Read the question, not the theme.
Every Task 3 prompt asks for one of six kinds of answer. Spot the kind in about five seconds and you know how to open. 1,027 reported prompts, 575 ideas, most-reported first.
Two of each type · about 2 minutes · no account needed
Keys 1-6 to answer · Enter to continue
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How to read a prompt
Strip the tail. A final 'Pourquoi ?', 'Qu'en pensez-vous ?' or 'Expliquez' asks you to justify. It does not set the type.
Find the job: judge it (1), possible or needed (2), compare (3), decide a rule (4), explain causes (5), propose actions (6).
The six types
Assess
- 1, Effects / valueUseful? harmful? what impact?
Open with
Identify the effect and the situation.
- 2, Conditions / necessityPossible? easy? necessary?
Open with
Distinguish possibility, difficulty or need.
Choose
- 3, Comparison / preferenceBetter? prefer? most important?
Open with
Name the comparison criterion.
- 4, Rule / decisionShould we? ban? allow?
Open with
Consider the aim, effects and exceptions.
Explain
- 5, Reasons / explanationsWhy do people...? what explains...?
Open with
Name a leading explanation, then qualify it.
- 6, Actions / solutionsHow can...? what measures...?
Open with
Define the need and propose a priority.
The six TCF Canada Speaking Task 3 question types.
TCF Canada Speaking Task 3 prompts ask you to do one of six things: judge an effect, judge whether something is possible or needed, compare, decide on a rule, explain causes or propose solutions. Spot which one before you think about the theme, and you know how to open your answer.
| Type | Ask yourself | First-sentence job | Share of reports |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1, Effects / value | Useful? harmful? what impact? | Identify the effect and the situation. | 40% |
| 2, Conditions / necessity | Possible? easy? necessary? | Distinguish possibility, difficulty or need. | 31% |
| 3, Comparison / preference | Better? prefer? most important? | Name the comparison criterion. | 9% |
| 4, Rule / decision | Should we? ban? allow? | Consider the aim, effects and exceptions. | 16% |
| 5, Reasons / explanations | Why do people...? what explains...? | Name a leading explanation, then qualify it. | 2% |
| 6, Actions / solutions | How can...? what measures...? | Define the need and propose a priority. | 2% |
Shares count every report of a prompt. The six types are a study framework from InfinLume's Task 3 speaking workbook, not official TCF categories. Some prompts fit two types (284 of 1,027); where the trainer recognizes the second type, it accepts that answer too.
Read the question before the theme.
- One subject, several questions. 80 of 109 subjects mix question types. Keeping one's culture abroad, for example, comes up as an effect, a condition, a comparison and a rule: four different first sentences.
- A final 'Pourquoi ?' asks you to justify. Of 213 reported prompts that end with 'pourquoi', 1 is a Reasons question. Cover the last word; if an opinion question is left, answer that.
- The tail never gives the type. 'Qu'en pensez-vous ?' appears in 291 prompts across five types, 'Êtes-vous d'accord ?' in 123 across four. Read the sentence before it.
- Few words are reliable. 'Est-il possible' was always Conditions (19 of 19) and 'interdire' always Rule (23 of 23), but 'Faut-il interdire' covers only 9 of 159 Rule prompts. Most prompts have no tell-tale word: find the job.
What 1,027 reported prompts show.
- About 7 in 10 ask you to assess. Effects and Conditions together take 70% of reports.
- Fewer than 1 in 20 ask for causes or solutions. Reasons and Actions share 4.5% of reports. Know them, but do not build your preparation around them.
- Ideas come back reworded. 62% of the 575 ideas were reported more than once; the difficulty of living abroad was reported 21 times in 9 wordings.
- The mix is stable. Assess questions made up 66% to 72% of reports in every year from 2022 to 2026.
How we sorted them.
These are 1,027 distinct Task 3 prompts candidates reported from sessions between January 2022 and September 2026: 2,100 reports in all, grouped into 575 ideas (the same claim in other words) and 109 subjects. Every prompt went through two independent classification passes following a written rubric, the second blind to the first. After adjudication, the final types match the blind pass on 98.1% of prompts (1,008 of 1,027), and every remaining disagreement is a recognized two-type case.
How Read the Question works.
- Most-reported first. 575 ideas from 2,100 reports. Within each question type, new ideas arrive most-reported first, and every round mixes the types.
- Spaced later-day checks. An idea you read right turns green. Read it right again on a later day, on a different wording, and it turns gold. A miss sends it back to fix.
- First-sight accuracy. The number that matters is how often you read a prompt right the first time you meet it. It counts new ideas only, so repeats cannot inflate it.
Questions about Task 3 and the trainer.
- How long is TCF Canada Speaking Task 3?
- 4 minutes 30 seconds, with no preparation: the last of three tasks in the 12-minute, face-to-face speaking test. You defend a point of view on a question the examiner chooses (France Éducation international). Our Task 3 speaking guide covers the answer structure, with a written example.
- Are these official TCF categories?
- No. They are a study framework from InfinLume's Task 3 speaking workbook.
- Where do the prompts come from?
- They are Task 3 prompts candidates reported from sessions between January 2022 and September 2026. Counts show how often each was reported, not what you will be asked.
- Does a final 'Pourquoi ?' make it a why question?
- No. It asks you to justify your view: of 213 reported prompts that end with 'pourquoi', only 1 is a Reasons question. A Reasons question puts the why in the question itself, as in "why do people...?"
- Which Task 3 topics come up most?
- In candidates' reports, living abroad and integration lead: getting to know a country, keeping your culture and adapting abroad. Gender equality, technology and the Internet, social media, television, cars in cities, the host language and raising children complete the top 10.
- Do I need an account?
- No. Progress is saved in this browser.