Yes, French is always spoken extremely fast. It took me years to start to get the hang of it, and I agree, it is not always the best teaching strategy to throw people in the cold water and watch them sink. It is discouraging, and teaching should never be that. If you use kwiziq to study French, there should be well articulated texts read reasonably slowly (definitely more slowly than in everyday speech among natives). Those texts ought to pick up in speed and "slang" gradually, until they reach full normal speed by B2 or C1. Maybe it would also be helpful to offer a slow version and a normal version of each text.

Note to kwiziq team: these texts seem to be discouraging many students.