The most recent is the French exam (6)
I believe the answer is:
latest
'the most recent' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'the french exam' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'la'.
'exam' becomes 'test' (synonyms).
'la'+'test'='LATEST'
'is' is the link.
(Other definitions for latest that I've seen before include "Most up to the minute" , "hot bit of news" , "Of most recent date" , "delayed more than all others" , "coming after all the others" .)