Families and students

How do I take the test at home?

Written by the TestFLE team. Updated 12 November 2026

In short

At home, the child takes the test on their own, on a connected device with sound, when the teacher has opened it as “Remote”. The parent helps them sign in and get started, without ever answering for them.

Who this is for, and what you need first

Who this is for: Parents and children whose school has the test taken at home.
What you need first: The child’s account, with their username and password.
A test opened by the school: a class session or an individual opening.
A computer, tablet or phone with sound and a stable Internet connection.
A quiet room and a time slot with no interruptions.

The steps

Choose a quiet room, with no television.
Adjust the device’s sound, or plug in earphones.
Check that the Internet connection is working.
Close all other tabs and all other apps.
Turn off notifications.
Stop the screen from locking during the test, in the sleep settings.
Sign in to TestFLE (signing in).
Look at the “My test” card, on the Home page. The badge must say “Now”.
Click “Start test”.
Click “Start the test”.

If the badge says “Planned”, the test is not open yet: the “Start test” entry is greyed out and becomes active by itself at the opening time. When can my child take the test describes the other badges.

Student’s Home page on a phone: My test card with the Now badge and the Start test entry

How the test is opened at home

The school opens the test in two ways. Your child recognises both from the “My test” card, on the Home page.

A class session. The teacher sets a day and times for the whole class. Before the session, the card announces the day and time of the test; during the session, it shows until what time the test stays open. Your child starts the test themselves, with “Start test”, within this time slot.
An individual opening. The teacher opens the test for your child alone, “once only” or “as many times as you like”, with or without an end date. Before the opening, the card shows from when the test will be available, and until when if it has an end date. During the opening, it says “You can take your test.” when there is no end date.

In both cases, the teacher also chooses the setting: “In person” or “Remote”. For a test taken at home, it has to be “Remote”: the child then takes the test with no teacher next to them. This setting decides what happens when they leave the page. Each individual opening has its own setting, chosen by the teacher when opening it. As the window offers “In person” by default, the teacher has to choose “Remote” every time.

The student’s screen does not show the setting. You see it when the child leaves the page. A yellow banner indicates a test opened as “Remote”, the “Your test is paused.” screen a test opened as “In person”. If the pause screen appears at home, let the school know.

What the parent does

You help your child sign in, adjust the sound and get started. You stay nearby to reassure them, and you remind them to stay on the page. However, you do not answer for them and you do not whisper the answers to them. The test adapts each question to the previous answers: an adult’s answers would distort the level measured.

Your child is allowed not to know. Their instructions tell them so: “If you are not sure, try your best. It’s okay.”

Going further

Understanding the test at home

The sound

The test plays words and sentences. A recording starts by itself when a listening question is displayed, and the audio player keeps its play button. If the sound does not start, because the browser has blocked it for example, press that button. The test uses neither a microphone nor a camera.

In front of each instruction, a headphones-shaped button reads it aloud, in French. This voice comes over the Internet: it needs the connection. In lightning mode, the minute of the question only starts when the recording ends, or at the latest three minutes after the question is displayed.

On a question, copying, cutting, pasting, dragging text and the right-click menu are blocked. It is not a fault: the child can still type their answer in a text field.

A listening question on a phone, with the audio player and the headphones button in front of the instruction

If the child leaves the page

In a test opened as “Remote”, nothing is blocked when the child leaves the page. They resume on their own, however many times they leave, and each exit is counted. TestFLE counts as an exit a change of tab, a minimised window, a locked screen, another app coming to the foreground, or a loss of focus of more than a second and a half.

When they come back, a yellow banner appears at the top of the screen: “You left the test page. Please stay on this page until the end.” The “Got it” button closes it, and it also disappears by itself after twelve seconds. The question stays on the screen. In lightning mode, the minute keeps running while the child is away. When it is up, the answer already chosen is sent; with no answer chosen, the question counts as a wrong answer.

The teacher sees the number of exits in the live view of the session, and in the student’s results. From four exits, their results carry the note “Session interrupted several times; results to be read with caution.” You do not see these notes in your child’s results: they are reserved for the school. The reminder on the screen is deliberately gentle, because many children leave by accident, because of a notification for example.

Yellow reminder banner on returning to the test page, on a phone

If the connection is lost

A red banner covers the top of the screen: “Connection lost, trying to reconnect…”. The question stays on the screen, and the answers already sent are saved on the server. When the device finds the network again, the banner goes away. If the test has closed, come back through “Start test” then “Start the test”: the waiting question comes back. The article on interruption gives the details, including the closure of a test left with no activity for 24 hours.

The outage can cost time: in lightning mode, the minute of the question and the thirty-five minutes of the test keep running. A remote test has no pause, since nobody is there to restart it.

If the “Your test is paused.” screen appears

It indicates a test opened as “In person”, and not as “Remote”. The child can do nothing on their own: the test waits for the teacher to restart it. Call the school by the usual means (telephone, video call or the school’s messaging system), and say that the screen reads “Your test is paused.” The article on the pause explains what happens next.

The “Call my teacher” button

The blue button at the top of the question alerts the teacher without stopping the test. It also works remotely. The call appears in the teacher’s notifications and in the live view of the session. The button first shows “Calling your teacher…”, then “Your teacher has been notified”.

It becomes available again when the teacher has taken the call, or after two minutes at most. The call does not phone anyone and does not start a video call. It stays displayed on the teacher’s side until they acknowledge it, but nothing guarantees that they will see it straight away. So keep another way of reaching the school, for a breakdown or an urgent question.

Call button turned green with the message Your teacher has been notified, on a phone

The length and the end time

The welcome screen announces the length of the test. In lightning mode, the test lasts thirty-five minutes at most, with at most one minute per question. In precise mode, no question is timed. In a class session, the precise test stops at the session’s end time. Yellow banners warn the child ten minutes, five minutes then one minute before (“Careful, your test ends in less than 10 minutes.”). So plan for the whole time slot. Lightning or precise describes the two modes in detail.