Eight recorded tasks in fifteen minutes. No examiner, no second take, and a preparation window measured in seconds.
Time
15 minutes
Questions
8 tasks
Parts
8
Marked by
Human raters
Eight tasks, fifteen minutes, and a microphone. You never meet an examiner: prompts appear on screen, a timer runs, and your answers are recorded for raters to score afterwards.
| Task | Name | Preparation | Response |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Giving Advice | 30 seconds | 90 seconds |
| 2 | Talking about a Personal Experience | 30 seconds | 60 seconds |
| 3 | Describing a Scene | 30 seconds | 60 seconds |
| 4 | Making Predictions | 30 seconds | 60 seconds |
| 5 | Comparing and Persuading | 60 seconds to choose, then 60 seconds to prepare | 60 seconds on the second screen |
| 6 | Dealing with a Difficult Situation | 60 seconds | 60 seconds |
| 7 | Expressing Opinions | 30 seconds | 90 seconds |
| 8 | Describing an Unusual Situation | 30 seconds | 60 seconds |
Task 5 is the irregular one. Its first screen gives you sixty seconds to choose between two options and nothing to say out loud; the speaking happens on the second screen.
Advise one person about a situation. One of only two tasks that give you a full 90 seconds.
Tell a story from your own life. Past tenses, in order, with one thing that actually happened.
Describe a picture to someone who cannot see it. Position language carries the whole answer.
Say what happens next in the scene you just described. Future forms, and a reason for each one.
The odd one out: on the first screen you only choose between two options and say nothing at all.
Someone has to be disappointed. Choose who, say it politely, and leave the relationship intact.
Take a position and defend it for a minute and a half. The other long task, and the one that rewards structure.
Describe something odd in a picture to someone who needs to understand it without seeing it.
Each response is rated separately on four dimensions: Content/Coherence, Vocabulary, Listenability, Task Fulfillment.
Human-rated on Content/Coherence, Vocabulary, Listenability and Task Fulfillment.
The level you get is reported on its own, from 1 to 12, and for levels 3 and above it is the same number as your Canadian Language Benchmark. See the speaking scoring page for the detail.
Worked examples with answers and explanations are on the CELPIP speaking samples page.
Written by Kirill O'Nayd
English test expert and educator at TestSucceed, where he builds the CELPIP practice tasks and mock tests and has spent years taking apart how Canada's immigration English tests award their points. See all TestSucceed preparation materials.