TCF Canada to CLB Conversion Chart: Score Table by Skill

Each of the four TCF Canada skills — compréhension orale (listening), compréhension écrite (reading), expression orale (speaking), and expression écrite (writing) — is scored on its own scale, and each raw score is converted independently to a Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) level. The table below gives the general band ranges candidates commonly reference for planning purposes.

Treat this as a study-planning reference, not an authoritative source. IRCC periodically updates its official conversion table, and the exact cutoffs on your score report come from France Éducation International and IRCC directly — always confirm current thresholds on IRCC's official language-testing page before making decisions based on a specific CLB target.

Approximate conversion table

Why your lowest skill is the one that matters

Most Express Entry programs and francophone streams that set a CLB floor require you to clear it on every skill, not on average. A candidate scoring CLB 9 on reading but CLB 6 on speaking is treated as CLB 6 overall for that requirement. Budget your prep time toward your weakest skill first, not your strongest.

Listening and reading vs. speaking and writing

Listening and reading are multiple-choice and machine-scored, so their raw-score bands are wide and fixed. Speaking and writing are assessed by human examiners against a rubric and scored out of 20, which is why small differences in raw score can shift your CLB band more noticeably at the edges of a range — a well-structured argument or a couple of grammar slips can matter more than they would on a multiple-choice section.

Want to see roughly where you stand today? Our free CLB estimate mini-test gives you an informal band in about 10 minutes, and our free practice questions let you drill reading and listening at the exact level you need to move up.