NCLC 10) | 550 (NCLC 10) | 14 (NCLC 9) | 9 (NCLC 6) | NCLC 6 |
Divya has the strongest French of the three and the worst result. Her Speaking is one mark below the NCLC 7 line — 9 instead of 10 — and that single mark drops her out of eligibility for the French-language category draws entirely.
The lesson is not "study more". It is "find your weakest skill and fix that one." Most candidates already know which it is, and study everything else anyway because it feels more productive.
See how a full TCF Canada mock reports all four skills
What NCLC 7 is worth in Express Entry
NCLC 7 across all four skills is the threshold that matters, for two separate reasons.
Additional CRS points for French. If you reach NCLC 7 or higher in all four French skills, you earn additional CRS points on top of your core language score. At the time of writing that is 25 points if your English is CLB 4 or lower, and 50 points if your English is CLB 5 or higher. Fifty points is, for most profiles, larger than the gap between being invited and waiting another year.
French-language category draws. IRCC runs category-based rounds for French-language proficiency, and these have repeatedly been issued at CRS cut-offs well below the general draws. Eligibility requires NCLC 7 in all four skills.
The current rules are on IRCC's page on category-based Express Entry selection.
Immigration rules change. Verify the current thresholds and point values on canada.ca before you plan around them — but the 4×NCLC 7 target has been stable and is the one to aim at.
Setting a target on each scale
Work backwards from NCLC 7 in every skill, then add a margin. Exam-day performance is not your practice average, and the /20 bands are too narrow to hit exactly.
| Skill | NCLC 7 floor | Practise until you consistently hit |
|---|---|---|
| Listening | 458 | 480+ |
| Reading | 453 | 475+ |
| Writing | 10 | 12+ |
| Speaking | 10 | 12+ |
Aiming at the floor means half your attempts land under it. Aiming one band higher means a bad day still clears.
Which skill is hardest to move
Listening and Reading respond to volume. They are marked per item, the answer is objectively right or wrong, and doing several hundred questions genuinely moves the number.
Writing and Speaking do not work that way. They are examiner judgements against a rubric, and you can practise for weeks without improving if nobody tells you which criterion is costing you the marks. This is where most TCF candidates plateau, and it is why feedback matters more than question count on the expression sections.
How Hilingo reports these scales
We built TCF Canada to report exactly what the tables above say, rather than inventing a single overall number that does not exist.
- Both scales, never averaged. Compréhension on 100–699 with its CEFR level; expression out of 20 with its NCLC equivalent. Averaging a 699 with a 20 produces a figure that means nothing, so we refuse to print one.
- French scoring built for French. Most platforms run French writing through an English-trained model. We measured what that does: on identical content of identical quality, French scored 1.92 lower on a five-point scale than English. So expression écrite is scored on signals that are real in French — a French grammar rule pack, sentence geometry, lexical range, French discourse markers — not an English model pointed at French text.
- 195 full mocks, 3,230 questions, under the real section timers.
- 868 read-aloud topics from the recalled speaking bank. You record in French and get the passage back word by word, showing which words were clear and which were not — so you can see where pronunciation is costing you marks rather than guessing.
- 431 conjugation drills, ten per sitting, because tense errors are the most common avoidable loss in expression écrite.
- An AI teacher that answers in 51 languages — Arabic, Haitian Creole, Wolof, Lingala, Hindi, Punjabi and more. If your French is not yet strong enough to read French feedback, that is exactly when you need the feedback most.
Try it before paying: one full scored mock, two AI-scored read-aloud attempts a day and two AI-scored writing attempts, plus the conjugation drills, with no card.
We should be straight about one thing: our AI marking is a coaching tool, not an official examiner. Use it to find which criterion is leaking marks and whether you are trending toward your target. The certificate only comes from a France Éducation international test centre.
FAQ
What TCF Canada score do I need for NCLC 7?
458 in Listening, 453 in Reading, 10 out of 20 in Writing and 10 out of 20 in Speaking. You need all four — your lowest skill is your official level.
Why is Speaking marked out of 20 but Reading out of 699?
Because they are measured differently. Compréhension orale and écrite are multiple-choice and marked per item, which supports a fine-grained 100–699 scale. Expression orale and écrite are judged by an examiner against a rubric, which produces a mark out of 20. The two are not on a common scale and cannot be averaged.
Does IRCC average my four TCF scores?
No. IRCC converts each skill to its own NCLC level and reads them separately. Your lowest skill determines eligibility for the French-language category and for the additional French CRS points.
How long are TCF Canada results valid?
Two years from the test date for Canadian immigration purposes. Your results must still be valid on the day you submit your permanent residence application, not just on the day you are invited.
Can I retake just one skill?
No. TCF Canada is sat as a complete test — you cannot resit a single section and keep the others. This is exactly why the weakest skill deserves most of your preparation time before you book.
Is TCF Canada easier than TEF Canada?
Neither is easier; they are different formats on different scales, and IRCC accepts both. Choose on test-centre availability and dates in your city. If you have already started preparing for one, the sensible move is almost always to finish with that one.
What to do next
Three steps, in order:
- Find your real weakest skill. Sit one full mock under the real timers and convert all four scores using the tables above. Not the skill you like least — the one with the lowest NCLC.
- Set the target one band above the floor, so a bad exam day still clears NCLC 7.
- Spend your time where the marks are leaking. For compréhension that means volume. For expression it means feedback specific enough to name the criterion.
Your first full TCF Canada mock on Hilingo is free and needs no card. It reports all four skills on both official scales, with the NCLC level IRCC will read.