The CELPIP test comes in two forms, the CELPIP General Test and the CELPIP General Listening and Speaking. Notably, there is no academic form of the CELPIP test, but some of the sections require the knowledge of advanced or specialist vocabulary. Most CELPIP test takers in Dubai need the full CELPIP General Test, and this is because most applicants are applying for permanent residence or a student visa.
CELPIP was developed in Canada as a multiuse English proficiency test, and CELPIP stands for Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program.
The test takes approximately three hours and assesses functional listening, reading, writing, and speaking proficiency. Interestingly, the test is relatively new in Dubai with the first CELPIP test being held in January 2017.
CELPIP is completed on a computer at a test centre. In addition, the test taker is given a pencil and paper to take notes during the test, and marking of the listening and reading tests is done by the computer whereas the speaking and writing sections are marked by a human examiner in Canada.
| PART AND TYPE | DESCRIPTION | QUESTIONS | TIMING | Strategy/Tips | |
| Practice Task | Practice listening and answering a question.
|
1 |
1 minute | This is just to familiarize the test-taker with the structure and interface. | |
|
1 | Listening to Problem Solving (11 audio clips) | Listen to a dialogue and answer 8 questions. The dialogue and questions are divided into 3 sections.
|
8 |
8 minutes | Take notes of the key points that you think might come up in the questions. Times, dates, decisions, and main issues mentioned in the dialogue are particularly worth noting down. |
| 2 | Listening to a Daily Life Conversation (6 audio clips)
| Listen to a dialogue and answer 5 questions. |
5 |
5 minutes | Good general English conversation listening skills will help you with this task. Idiomatic language and phrasal verbs are common. |
| 3 | Listening for Information (7 audio clips)
| Listen to a longer dialogue and answer 6 questions. |
6 |
6 minutes | These four sections are longer sections and require good notetaking skills and an understanding of more advanced, often academic, vocabulary.
They seem to focus mainly on issues and stories which affect Canadians or appear in the Canadian news. Revising the Academic Word List (AWL) and keeping up to date with Canadian news are some of the best ways to prepare.
Listening to Canadian news or social podcasts on a daily basis should really give your scores a boost in these sections (https://player.fm/countries/canada). |
| 4 | Listening to a News Item (1 audio clip)
| Listen to a news item and answer 5 questions. | 5 | 5 minutes | |
|
5 | Listening to a Discussion (1 video clip)
| Listen to and watch a discussion between three people and answer 8 questions.
|
8 |
6 minutes | |
| 6 | Listening to Viewpoints (1 audio clip)
| Listen to a report and answer 6 questions. | 6 | 8 minutes | |
| Unscored Items* | Unknown |
| PART AND TYPE | DESCRIPTION | QUESTIONS | SUGGESTED TIME | Strategy/Tips | |
| Practice Task | Practice reading and answering a question. | 1 | 1 minute | This is just to familiarize the test-taker with the structure and interface. | |
|
1 | Reading Correspondence (2 passages) | First read a message and answer 6 questions; then read a response message and fill in 5 blanks by selecting the best choice. |
11 |
11 minutes | The passages are letters or emails and are either personal (informal general English) or business/organizational (formal business English). A general/business English course would be the best way to prepare for this section. |
| 2 | Reading to Apply a Diagram (1 passage and 1 image) | Read a message, refer to the diagram, and find the best answers for the questions. | 8 | 9 minutes | The ability to read quickly for details, or scanning, is most useful here. |
| 3 | Reading for Information (1 passage) | Read a text and decide which paragraph (if any) supports each statement. | 9 | 10 minutes | Skimming and scanning skills are helpful here. First, skimming to assess the most likely paragraph to read first. Second, scanning to confirm that the supporting evidence is there. |
|
4 | Reading for Viewpoints (2 passages) | First, read an opinion report and answer 5 questions; then read a response and fill in the 5 blanks by selecting the best choice. |
10 |
13 minutes | This section requires advanced academic vocabulary and the ability to use the context to predict the meaning of unknown words. |
| Unscored Items* | Unknown | Unscored items will be a repetition of one of the other sections. Candidates will not know which items are scored and unscored so should work equally hard on all sections. | |||
| Task And Type | Description | Word Count | Timing | Strategy/Tips | |
| 1 | Writing an Email | Write an email regarding day-to-day matters.
| 150–200 words | 27 minutes | A good business English course focused on email writing will help improve scores for both of these sections. Students should also make sure they can write well in an informal style with the use of idioms and phrasal verbs. Grammar, structure, and coherence seem to be marked fairly strictly, so revision of these areas is important before taking the test. Thankfully, there is a spellcheck so this is a bonus for students with issues in this area. |
| 2 | Responding to Survey Questions | Respond to an opinion survey regarding commonly encountered issues and justify your choice.
| 150–200 words | 26 minutes |
| TASK AND TYPE | DESCRIPTION | PREPARATION TIME (seconds) | SPEAKING TIME*(seconds) | Strategy/Tips | |
| Practice Task | Practice speaking into the microphone. | 30 | 60 | This is just to familiarize the test-taker with the structure and interface. | |
| 1 | Giving Advice | Help someone to either make a decision or prepare for something. | 30 | 90 | Revise language for advice including modal verbs. |
| 2 | Talking about a Personal Experience | Tell a story about a past experience. | 30 | 60 | Learn the narrative tenses (past simple, past continuous, and past perfect). |
| 3 | Describing a Scene | Look at an illustration and describe what is happening. | 30 | 60 | Review the use of the present continuous. |
| 4 | Making Predictions | Look at the same illustration and describe what you think will happen. | 30 | 60 | Language for predicting the uncertain near future is needed here (simple future and other expressions for predictions). |
| 5 | Comparing and Persuading | First, choose which option you wish to promote. Then, persuade someone to agree with the choice you have made. | 60 to choose 60 to prepare | 60 | Comparative and superlative adjectives are useful here. |
| 6 | Dealing with a Difficult Situation | Explain a decision to a friend, family member, or colleague. | 60 | 60 | Revising language for apologizing and diplomatically and politely explaining reasons will help candidates in this section. |
| 7 | Expressing Opinions | Explain why you agree or disagree with a statement. | 30 | 90 | Keeping up to date with the Canadian news will help test-takers feel prepared to speak about the likely topics in this section. |
|
8 | Describing an Unusual Situation | Describe a picture of an unusual item or situation to someone who cannot see the picture. |
30 |
60 | Knowing a good range of descriptive adjectives will help candidates to describe what frequently seem to be images of obscure objects. |
Time management is essential in the CELPIP test. There is a countdown timer in the top corner of each section of the test, so keep an eye on the time to avoid losing marks.
A good way to prepare for the CELPIP listening test is to listen to Canadian news broadcasts. Most of the accents in the CELPIP test are Canadian, so the best way to practice is by listening to native speakers. Listening to British or American speakers will help but listening to native Canadians is the most authentic practice. Students can find Canadian podcasts and news broadcasts online. Your CELPIP tutor should be able to help you find some useful sources, and there are some useful links included below:
Some sections of the reading test involve the ability to quickly understand the overall gist of the passage. Being able to recognise the flow of meaning and changes in topic through the text is also important in CELPIP reading. Students should practice their skimming skills in order to save time and maximise their scores.
Other sections are more focused on the ability to pick out specific details quickly. The reading texts in the CELPIP test are reasonably long, and test takers will need good scanning skills to master these sections. Students will need lots of practice of the scanning activities during their CELPIP preparation.
The third and fourth parts of the CELPIP reading test include specialist vocabulary which can often seem quite academic. Students targeting a 9+ band score should try to expand their academic vocabulary by looking at the Academic Word List (AWL). Any good preparation course should include vocabulary building activities. Alternatively, the test publisher, Paragon, have released a useful vocabulary book which focuses on words likely to appear in the test. The text claims to focus more on specifically Canadian terms. One of the best ways to build your reading skills is to make sure you’re getting some passive English reading practice on a daily basis. The test frequently includes articles and questions related to items which appear in the Canadian news. This means that the best passive CELPIP reading practice involves reading the Canadian newspapers online or listening to Canadian news broadcasts.
CELPIP speaking preparation involves focusing on the structure of your recordings. A good CELPIP preparation course should advise students on how best to organise their responses. All the responses should have an introduction, body, and conclusion. Most students will need to practice each question type a number of times to be able to organise their response well.
Each speaking question type focuses on a particular language function or grammatical construct. Students should be aware of this before taking the test. Thus, practising the specific tenses (e.g. present continuous for task 3) or functions (apologising and explaining for task 6) will help improve the band score.
Lastly, a good way to practice is to record yourself completing tasks on a smart phone. Next, listen back to the recordings critically, and try to assess your grammar, pronunciation, and structure. Listening to yourself in a foreign language can help you identify the phonemes or sounds you are mispronouncing.
CELPIP writing test focuses mainly on business and general English.
Each of the two tasks has an advised paragraph structure, and it is really important to learn the structure and follow it during the CELPIP writing test. Furthermore, leave a full empty line between each paragraph and follow accepted word processing conventions.
In addition, brushing up on grammar before the writing test is also a good idea. Only use sentences you feel confident are grammatically correct. It is important to use a mixture of simple, compound, and complex sentences. This will improve your score in the Readability section.
Make sure you pay attention to the question prompt. Analysing the question fully will help you decide on the appropriate level of formality. Tone and register are very important in the CELPIP writing test. For example, business emails require a much more formal tone and register than those to friends or family.
Due to the straightforward nature of the reading and listening questions, marking is carried out entirely by the computer. All the question types are multiple-choice or choosing options from a drop-down menu.
A useful table for calculating CELPIP reading and listening band scores* can be found below:
| LISTENING SCORE /38 | READING SCORE /38 | CELPIP LEVEL |
| 35-38 | 33-38 | 10-12 |
| 33-34 | 31-32 | 9 |
| 30-32 | 28-30 | 8 |
| 27-29 | 24-27 | 7 |
| 22-26 | 19-23 | 6 |
| 17-21 | 15-18 | 5 |
| 11-16 | 10-14 | 4 |
| 7-10 | 8-9 | 3 |
| 0-6 | 0-7 | M |
*Scoring for the actual exams may vary and this table is meant only as a guide.
The CELPIP writing and speaking tests are marked by CELPIP examiners in Canada and according to 4 criteria, details of which can be found on the official CELPIP website. Once the writing has been marked by two separate examiners, the scores are averaged to provide the final band score.
| CELPIP LEVEL | CELPIP DESCRIPTOR | CLB DESCRIPTOR | CLB LEVEL | PTE EQUIVALENT
| IELTS EQUIVALENT |
| 11, 12 | Advanced proficiency in workplace and community contexts | Fluent advanced proficiency | 12 | 86+ | 9 |
| 11, 12 | Advanced proficiency in workplace and community contexts | Adequate advanced proficiency | 11 | 83+ | 8.5 |
| 10 | Highly effective proficiency in workplace and community contexts | Developing advanced proficiency | 10 | 79+ | 8 |
| 9 | Effective proficiency in workplace and community contexts | Initial advanced proficiency | 9 | 73+ | 7.5 |
| 8 | Good proficiency in workplace and community contexts | Fluent intermediate proficiency | 8 | 65+ | 7.0 |
| 7 | Adequate proficiency in workplace and community contexts | Adequate intermediate proficiency | 7 | 58+ | 6 |
| 6 | Developing proficiency in workplace and community contexts | Developing intermediate proficiency | 6 | 54+ | 5.5 |
| 5 | Acquiring proficiency in workplace and community contexts | Initial intermediate proficiency | 5 | 50+ | 5 |
| 4 | Adequate proficiency for basic daily life activities | Fluent basic proficiency | 4 | 28+ | 4 |
| 3 | Some proficiency in limited contexts | Adequate basic proficiency | 3 | N/A | 3 |
| M | Minimal proficiency or insufficient information to assess | Initial or developing basic proficiency | 0, 1, 2 | N/A | 1-2 |
