CELPIP TEST TYPES AND FORMAT: A BRIEF OVERVIEW

CELPIP is one of the English language tests that are conducted to assess the proficiency of the aspirants seeking immigration to Canada. This is one of the recent additions in the whole pack of tests offered internationally. This test is administered by PARAGON Testing Enterprises through only online mode in Canada and outside Canada as well. The test is officially designated by the Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada. There are thousands of test centers across Canada.

CELPIP (The Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program) has two variants – General Test and General LS. The test is almost 3 hours long comprising of four sections for General Test variant. The sections are Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing.  While for General LS, there are only two sections Listening and Speaking. And this variant is of approximately 01 hours long. Both tests are to be attempted in one single seating only. The fee for both tests also is different.

The Speaking section has 08 question types – personal experience (experience of a long arduous journey), giving advice (advice on part-time jobs), comparing and persuading (which mobile to purchase), expressing opinions (opinions on permission to teenagers to consume alcohol), describing a scene (of any classroom, shipyard, floods, accident, concert), making predictions (on the previous scene only), handling a difficult situation (to choose between attending birthday bash with friends or family) and describing an unusual scene (a scene of ship flying). The duration of each question varies from 60-90 seconds.

The Writing module has two questions only – writing an email on a theme outside the home context (a mail to the manager of a mall regarding bad upkeep and inadequate facilities) and writing on one of the options given on a survey question (the barren piece of land outside the town to be converted into an airport or university?).

The Listening part has 06 questions – daily life problem (looking for a particular route), viewpoints (views on the protection of bees), video discussion ( on any academic, political, social issue), news item( about some discovery/invention), report and problem-solving (conversation about some health, family or living problem). Each question type has MCQ exercises with four options.

The Reading section 04 question types – reading for correspondence (a mail regarding employment, notice, complaint, wedding, and response to this mail), reading for viewpoints (on any academic, social, political, sports, medical issue), reading for information and apply to a diagram (filling the details taking cues from the diagram given). Here again, all are MCQ-type exercises with 04 options given.

Both Reading and Listening have 38 questions. Each question carries 01 mark. Hence the scoring is calculated on the total of the score in each module.

CELPIP is considered to be the easiest test as compared to PTE and IELTS. The only requirement is being accustomed to using the computer, and some practice on handling some technical issues of getting one’s voice recorded, and enough speed of typing the answers in the writing section.

The best way to crack the CELPIP Test is Practice, practice, and Practice. Because Practice is the key to success. Every day do at least one CELPIP Practice Test and achieve the target score in the exams.