Reading Correspondence

A letter or email, then a short reply to complete. The second set of questions is answered from the first text.

How the task works

Time

11 minutes

Counts as

11 questions, asked as 6 then 5

Preparation

None

Section

Reading

A letter or email, then a short reply with gaps. Eleven questions, asked as six on the first text and five on the reply, in eleven minutes.

The reply is completed using information from the first text, so the two halves are one task, not two.

Strategy that works

Read the first text properly. Five of the eleven marks depend on it twice over.
Work out the relationship — friend, colleague, company to customer — because register drives several answers.
For the reply, match the gap to the specific fact it refers back to, not to the general topic.

What costs marks

Skimming the letter and then hunting back through it under time pressure.
Choosing a drop-down option that fits the sentence grammatically but contradicts the first text.
Spending five of the eleven minutes on the first two questions.

Practise it

Worked examples of this task, with answers and explanations, are on the CELPIP reading samples page. The rest of the section is set out on the CELPIP reading description page.

Common questions

How long do I get?

11 minutes.

Do I type the answers?

No. Reading answers are chosen from drop-down lists, and a wrong answer costs nothing, so never leave one blank.

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.