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The map of the CELPIP Speaking test: eight tasks, the exact preparation and speaking time for each, the four scoring areas, and a three-recording diagnostic to find out where you are before the course starts.
This page is the map. It tells you what the Speaking test looks like from the inside, what each of the eight tasks is asking for, and how to make three recordings today so that you know where you are starting from.
Nothing here needs to be memorised. It needs to be read once, carefully, so that nothing on test day is a surprise.
CELPIP's own format page gives the Speaking test 15 minutes, and lists it as the last of the four components: Listening, Reading, Writing, then Speaking, all in one sitting.
Eight tasks, each with its own preparation time and speaking time shown on screen. Before the eight, a short practice task that is not scored, so you can set your volume and hear your own voice.
You read the question yourself. CELPIP notes that test takers are required to read the questions in the Speaking test, so the prompt is on screen in front of you and nobody reads it aloud.
You speak to a computer. Your answers are recorded and rated afterwards by examiners. There is no person in the room listening to you, and the people around you are doing the same thing at the same time.
Two bars on screen. One shows how much speaking time you have left. The other moves with your voice and shows your microphone level.
The test moves by itself. When preparation time ends, recording starts. When speaking time ends, recording stops. You cannot go back to an earlier task.
| Task | Name | Prepare | Speak |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Giving Advice | 30 s | 90 s |
| 2 | Talking about a Personal Experience | 30 s | 60 s |
| 3 | Describing a Scene | 30 s | 60 s |
| 4 | Making Predictions | 30 s | 60 s |
| 5, Part 1 | Comparing and Persuading, choose | 60 s | none |
| 5, Part 2 | Comparing and Persuading, persuade | 60 s | 60 s |
| 6 | Dealing with a Difficult Situation | 60 s | 60 s |
| 7 | Expressing Opinions | 30 s | 90 s |
| 8 | Describing an Unusual Situation | 30 s | 60 s |
Three things to notice, because each one surprises people who did not know it.
Tasks 1 and 7 are ninety seconds, not sixty. A plan built for sixty seconds runs out with half a minute left.
Tasks 5 and 6 give you a full minute to prepare. That is twice what the other tasks give. Use all of it.
Task 5 Part 1 has preparation time and no speaking time at all. You read two options, you choose one, and then Part 2 begins with a new option you have not seen. It is the strangest thing in the test and it is on the Task 5 page in full.
Use the practice task for this, not Task 1.
Every answer is rated in four areas, and CELPIP publishes the factors inside each one.
| Content and Coherence | Vocabulary | Listenability | Task Fulfillment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of ideas | Word choice | Rhythm, pronunciation, and intonation | Relevance |
| Quality of ideas | Suitable use of words and phrases | Pauses, interjections, and self-correction | Completeness |
| Organization of ideas | Range of words and phrases | Grammar and sentence structure | Tone |
| Examples and supporting details | Precision and accuracy | Variety of sentence structure | Length |
No weighting between the four is published. Nobody can tell you which one matters most, because CELPIP does not say.
Two of those sixteen words explain more of the course than the rest. Length is a named factor, which is why finishing early costs you and being cut off by the clock does not. Tone is a named factor, which is why the way you speak to a friend and the way you speak to a manager are both being listened to.
The full page on scoring, with the three factors that most often separate a Level 8 from a Level 9, is Scoring and Performance Standards.
🎥 The same question answered twice, and only three things change (11:28)
The sixteen factors, then two answers to one question with the examiners' own notes read against them. Watch this before the three recordings below, and you will hear your own recordings differently.
One line each, taken from the official description of the task, with the number only where CELPIP publishes one. Each links to its full lesson.
| Task | What it asks for |
|---|---|
| 1 Giving Advice | Speak directly to the person. At least three suggestions, each with something specific inside it. A friend's voice. |
| 2 Personal Experience | Tell a story about a past experience, and get your listener to feel how you felt. You are allowed to make it up. |
| 3 Describing a Scene | Describe what is happening. One line for the whole place, then a few groups in detail. Present tense only. |
| 4 Making Predictions | Same picture as Task 3. Describe what you think will happen next, and what the people will feel. |
| 5 Comparing and Persuading | Choose one of two options in silence, then persuade someone that yours is better than the one they propose. |
| 6 Difficult Situation | Explain a decision to a friend, family member, acquaintance or customer. Directly, considerately, and firmly. |
| 7 Expressing Opinions | Decide yes or no quickly, then about three reasons for that side, and stay on it. |
| 8 Unusual Situation | Describe something strange to a person who cannot see it. The whole thing first, then the parts. |
Two of the eight tasks publish a number, and both say three. No other task gives you a number, so on the rest the question is never how many, it is how well.
The eighteen mistakes that cost good speakers the most points across all eight tasks are collected on Common Errors and How to Fix Them.
Most advice gives you one structure for all eight tasks. The tasks do not work that way.
Six tasks want a position or a choice, and then support for it. Tasks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7. You open, you develop your points, and you let the clock end it.
Two tasks are descriptions, and there are no reasons in them at all. Tasks 3 and 8. You say what the whole thing is, then move through the parts in one direction.
Forcing reasons onto a picture, or forcing a wide shot onto an opinion, is the most common structural mistake in this test. The full method for both shapes, and what to write in your preparation time on every task, is on Fast Planning for Tasks.
Before you read any task lesson, record three answers with a real timer. Do not prepare beyond the preparation time. Do not re-record. Save the audio.
The point is not to do well. The point is to have a recording of where you started, so that in three weeks you can hear the difference.
1. Task 1, Giving Advice. 30 seconds to prepare, 90 to speak.
Your friend has just started a new job and is nervous about giving a short presentation every Monday. Give at least three suggestions, and say something specific inside each one.
2. Task 2, Personal Experience. 30 seconds to prepare, 60 to speak.
Tell a story about a time you got lost, or a time something did not go to plan on a journey. Say where and when, what happened, and give your listener the thing that made you feel the way you felt.
3. Task 7, Expressing Opinions. 30 seconds to prepare, 90 to speak.
Do you think your city should make public transit free for everyone under 18? Decide yes or no, give about three reasons, and stay on that side.
Listen back once and answer these. Be honest and do not fix anything yet.
Content and Coherence. Did I open with content, or with a sentence about how I was about to begin? Does every idea have something specific inside it, or did I name topics?
Vocabulary. Did I say things, stuff, good, really good, a little bit? Could I have said what the thing actually was?
Listenability. Are my sentences joined only with and, so, but? Is there a single although, which, if or whereas anywhere?
Task Fulfillment. Did I speak to the person, or about them? Did I use the whole time, or finish early and sit in silence? Did I end on a summary nobody asked for?
Most people find the same two or three answers on all three recordings. Those are your course.
Can I redo a task? No. The test moves forward by itself when the time ends.
Is the practice task scored? No. It is there so you can set your volume and hear yourself.
What if other people are speaking around me? That is normal, and it is what the practice task is for. Speak at a steady, natural volume. The microphone is close to your mouth.
What if I finish early? Add one more specific detail to the idea you are already on. Do not add a summary, and do not start a new idea you cannot finish.
What if the clock cuts me off? Nothing, as long as you have covered what the task asked. An answer can be cut off mid-sentence and still score at the top of the scale. Silence at the end costs you; being interrupted does not.
Microphone placed, level bar moving in the middle range
I know which two tasks are ninety seconds
I know which two tasks give me a full minute to prepare
I know that Task 5 Part 1 has no speaking time
Three baseline recordings saved
I have written down the two or three things I heard in all three
Next: Scoring and Performance Standards, then Fast Planning for Tasks. After those two, go to whichever task your three recordings found hardest.