How to Prepare for the CRPE or the IRA Concours: A Realistic Study Plan

Preparing for the CRPE or the IRA concours means treating the written and oral stages as two separate skills to build, not one continuous effort, because both concours eliminate candidates on weak written scores and then weight the oral stage heavily in the final ranking. A realistic plan works backward from the exam calendar, splits time deliberately between disciplinary or reasoning content and oral performance, and treats the official notice as the single source of truth on what is actually being tested.

Start from the official notice, not general advice

Every session’s exact syllabus, coefficients, and elimination thresholds are set in that session’s official notice, published on devenirenseignant.gouv.fr for the CRPE and on the central IRA registration portal for the IRA concours. General preparation advice, including this article, describes how the exam is structured in principle; the notice for your specific session is what actually governs your exam. Read it before building a study plan, not after.

Treat the written stage as elimination-avoidance first

For the CRPE, a score at or below 5 out of 20 on any of the three ecrits is eliminatory on its own, as explained in CRPE scoring explained. That means the first goal of written preparation is not maximising your best subject, it is making sure no single test drags you below the threshold. Spend early preparation time honestly assessing which of French, mathematics and your chosen application subject is weakest, and prioritise that one first. The IRA written stage works differently in content, a cas pratique, a QCM and short-answer questions, but the same principle applies: a badly prepared component can sink an otherwise strong candidate.

Build oral skills early, not at the end

Both concours weight the oral stage heavily, roughly two thirds of the final CRPE score and a decisive share of the IRA outcome, so treating oral preparation as something to start only after the written results come out leaves too little time. For the CRPE, that means practising an actual lesson demonstration (expose) on primary-school content in front of another person, not just reading about pedagogy. For the IRA concours, that means practising how you would talk through a cas pratique out loud and rehearsing how to discuss public policy questions and professional simulations under time pressure, since the oral interview format rewards fluency under pressure that silent reading does not build.

Use a realistic calendar, not an ideal one

Work backward from the actual dates published in your session’s notice: ecrits first, then a gap before oraux. Counting down accurately to those dates, rather than working from a vague sense of “later this year,” helps allocate remaining preparation time honestly between the written and oral phases; a tool like an exam countdown can help keep that timeline concrete rather than abstract.

Decide which track you are actually preparing for

Preparation differs meaningfully depending on which track you are registering under. A CRPE externe candidate coming straight from a licence or master pathway needs a different balance of academic review versus classroom practice than a second concours interne candidate who already has teaching experience; the differences are explained in CRPE externe vs interne. Similarly, an IRA externe candidate needs more general-knowledge and case-study practice than an interne or troisieme concours candidate who can lean on formally recognised professional experience during the oral, as covered in IRA externe, interne, troisieme concours.

Plan for the possibility of a retake

Since neither concours limits the number of attempts, it is worth building a preparation plan that treats a first attempt honestly, without either underpreparing on the assumption you can always try again, or over-stressing as if this is a single irreversible shot. If you are not successful, how many times can you take the CRPE explains why a retake is a normal, unrestricted option, and a second attempt built on an honest diagnosis of where you fell short the first time tends to fare better than simply repeating the same preparation unchanged.

Frequently asked questions

Should I prepare for the ecrits and oraux at the same time, or one after another? A blended approach works better than a strictly sequential one, since the oral stage, especially for the CRPE’s lesson demonstration, benefits from practice spread over months rather than compressed into the weeks between ecrits and oraux results.

Is INSPE enrolment required to prepare for the CRPE? No, it is not legally required, but most candidates use the INSPE pathway because it combines the Master MEEF with concours-specific preparation in one structured programme.

How early should I start preparing for the IRA concours? Given the breadth of the QCM’s general-knowledge component and the reasoning demanded by the cas pratique, most candidates benefit from starting several months before the written test rather than compressing preparation into a few weeks.

Does prior professional experience reduce how much preparation I need? It can help specifically with the oral stage for interne and troisieme concours candidates, through the formal recognition of prior experience, but it does not remove the need to prepare for the written tests, which are common across tracks.

Where do I find this year’s exact exam dates to plan around? In your session’s official notice, on devenirenseignant.gouv.fr for the CRPE or the central IRA portal for the IRA concours.