Families and students

How do I write and submit a writing task?

Written by the TestFLE team. Updated 12 November 2026

In short

The student writes their task in the “Writing tasks” section of “Practice”: the text saves on its own, then “Submit” sends it to the teacher. The teacher reads and corrects by hand, with no automatic analysis.

Who this is for, and what you need first

Who this is for: Students to whom a teacher has given a writing prompt, and the families who help them submit it.
What you need first: The Practice option chosen by the school.
A writing prompt given by a teacher and already open: a prompt that is not open yet does not appear.
An active account.

The steps

In the menu, click “Practice”.
Scroll down to “Writing tasks”.
On the prompt’s card, click “Write”. If you have already started, the button is called “Continue”.
Read “The prompt”.
Click in “Your text” and write.
Wait for “Saved” to appear: the text is kept on its own.
If you wrote on paper, add your photos or your PDF in “Your photos or your PDF”.
Read your work again.
Click “Submit”.
In the “Submit your writing?” window, click “Submit”.

Writing tasks section with two prompts: one to submit with the Write button, the other to revise

Screen of a writing prompt: instructions, the prompt’s picture, formatting bar, text in progress and the note Saved

Photos and the PDF

A student who writes on paper can attach their work to the copy. They choose between two options, never both:

up to 10 photos, one per page, in JPEG, PNG or WebP format, of 5 MB at most each;
a single PDF, of 20 MB and 30 pages at most.

In “Your photos or your PDF”, click the drop zone or drag the files into it. On a phone, “Take a photo” opens the camera. Each page appears as a thumbnail (“Page 1”, “Page 2”…), with a counter such as “2 / 10 photos”. Clicking “Remove” takes away a photo or the PDF as long as the copy has not been submitted.

Photos in HEIC format, which some phones produce, are refused. The message says so when the file is sent (see below).

Adding two photos to a copy on a phone, removing one photo, then submitting

Going further

Understanding the settings and special cases

When is the text saved?

Saving is automatic. The text is sent 1.2 seconds after the last keystroke, when the cursor leaves the text area, and when the page closes. While it is being sent, the screen shows “Saving…”, then “Saved”. The “Back to Practice” link, at the top of the screen, also saves whatever is left to save. The student finds their draft again by reopening the prompt.

The draft stays for the student alone. The teacher only reads it once the copy has been submitted, as the screen says: “Your teacher will read your text once submitted, never before.”

The limits of the text

The text can have 10,000 visible characters at most. A counter shows this under the text area, in the form “1200 / 10000 characters”. Beyond that, the counter turns red and the screen says: “Your text exceeds 10000 characters: shorten it so it can be saved.” As long as the text is too long, it is no longer saved and “Submit” stays greyed out: the last saved version is the one that remains.

The formatting bar offers “Bold”, “Italic”, “Underline”, two types of list, three alignments, a text colour and highlighting. Too many colours or too much highlighting make the text heavy, and the screen says so (“Your formatting is too heavy: remove some colours or highlighting so the text can be saved.”). Here too, the text is no longer saved as long as the formatting stays too heavy.

Submitting: what it changes

The “Submit” button stays greyed out as long as the copy is empty, that is, with no text and no file. By clicking, the student opens a confirmation window: “After submitting, you will no longer be able to change your text. Your teacher will be able to read it.” “Close” closes it without submitting anything.

After submission, the card takes the “Submitted” label and the screen says “You submitted your writing on”, followed by the date, then “It can no longer be changed.” The files are frozen too (“Your files were submitted with your copy: they can no longer change.”).

The student cannot undo a submission. Only the teacher can reopen the copy, after correcting it. The page about the correction explains how the copy then comes back to the student.

Confirmation window Submit your writing? with the Submit and Close buttons

No mark, no automatic analysis

A writing task does not get a mark out of 20. No program analyses it: the teacher reads and corrects it themselves, then publishes an assessment on four levels (“Very good”, “Good”, “OK”, “Could do better”) and remarks.

A closed prompt, or a deactivated account

When the teacher has set a deadline, the card shows it (“Submit before …”). After that date, the label becomes “Closed” and the button “Read again”. The screen explains: “This writing task closed on”, followed by the date, then “: you can no longer write or submit. Your draft stays visible to you only.”

If the teacher reopens a student’s copy so that they can revise it, that student can write and submit again, even after the prompt has closed. When the account is deactivated, the “Practice” entry is greyed out. If the account is deactivated while the page is open, the screen says “Your account is deactivated: you can read, but not write or submit.”

If a file is refused

Each refusal appears in red under the drop zone. When several files are chosen at once, they are sent one after the other, and sending stops at the first refusal.

The format is unknown (“Unsupported format: a JPEG, PNG or WebP photo, or a PDF.”).
The photo is in HEIC format (“HEIC photos are not accepted: set your phone to “Most compatible” or send a JPEG photo.”). Set the phone as the message says, or send a JPEG photo.
There are already 10 photos (“Too many photos: at most 10 per copy.”). Remove one before adding another.
The copy already contains a PDF (“Only one PDF per copy: remove the current one before adding another.”).
The copy mixes photos and a PDF (“Photos or a PDF, not both.”). Remove one kind to add the other.
The PDF is larger than 20 MB (“PDF too large (maximum 20 MB).”) or longer than 30 pages (“PDF too long: at most 30 pages.”).
A photo is larger than 5 MB (“File too large for this media type (image): 5 MB at most.”).
The file cannot be read (“This photo cannot be read: try taking another one.” or “This PDF cannot be read.”), or its content does not match its extension (“The file content does not match its extension.”).

A page that had stayed open can also show “This writing task is closed: you can no longer write or submit.” or “You have already submitted your copy; it can no longer be changed.” The copy is then in the state described above. If the “Writing tasks” section shows “Writing tasks are not available right now. The rest of Practice is working.”, reload the page a little later.