1.4 Exam Day, Candidate Rights & What Happens Afterwards

1.4 Exam Day, Candidate Rights & What Happens Afterwards

[!NOTE] The Marks You Lose Before You Answer Anything: Every year candidates arrive without a valid physical ID, sign their name on an anonymous paper, bring a pencil, or discover on results day that they had a right they never exercised. France Éducation international publishes the rules in the Manuel du candidat and in a charter of candidate rights and duties (droits et devoirs du candidat). This section turns those documents into a practical checklist for the whole journey, from registration to collecting the diploma.

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1. Choosing the Right Exam Before You Pay

Which version?

The DELF exists in parallel versions built on the same four épreuves and the same CEFR level, differing only in the themes used:

FEI's charter makes selecting the right version a candidate duty: « choisir la version de l'examen qui correspond à son profil ». In France, the scolaire version is reserved for newly arrived allophone pupils enrolled in the French school system for under four years, is organised through the CASNAV, and is free — it is not an alternative that an adult can opt into.

Which level?

You may register directly for B1 without holding A2 or any other certificate. The charter states the right explicitly: « s'inscrire directement à l'examen de son choix sans devoir justifier de l'obtention de l'examen du niveau précédent ». Each DELF diploma is independent. If you are unsure of your level, FEI suggests taking a positioning test (the TCF, or free level tests offered by RFI and TV5 Monde) rather than guessing.

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2. Registration and Accommodations

• Choose your centre freely. « S'inscrire dans le centre d'examen agréé de son choix » is a right. Fees, session dates and registration windows are set locally by each accredited centre, so two centres in the same country may charge different amounts for the same exam.
• Respect the registration window. Missing it is the single most common reason candidates lose a session; centres close registration weeks before the exam date.
• Give your candidate code. If you have already sat any DELF or DALF, you must pass your existing code candidat to the centre so your records are linked.
• Disability accommodations: a candidate has the right to « bénéficier d'un aménagement spécifique » — but only « à condition de fournir un certificat médical 2 mois avant la date des épreuves ». Two months, not two weeks. Declare the situation at registration, not on the day.
• Justified absence: with a medical certificate, you may request a refund or a transfer of your registration to the following session.

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3. The Day of the Collective Tests

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                        Épreuves collectives - the five steps FEI publishes                        |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  1. Arrive at the venue  30 minutes  before the start.                                            |
|  2. Bring: valid photo ID with signature, your convocation, a pen.                                |
|  3. Check the spelling of your name, sign the attendance sheet.                                   |
|  4. The invigilator explains the sequence and hands out the papers.                               |
|  5. Fill in the first page: candidate code (one digit per box), name and first name.              |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The anonymity rule that surprises candidates

Your name goes on the front flap, which is folded over and sealed so the corrector never sees who wrote the paper. That makes one duty absolute: « le candidat ne doit pas signer sa copie ni utiliser son vrai nom ou prénom dans ses réponses mais doit utiliser un nom d'emprunt (pseudonyme) ».

In practice this bites in Production écrite. If the prompt asks you to write a letter or a forum post, invent a name and sign with it — Camille Dubois, Julien_35, Un lecteur fidèle. Signing your real name on an anonymous script is a procedural breach, not a stylistic choice.

Materials and conduct

• Pen only: write in blue or black. Erasable pencil is not accepted for your answers.
• To change a multiple-choice answer, the official instruction is to circle the response you want to keep rather than scribble over the box.
• Everything else goes away: personal belongings stored where the invigilator indicates, electronic devices switched off.
• Scrap paper is a right: « recevoir des feuilles de brouillon pour préparer ses réponses ». Ask if none is on your desk — it is essential for the listening notes and the writing plan. The rough sheet is never marked.
• Leaving early: you may leave the room, temporarily or definitively, only after the end of the first hour.
• Do not circulate the papers: distributing exam subjects is a stated breach of candidate duties.
• The recording runs itself: for the listening test, « l'enregistrement comporte l'ensemble des consignes ainsi que les temps de pause », and the invigilator must not touch the player before the paper ends. There is no possibility of a replay, whatever happens in the room.

The day of the individual oral

The same first three steps apply: arrive 30 minutes early, bring ID and convocation, sign the attendance sheet. You then take your 10 minutes of preparation for Part 3 before entering the room, where two examiners are waiting. Greet them on arrival and on leaving.

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4. After the Exam: Results, Diploma and Your Rights

Two limits are equally explicit. First, « le jury est souverain et ses décisions sont fermes et définitives »: you cannot contest a mark, except in the case of a material error or an irregularity in the conditions of the sitting. Second, results are personal data: FEI and the centres undertake not to communicate them to third parties.

[!WARNING] Fraud is the one thing that really bars you from future sessions. Attempted or detected fraud falls under article L331-3 of the Code de l'éducation and the law of 23 December 1901 on examination fraud. The stated consequences are the annulment of your results, a ban of several years from sitting the exam, and criminal penalties in the most serious cases. Nothing else in the DELF rulebook carries that weight — not a low mark, not registering at a different centre, not retaking the exam repeatedly.

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5. Your Personal Exam-Day Checklist

[!TIP] The night before:

• Physical ID with photo and signature — a digital ID on your phone is explicitly not accepted.
• Your convocation, printed.
• Two blue or black pens.
• Your candidate code, if you have sat a DELF or DALF before.
• A pseudonym chosen in advance for the writing task, so you do not have to invent one under time pressure.

In the room:

• Check the spelling of your name before signing the attendance sheet.
• Copy the candidate code one digit per box.
• Ask for scrap paper before the audio starts.
• Write the word count at the foot of your writing paper.

Afterwards:

• Ask your centre for the results publication date.
• Request the attestation de réussite provisoire if you have an administrative deadline.
• If you failed, ask to consult your script before re-registering — you are entitled to, and it tells you exactly which of the four épreuves to rebuild.