Self-editing in the last five minutes: a prioritized checklist
A ranked proofreading pass — agreements, verb endings, negation, punctuation — that recovers easy points fast.
The last five minutes are not for adding ideas — they are for saving points you have already earned. Most avoidable errors in exam writing are mechanical: a missing agreement, a wrong verb ending, an incomplete negation. A ranked pass lets you catch the highest-frequency mistakes first, so if you run out of time you have fixed the ones that matter most.
The prioritized order
Run these passes in sequence
- Subject-verb agreement — does each verb match its subject in person and number?
- Noun-adjective agreement — gender and number on every adjective and past participle.
- Verb endings — the silent -ent, the -é/-er/-ez confusion, correct tense.
- Negation completeness — is « ne » still there before the verb?
- Punctuation and spacing — the French rules for « : » and « ; ».
The -é / -er / -ez trap
These three endings sound identical but are never interchangeable. Substitute « vendre » (a visibly different verb): if « vendre » fits, write the infinitive -er; if « vendu » fits, write the participle -é; « vendez » signals the vous form -ez. This one substitution test resolves the most common written verb error in exam scripts.
J'ai décidé de participer à la réunion. → J'ai « vendu »... de « vendre »...Negation you can hear but forget to write
In everyday speech French drops the « ne » (« je sais pas »), but written exam French requires it. Every « pas », « jamais », « plus », « rien » or « personne » needs its « ne » before the verb. This is a quick, high-value scan because the fix is tiny and the error is instantly visible to an examiner.
French punctuation spacing you must respect
| Mark | Spacing | Example |
|---|---|---|
| : (colon / deux-points) | space before AND after / espace avant ET après | Une seule règle : la clarté. |
| ; (semicolon / point-virgule) | space before AND after / espace avant ET après | Il pleut ; je reste. |
| . , (period, comma / point, virgule) | no space before, space after / pas avant, espace après | Voici, entre autres, un exemple. |
| « » (quotes / guillemets) | space inside the marks / espace à l'intérieur | Il a dit « merci ». |
Turn this into a habit: keep a personal error list of the three mistakes your corrected versions flag most, and make them the first three passes of every future proofread.
Original ScoreRoute lesson — written for TEF Canada / TCF Canada preparation.
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