Faq

CELPIP FAQ's

Both IELTS and CELPIP were designed to measure English language proficiency; the difficulty level is approximately the same in both tests. However, certain sections can be viewed as more comfortable or more difficult by individual test-takers. The CELPIP is a purely Canadian and fully computerized test. You can feel the real-time environment by checking our free Celpip Test Practice

Yes, you can retake the CELPIP test. However, all your test sessions must be at least four (4) calendar days apart from the celpip recent exam and after the announcement of the Celpip test result. If this rule dishonoured, the testing authority might cancel the test registration.

The test takes around three hours in one sitting. You will have all the four sections within this timeframe: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. You can not bank your time during the test.

The total time for the Listening Test, including the six scored parts and additional unscored items, is just under an hour.

Several pieces of notepaper are provided to you at the test centre. You can ask for more if required.

Four of the main Listening parts are based on conversations between two or three speakers. The other two components include reports delivered by a single speaker.

Once your time is up, or the test has moved on to the next screen, it is not possible to return to a previous screen in the real Celpip test.

You should answer each question, even if you don’t know the correct answer. Don’t leave any question blank. Although you should try your hardest on each question, it’s fine to guess on questions you’re unsure of.

If you’re unsure of a question on the Listening Test, there’s no penalty for guessing. You can even narrow down your choices for a higher chance of being correct. For example, if you can eliminate two choices that are obviously incorrect, you’ve now got a 50% chance of being correct!

If you come across words you don't think about, don't worry. Instead, try to pay attention to the words you know. You should still be able to understand the general situation, even if you don't remember every word.

Keep an eye out for paraphrases and audio details summaries. Those are likely to appear in any of the questions. So if you have some time left over after your questions, take the time to double-check your responses.

Questions about general information pertaining to the overall meaning of the passage, not specific actions or words.

In the Listening Test, try to remember or note down important words and phrases from the audio clip. These terms may be used later in questions about specific information.

Questions in these parts will present as audio-only; you won’t be able to read them. So, carefully listen to the questions in Listening Parts 1, 2, and 3.; however, you will be able to read the questions in Listening Parts 4, 5, and 6 of the Celpip test.

The video in Listening Part 5 is clearly intended to provide a context for the situation. Don't think about the small facts of the scenario; rather than that, emphasis on the facial expressions and voice characteristics of the speakers. This could give you hints as to who holds what opinion during the conversation.

While they definitely have some parallels, the significant difference between these two sections is that the Listening Part 6 includes different viewpoints on a contentious subject. Be prepared to listen to these opinions — they are likely to recur in some of the questions. On the other hand, Listening to Part 4 is a more straightforward news story.

Understanding to learn the test format, including the types of questions you can expect, should help you perform at your best. It will also help to review the general listening, reading, writing and speaking techniques.

Note-taking is for your own benefit, so you should take notes in whatever way is easiest for you. That being said, making charts or webs are good ideas if you’re not sure how to start.

In the test, both Listening Part 1 and Listening Part 2 include conversations between two speakers: a man and a woman. The key differences are that the conversation in Part 1 is split into three parts, while the conversation in Part 2 is just one. In comparison, Part 1 deals with the solution of a problem, whereas Part 2 deals with the circumstance of everyday life. However, irrespective of the listening aspect, it is useful to take notes!

Unlike Listening Part 1, the speakers in Listening Part 2 won’t necessarily be trying to resolve a problem. Instead, they’ll only be having a daily life conversation, such as planning an event or going shopping.

Remember that CELPIP tests your general English skills; that is, it tests your ability to use English in natural, daily contexts. You will NOT need to memorize any CELPIP Test content. Indeed, using memorized chunks of language in your replies to Speaking or Writing may actually hurt your score. Using pre-formed phrases and expressions won't allow you to prove your real English ability accurately.

It actually depends on your English level, and how much free time you have. People taking the CELPIP Test come from a wide variety of backgrounds and contexts, and so everyone’s study schedules and needs will be a bit different. While deciding on a study schedule, you should consider your general English level, your work and homelife situation, and how much free time you can realistically devote to studying in a week.

Even though if you feel your English skill is enough to get the score you need, it's still a good idea to try out a practice test and familiarize yourself with the test's engineering. That way, on test day, you won't have surprises and will be best able to fully demonstrate your English skills! So, it is recommended to try out a few practice tests to familiarize yourself with the test format.

You must try to fit it around your responsibilities to work and to your family. Take a look at your other commitments each week for the most stress-free study schedule, and determine what time you can realistically use to study. This may only be an hour every few nights for some people. Weekends may be the only days off for others. Regardless, adhere with your schedule once you've chosen one!

We can study a variety of different ways, and all of us have different preferences. To keep track of new vocabulary, you might try using flashcards or keeping a journal. Studying with peers can often be an excellent way to determine your own strengths and weaknesses — especially in speaking and writing — and the more you keep to a schedule, the more effective your study becomes. On the other hand, while you're studying, avoid multitasking, especially with something just as distracting as television or social media.

Studying in distracting places — in our bedrooms, with the TV or friends around us, etc.—can be extremely tempting, but this is a poor strategy. Distracted studying is not only an inefficient use of time, but also less information will be retained. Instead, be intent on finding a quiet place away from regular distractions. Try a library, a storeroom, a park, or an empty classroom, for example!

As you prepare for CELPIP, be sure to focus mainly on the areas you find most challenging. Also, you should try to find out what you find most helpful when studying. Some people prefer studying alone, but studying peer groups can also be a great way to understand your strengths and weaknesses — especially for speaking and writing. And last but not least, the more time you give yourself before the test, the more effectively you can improve your English.

All the test centres have a partition for each test-taker, however, during the speaking module of the test sometime candidate speaks loudly and may create a nuisance for others. Test invigilators take care to maintain the comfort zone for test taker by showing them billboard to speak slowly.  Remember that it may not be completely silent the whole time when you take the CELPIP Test, so it may be helpful to become comfortable with a low background speaking level. For this, Studying at a coffee shop offers a couple different benefits. You can practice your speaking while placing your order, and by listening to the chatter around you, you can pick up new terms. Also, you may get used to a certain level of background noise.

CELPIP tests for general English skills and not computer skills. As long as you have minimal working computer knowledge (how to use a mouse and keyboard), you should be okay. If you are at all concerned about your computer literacy, experimenting with a CELPIP practice test will give you a sense of the (minimum) computer knowledge you will need for the test.

The best way to get a sense of the test's format and functionality is by completing some CELPIP practice tests on a computer. But remember that CELPIP doesn't test your computer literacy, and you don't have to own a computer as you study. Check out your local library or community center if you don't have regular access; they should have computers that you can access for free, and they can even offer computer orientation classes!

Remember using the spell check will ensure the correct spelling of the words in your answer. That does not guarantee, however, that all of your words are correct for the situation. For instance, if you wrote "I saw the bicycle brake", and you meant you saw it fall apart ("break"), then your sentence would be misleading and incorrect. The words "Brake" (to slow down or stop) and "break" (to fall apart) are both spelt correctly, so the spell check would not notify you that anything is wrong.

There's no need to know any keyboard shortcuts; use these only when you feel confident about them. You will only need a typing speed of 5–10 words/minute to complete the CELPIP Writing tasks successfully-and this speed is very achievable! Finally, the Reading Test may require a bit of mouse scrolling to see each passage in its entirety.

Remember if you talk too close to your mouth with the microphone, it can distort your voice. Aim to speak to it about an inch from your mouth. There is no need to speak loudly, a natural sound is sufficient to record as the hardware used by Paragon is of optimum quality.

If your microphone is working correctly, as you speak, a grey bar will move up and down behind the onscreen microphone icon. Before starting the Speaking Test, you'll also have a chance to try out your microphone and playback your voice to make sure it works properly.

One of the best ways to learn new words is to write them down just as they happen to you through the day. Be deliberate about reading and listening to new words during school, working, chatting with friends, etc. If you don't write down the words, you'll probably quickly forget them! Holding new words in a newspaper and/or flashcards collection can make your review of these words much more comfortable. Remember, memorizing words directly from the dictionary isn't an effective strategy, as you won't have any context about their use or frequency.

Although setting goals for learning new vocabulary is good — for example, learning a new word every time you read something difficult — there's no need to establish such a specific goal! Because CELPIP is a general skills test, focus on learning vocabulary that you would use in common everyday situations. So pay attention to vocabulary as you go through daily life — watching television, chatting with friends, shopping, listening to podcasts, etc. You may learn a lot of new words a few days; you may not learn many a few days at all.

Although using the context around it, sharing with a study partner or asking an instructor all these methods might be helpful in determining the meaning of a new word, the most efficient way is simply to check a dictionary. Simply inspecting a dictionary is the most efficient way. The simplest solution is sometimes the best!

Similar to Parts 1, 2, and 3, you can lay out your notes for Listening Part 5, but this time you should include three speakers. Also, try to write down the opinion of each speaker on the topic, as you listen. This will assist you during your questions.

Listening to Part 4 contains a short one-speaker news report. So, answering, answering Who? What? When? Where? and Why? can be very helpful in your notes. In the end, however, you should make notes in style you think will help the most. It could be either making notes in web-shape with the five ‘W’ questions or in a chart-form with the five ‘W’ questions or the entirely different way you like to draw.

Your notes on the Listening Test will never impact your score! You may take as many (or as few) notes as you like, though at least a few notes are recommended. This will probably be of great help to you.

Some types of information will always be present in certain Listening Parts before you listen to the audio. Being aware of that may save you some time beforehand

Listening Part 6 is about identifying different viewpoints. You won’t know beforehand just how many there are, so leave space on your page for additional viewpoints that you hear later in the passage!

For Listening Part 6, there is no set number of viewpoints; it depends on the matter being discussed. Having said that, you can always identify at least two points of view in this part.

Some Listening parts are based on similar contexts, so you might take notes for these in similar ways. There are, however, apparent differences between other Listening parts, so different methods of taking notes are required for this. However, in the end, you should take notes for each part of the Listening in whatever way makes the most sense for you!

Writing in full sentences and writing down every single word you hear will only waste time during the Listening Test. You should be able to write notes quickly and in a concise manner; this will really help you to identify the relevant questions.

Yes, it is true, and you shouldn't bother looking for the same wording as you hear in the conversation or report to listen to questions. These questions often use different words to express the same idea, which is why it is essential that paraphrases are recognizable easily.

A paraphrase is a restatement using different words of something. Identifying them is useful because some of the questions on the hearing test may be paraphrases of the Listening conversation or reporting ideas.

A paraphrase is where you use different words to say the same thing. A summary is when you significantly reduce an idea down to a few words (but it often includes paraphrasing).

Summaries often, they contain paraphrases, and in lesser words, they convey a longer idea with the focus on a topic 's principal idea.

For all these reasons, summaries are useful and learning to identify them quickly will help you in the Listening Test. Although examples and details are important in many situations, they’re not needed in summaries. Summaries focus only on the central idea of a topic.

Remember, a whole Listening passage may contain several main ideas, and you may come across a summary of just one of those ideas. Try identifying these main ideas as you listen; this will help you to recognize summary questions later on.

You will probably find questions in each Listening part that involve summaries and/or paraphrases, but you will not know in which specific questions they are in. A sound understanding of these concepts will help you to recognize when they happen.

The Speaking Test contains one short, unscored practice task at the beginning. This task is meant to help you become familiar with the recording equipment, timers, and Speaking prompts. Total time for the Speaking Test is around 20 minutes, including one practice task and eight scored tasks.

Four Speaking tasks contain images, and four contain just text excluding the practice test. Being aware of these differences beforehand will help with your preparation for the test.

Yes, you can take notes. Several pieces of notepaper are provided to you at the test centre. You can ask for more page if you require.

Correction of errors is a positive thing as long as you do it quickly and not too often. It shows you realize that you have made a mistake and that you know how to correct it. Spending a lot of time fixing errors, however, will interrupt your response flow and prevent you from using that time to answer the question. There is no reason to get upset at yourself if you make a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes when they speak, and the Speaking Test does not need to be perfectly talked about!

Raters consider pauses and hesitancy in the dimension of listenability, the organization of ideas in the dimension of content/coherence and the rising and falling voice of the speaker (intonation) in the dimension of listenability. It is not considered in any dimension to have an accent and will not affect your score as long as it does not interfere with the ability of the listener to understand you.

Cutting off by the timer will only have a negative impact on your Task Fulfillment score if you did not give a complete answer before being cut off. That will have little or no effect otherwise. You should try to speak for the full time, and in Task Fulfillment, you will be penalized if you finish your response long before the time is up.

Slang isn't appropriate in almost every situation. For example, it would not be respectful or polite to use it in a conversation with your boss about something that relates to work. Slang, though, is not a "wrong" or "bad" language: it is a natural part of communication in all languages. It is absolutely fine to use slang in a chat with a friend (and for this reason, it would be entirely acceptable to use slang on the Speaking Test in that type of question).

Straightforward, precise language is exactly what you should be used when giving directions! It is perfectly acceptable to express frustration, as long as you avoid being impolite or unkind.

Intonation is the rising and falling of your voice. English speakers tend to use a lot of intonation, and when you’re speaking into the microphone on the CELPIP Test, it’s essential to try your best to use natural intonation. Imagine that you are talking to somebody and talking to them the way you would in real life. Rhythm is the pace of your speech, and the sounds you make while thinking are interjections. Stopping to stress a key word is called pausing.

You should use your time of preparation to plan your response by considering what you're going to say, the order in which you're going to express your ideas and how you're going to connect those ideas.

There is a need to offer your advice in effective ways that it should sound polite and friendly. Do not sound like someone is giving an order to another.

It will be easier for the raters to follow your response if you can clearly express the order in which things happened. The instructions will often ask you to several things, so if you follow them step-by-step, they will help you organize your response. You should avoid repeating your ideas.

You should start off by making a general statement to help the listener imagine the scene by establishing the setting of the image before talking about specific details.

Absolutely not, In Speaking Task 4, you will see the same image as in Speaking Task 3. This scene needn't be described. Your task is to explain what you think might happen next in the picture. You should clearly identify which portions of the image are about your predictions.

Using prepositional phrases to identify the location of people and things in a picture is an effective way of helping the raters understand your response. For e.g.

Phrases: To the right of, Next to, Slightly below, Beside him, Next to him, At the counter, Just to her right, to the right of these two, etc.

Prepositions: to, at, next to, between, below, beside, in front of etc.

The images are there in Speaking Task 5 to help you understand these two options better. These images are not to be described. You should focus on the written details related to each option. You'll have to compare some of these details to convince somebody that yours is the best choice.

Your aim in this task is to make somebody understand the difficult choice you made, even if he or she is not going to be happy about it. You will need to be careful about how you express yourself and justify your choice. It would be unhelpful to use abusive language to make the other person understand your choice.

Your response must contain the main idea with supporting details. You should use phrases to signal the speaker while introducing a new idea (“First of all” and “In addition”). Then provide detailed explanations to support each opinion. #3 does not use an introductory phrase and lacks details to support the opinion.

As similar to Speaking Task 3: Describing a scene, it is useful to start by giving the listener a general sense of the scene, and by using prepositions to locate different elements of the image. Unlike Speaking Task 3, however, you'll need to do more than simply describe an image. Another part of the instructions will be available, and you must leave enough time to complete all aspects of this task.

The Speaking Test measures your ability in a typical day to day situations to use English. It is not about Business English, Formal English or Academic English. So, you should not be confused or desperate to use too formal language in your test.

Using other words than those in the instructions will show the raters what words you know. Repetition of words in the response of the given instructions may impact your score.

Use of unusual or difficult words is not necessary to perform well on the Speaking Test. The use of a variety of words that sound natural to a situation and have a precise meaning is more important.

When describing a picture, you are trying to create an image in someone’s mind, so you should use words with a precise meaning.

Try speaking on Speaking Test at a normal volume. If you speak too softly, it may be difficult for the raters to hear your response and if you speak too loudly, the recording may get distorted.

On the Speaking Test, just speak at a reasonable pace. If you speak too fast and mispronounce words or phrases, it could be difficult for the raters to understand what you are saying.

FALSE. You should try not to include lots of pauses in your answer. Pauses can disrupt your response rhythm and make the raters confused. Furthermore, extremely long pauses can even imply that you have finished speaking, making your response very unclear in its organization.

Syllable stress refers to where each word places its emphasis. Weak syllable stress can make it much harder to follow your response, and even change the meaning of some words! However, good syllable stress will make it much easier for the raters to determine what you mean.

When you speak, it is natural to use a few interjections. Nevertheless, do not use too many. For example, if after every second word you said 'um' or 'uh,' the raters would find your response very difficult to follow!

Intonation is the sounds you make, rising and falling, every time you say a sentence or phrase. It helps in your speech to express meaning and emotion, and it affects how easily the listener can understand you. Using the right intonation in your answers can help the raters better understand the meaning of your response.

Intonation, Pronunciation, Pauses, Rhythm and Interjections are the factors that contribute to how well your response is understood by raters, which in turn contributes to your score. When you're nervous, it can be easy to forget things like this, so practice in front of a mirror before the test! Nevertheless, do not repeat keywords in your reply — this will just waste time and may make your meaning less clear.

It is absolutely fine to correct yourself during the Speaking Test once in a while. This can even make your response clearer and indicate that you are aware of your errors. However, try not to correct yourself too often; otherwise, it will be quite distracting and could disrupt the response flow.

Try good grammar, but it doesn't have to be perfect. Focusing too much on trying to grammatically perfect one or two sentences might waste a lot of time in your response, so try to strike a balance. Try to avoid the more common grammar errors, but don't worry so much about your grammar that it prevents you from speaking out.

Verb tense, subject-verb agreement, and pronoun references are three grammar areas where test-takers commonly make mistakes, so focusing on them as you practice can help improve the accuracy of your answers.

Try not to use too many short sentences in your reply. You can improve your clarity by connecting these phrases into longer sentences. Moreover, longer sentences can prove your ability to express more complex ideas. But logically connect your sentences. Often, if you have multiple ideas, it is better to leave them in separate sentences.

When you're talking it's fine to use a few interjections — everyone does it to some extent. Just make sure you don't use too many, or your response can get tough to understand.

Try to use transitions in your Speaking responses each time you switch ideas. That will make things for the listener much clearer.

The more detail that you add to your reply, the better. Keep in mind that personal experiences are a great way to complete your response; as long as they are relevant to the task, these experiences don't even have to be true. Give reasons for your explanations by providing supporting examples.

The most recognizable difference between the Low-level response and High-level response is that the High-level speaker follows the instructions for the task, while the Low-level speaker does not follow. Be sure to carefully read the instructions before starting any task.

You should have enough time to finish what you are saying. Try keeping an eye on the recording bar as you speak. That way, you can gage your time well enough to complete your response properly without getting cut off at the very end.

The more precision, the better! Remember the listener can not see the scene in Speaking Task 8, so try to be as descriptive as you can.

If you're ever struggling to describe a situation, try to ask the five W questions to yourself. Who are in the scene? What is going on? When (what time) does the situation occur? Where is the scene in there? Why is those stuff happening?

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