Preparing for the OQLF French exam

Program for Nurses, Nursing Asistants and Doctors

The goal of the exam is to ensure that your knowledge of French is “appropriate for the practice of your profession”. This means that the scenario you will be presented with will be related to what you do on a daily basis in your practice: giving a diagnosis, establishing a careplan, explaining an illness to a patient, etc.

1. Assessment

Our first meeting will consist of an evaluation of your knowledge of the French Language according to the criteria established by the OQLF, for both oral and written expression. Next, we will discuss the results of the evaluation and establish together a realistic plan of action, taking into account your objectives, your level of French and the time that you have to study. At the end of the meeting, you will know what you need to do and the time it will take you to be ready to pass the exam.

2. Preparation Program Description

The preparation is built on the elements that you need to master in order to pass the exam, specifically:

  • presenting a clear understanding of a given scenario, including the patients’ health status, their treatments, their past medical history, psychosocial context, etc.;
  • possessing the necessary vocabulary to outline what you will do in this scenario, or to explain to the patient their health status or illness, and;
  • using the RIGHT tense to correctly describe a past, current, future or hypothetical action. For example, what happened to a patient; what actions you will or could take to address this situation;
  • placing the words in the RIGHT order, which means, to construct proper sentences.

We will base our program on an array of representative cases, similar to the one you could get at the exam. You will learn to present the relevant information and develop your responses to questions in a simple and precise way. With the help of the Guide that we have written (Preparing for the French exam for Health Professional Practice in Québec: A guide for nurses and doctors), you will be able to strengthen your grammar and your vocabulary through applied exercises and scenarios.

Finally, in order to pass an exam, you must develop an appropriate strategy. This aspect is included in our Preparation Program.
 

Specific Preparation for Written French

BEWARE !
We cannot always hear the difference between some endings, but they are still different, and you need to understand this, especially for the written (e.g. the difference between “é” and “er”). After assessing your specific areas of difficulty with written expression, we’ll focus on correcting those issues. The Guide will give you straight-forward explanations and practical application exercises.
 

Independent Study Program

This program is intended for individuals who already have a good working knowledge of French. After assessing your level, we will establish a study plan and provide you with you step by step guidance. Thanks to the Guide we designed (Preparing for the French exam for Health Professional Practice in Québec: A guide for nurses and doctors), you will be able to study by yourself at home while making follow up appointments with us as needed.

The preparation that we offer is practical, concrete and complete. To pass the exam, your responses must be clear and precise. No need to make it complicated!