Frequently Asked Questions
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Getting started
No. The trial lasts 7 days and requires no card and no payment details. You'll be asked for those only if you decide to subscribe afterwards.
Seven days of access, 5 credits, and Practice Test 1 of one exam of your choice — IELTS Academic, IELTS General Training, TEF, or TEF Canada. You pick which one when you start the trial. That's enough for a full Speaking test and a Writing task, with Listening and Reading available at no credit cost.
The free trial unlocks Test 1 of a single exam — the one you choose when starting it. To practise the other exams, you can subscribe to any plan, which unlocks tests across all of them (IELTS Academic & General, TEF, and TEF Canada).
Check your Spam or Promotions folder first — new senders often land there. If you find it, mark it "Not spam" so future emails reach your inbox. You can request a new verification email from the sign-in page. If it still doesn't arrive, email support@linguamock.ai from the address you registered with and we'll verify your account manually.
Not necessarily — it's entirely your choice. You can sit a complete test end to end for the closest experience to exam day, or take one section at a time, in any order, across different days.
IELTS vs TEF — which is which?
IELTS is an English-language exam, scored in bands from 1 to 9. TEF (Test d'évaluation de français) is a French-language exam. LinguaMock offers full practice for both: IELTS Academic and General Training, plus TEF and TEF Canada.
IELTS gives you a band score (e.g. 7.0) per section. TEF is scored on its own point scales and mapped to a level: CEFR (A1–C2) for TEF, and CLB / NCLC levels for TEF Canada — the levels used for Canadian immigration (Express Entry). Our results pages show you the level for each section exactly as the real exam reports it.
They share the same format and are practised the same way, but they're scored for different purposes. TEF results are shown in CEFR levels; TEF Canada results are shown in CLB levels, which is what Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) uses. TEF also includes a Lexique & Structure section (vocabulary and grammar) that TEF Canada doesn't.
Mostly. Both have Listening (Compréhension orale), Reading (Compréhension écrite), Writing (Expression écrite) and Speaking (Expression orale). TEF adds a fifth section, Lexique & Structure. The exam content is entirely in French, so you'll read, listen, write and speak in French throughout.
TEF Writing and Speaking are marked by AI against the official TEF competencies (task fulfilment, coherence, vocabulary, grammar, and — for speaking — fluency and register), then mapped to CLB/CEFR. The written feedback is in English so it's easy to act on, even at lower levels, while everything you produce is assessed in French.
The TEF Expression orale lasts about 15 minutes and has two sections. In Section A, you play a role and ask questions to obtain information — for example, calling about a classified advertisement to find out the details. In Section B, you're given a short document and must present and defend a point of view to convince the person you're speaking with. Both are conducted in French and assessed for interaction, fluency, vocabulary, grammar and register, then mapped to your CEFR level (TEF) or CLB level (TEF Canada).
The TEF Expression écrite also has two sections. In Section A, you continue a short news item or story, writing the rest of the text. In Section B, you express and justify an opinion on a given topic, for example in a letter or a message to a newspaper. You write entirely in French; your work is assessed for task fulfilment, coherence, vocabulary and grammar, and mapped to your CEFR or CLB level. As everywhere on LinguaMock, the feedback comes back in English so it's easy to act on.
Credits
Listening and Reading have fixed correct answers, so they're marked automatically. They cost us nothing to run, so we don't charge for them.
Speaking and Writing are different. Both the test itself and the result are powered by AI, and Speaking is the heavier of the two — which is why it costs 2 credits and Writing 1.
Listening and Reading stay available, since they don't use credits. For Speaking and Writing you can buy a credit top-up pack from the Billing page without changing your plan, or upgrade to a plan with a larger allocation.
Credits carry forward when your subscription renews. If you upgrade or downgrade, your existing balance is kept and the new plan's allocation is added on top. Credits are forfeited only if you cancel, at the end of your billing period.
The tests
We follow the real exam's structure and timing section by section — the same formats, question types and pacing, and the same official standards used to mark them. IELTS is marked against the IELTS band descriptors; TEF and TEF Canada against the official TEF competencies, mapped to CEFR and CLB levels. TEF also includes the extra Lexique & Structure section.
Reading and Writing differ between the two modules, so those sections are written separately for each. Listening and Speaking are identical in the real exam regardless of which module you sit — so they're shared here too, exactly as they are on test day.
It depends on your plan, and each plan gives you that number in every exam we offer (IELTS Academic, IELTS General Training, TEF, and TEF Canada):
- Free trial — Practice Test 1 in one exam of your choice
- Basic — 5 tests in each exam
- Professional — 10 tests in each exam
- Enterprise — 50 tests in each exam, the complete library
Every test includes its own Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking content — plus Lexique & Structure for TEF.
Yes, as many times as you like. Speaking and Writing will use credits again, since each attempt is marked fresh.
Speaking
Because the real exam doesn't, and where the questioning becomes responsive depends on the exam.
IELTS: Part 1 is a fixed set of short introductory questions the examiner works through without probing — that's deliberate. Responsive questioning starts later: in Part 2 the rounding-off questions are drawn from what you actually said, and in Part 3 the examiner reacts to your points in a genuine two-way discussion.
TEF & TEF Canada: the Expression orale has two sections — Section A, where you ask questions to obtain information, and Section B, where you present and defend a point of view — and the interaction follows the real exam's structure in each.
A working microphone and a quiet room. A headset or earphones with a built-in microphone gives the clearest recording, which in turn gives the most accurate assessment. Background noise can be picked up and affect your result.
We test and support Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, on desktop and laptop, Android phones and tablets, iPhone and iPad. You can take the whole test on a phone or tablet.
Other browsers and devices will often work perfectly well, but we don't formally claim support for them. If you run into trouble, switching to one of the browsers above is the quickest fix.
The lowest possible result — a band of 0 on IELTS, or CLB 0 / below A1 on TEF — means no voice was detected in any of your recordings. The test ran, but no audio reached us. It's almost always a microphone problem rather than anything to do with your English or French.
Work through these in order:
- Make sure your browser has permission to use the microphone — you'll normally be asked when the test starts, and you need to allow it.
- On Mac and Windows, check that your browser is also allowed microphone access in your system privacy settings. A browser can have permission while the operating system still blocks it, which produces a silent recording with no warning.
- Check the correct microphone is selected, especially if you have a headset or an external device connected.
- Close other apps that may be holding the microphone, such as video calls or voice recorders.
Scoring and results
Your Speaking and Writing tests are marked by our AI examiner against the official standards of your exam — the IELTS band descriptors, or the official TEF competencies for TEF and TEF Canada — with each criterion scored separately, exactly as a human examiner applies them. IELTS results are given as bands, TEF as CEFR levels, and TEF Canada as CLB levels.
Very close to the real exam. Our examiner marks against the same official standards used by the real test — the IELTS band descriptors, or the TEF competencies mapped to CEFR and CLB — and the results it awards sit closely in line with what a certified examiner would give.
Because that's how the real exams mark it. Writing is consistently the toughest-scored skill, and examiners apply the criteria strictly, especially on task fulfilment and grammar. We deliberately replicate that standard instead of inflating your result. A softer mark would feel nicer, but it would leave you unprepared — walking into the real exam expecting a band or level it won't give you. A strict practice result shows you exactly where you stand and what to fix, so the real test holds no surprises.
Listening and Reading are marked immediately. Speaking and Writing results are ready in about one to two minutes.
You can re-mark a Speaking or Writing test with a different AI examiner model from your results page. The score can only stay the same or improve — a re-mark never lowers it.
A re-mark costs 2 credits, and each test can be re-marked once. If the new examiner awards a higher result, your 2 credits are returned. If the score stays the same, your original result stands and the 2 credits are used.
If something still looks wrong after that, email support@linguamock.ai and we'll look at your test personally.
Plans and billing
Every plan gives you the same AI examiner and the same four sections — what changes is how many practice tests you can access and how many credits you get for Speaking and Writing.
- Basic — 5 tests in each exam
- Professional — 10 tests in each exam
- Enterprise — 50 tests in each exam, plus 10 accounts and an admin panel
Current prices and credit allocations are on the pricing page.
Yes. Every plan can be billed monthly or annually — annual billing saves 33%. You can switch between monthly and annual from the pricing page; the switch starts a new billing period that day, and your existing credits carry forward.
Enterprise is for anyone who needs more than one account — a language school or coaching centre, an IELTS or TEF preparation institute, or simply a group of friends preparing together. It includes 10 accounts and an admin panel where you create and manage them, and see everyone's results and examiner feedback in one place. Each person signs in to their own account and takes tests normally; billing and credits stay with the admin.
You can cancel at any time from the Billing page, and you keep full access until the end of the period you've paid for. All sales are final — see our Refund Policy for details.
Privacy
Your recordings are stored securely and used to assess your Speaking test, so that you can play them back alongside your feedback. They aren't shared with anyone else. Full details are in our Privacy Policy.
No. Your results are visible only to you. The one exception is Enterprise accounts, where the Enterprise admin who created your account can see the results of tests taken on it — you'll know, because they set the account up for you.