Fast Planning for Tasks

Preparation time feels like time you are not speaking. It is the opposite. What eats your sixty seconds is not talking speed, it is stopping to decide what comes next.

Everything on this page exists to move those decisions into the quiet time before the microphone opens.

First: how much prep time do you actually get?

Most advice says thirty seconds. That is wrong for two tasks, and the difference is large.

Two things to notice. Tasks 5 and 6 give you a full minute to prepare, which is twice what you get elsewhere, so plan to use it rather than sitting still. And Task 5 Part 1 has preparation time and no speaking time at all. You read, you compare, you choose, and then Part 2 begins. It is the strangest thing about the test and it surprises people who have never met it.

When prep time ends the screen moves on by itself, a prompt tells you to start, and recording begins. Nobody says go.

The four decisions, on every task

Whatever the task, you are deciding the same four things.

1. Who am I speaking to?

A friend, a family member, a service agent, a manager, or the public. This sets how formal you sound and how you open.

Five seconds. Do not overthink it.

2. What is the task actually asking?

Read the prompt twice, and look hard at the last sentence, because a second instruction usually hides there.

Some tasks ask you to do one thing. Some ask two. Describe what it looks like, and ask him if he would like to try making one is two jobs, not one. An answer that does the first and forgets the second has done half the task, and it will sound complete while doing it.

Count the instructions, not the sentences. Write the second one down if there is one, in two or three words, so you cannot forget it under pressure.

3. My first sentence

Write your actual opening line, not a note about it. This is the one full sentence worth writing, because the first five seconds are where people freeze.

4. My content plan

This is the part that changes by task, and it is where the old version of this page went wrong.

Two shapes, not one

Six of the eight tasks want reasons. Two want a description. Planning them the same way does not work.

Shape A: opening, supported points, wrap

Use for Tasks 1, 2, 4, 5 Part 2, 6 and 7.

You give a position, an experience or a recommendation, then support it. Two developed points is usually right for sixty seconds. Three is possible in ninety if each one stays real.

In your notes: the opening line, then two short cues, each with one concrete detail attached.

Pick your two points from different angles, or you have written one point twice. Time, cost, access, safety, fairness, reliability, comfort, and how it affects other people are eight different angles. Any two different rows will do.

Shape B: wide shot, then close-ups

Use for Tasks 3 and 8.

You are describing something. There are no reasons in this shape at all, and trying to force them in is what makes people describe a picture as though it were an argument.

Start with what the whole thing is, in one sentence. Then move through three or four parts in one direction, top to bottom or left to right, each part starting with a position word.

In your notes: what the whole thing looks like in three or four words, then the parts as numbered nouns.

Why the order matters. CELPIP publishes rated sample answers with the examiner's written analysis. The Task 8 answer that scored 12 was credited for saying what the whole thing was first, and only then describing the objects and where they sit in relation to one another. Almost nobody teaches this.

Task 5 Part 1 is neither

You get sixty seconds and you do not speak. Use them to choose your option and to find your two strongest points, because Part 2 is where you have to persuade and it moves fast.

What your notes look like

Shape A, a 60-second task

to: service agent
2 jobs? explain problem + ask for date

open: "I'm calling about the delivery that hasn't arrived."

1  waited 3 weeks - paid already
2  no tracking - called twice, no answer
wrap: ask for a date this week

Shape B, a 60-second task

to: friend Alex
2 jobs? describe + ask if he'd try one

WIDE: piano = aquarium + plant pot

1 top - ferns
2 keys - plants between
3 front - fish, coral
4 right - sign

Nouns and fragments, never sentences. One full written sentence takes about eight seconds. You have thirty. The only sentence worth writing out is your opening line.

Number the parts. At around forty seconds many people lose their thread. The numbers are what bring you back.

🎥 The planning minutes, on a real question (11:19)

This page is the method for all eight tasks. The video shows the thirty seconds happening on one of them, with the handwritten note on screen and then the answer it produced.

Jump to: 2:50 the pen and paper nobody uses · 3:20 the note line by line · 3:44 the wide shot · 4:12 why you number the parts

Time maps

Shape A, 60 seconds

Shape A, 90 seconds

Ninety seconds is not sixty with a faster mouth. It is room to develop, so add detail rather than a third point you cannot support.

Shape B, 60 seconds

If there is no second instruction, give those seven seconds to the parts.

Watch the progress bar. When it is nearly full, stop adding new points and use your wrap line.

Opening lines by task

Adapt these. Do not memorise them word for word, because a memorised opening sounds like one.

Notice Tasks 3 and 8. Both open by saying what the whole thing is. Neither opens with a small detail, and neither asks for help.

Connectors, used lightly

You do not need one in every sentence.

Cause and result: because, so, as a result
Adding and ordering: also, first, second, then, finally
Examples: for example, for instance
Contrast: but, however, although

Four will carry almost everything you say: because, so, for example, but. Reaching for heavier ones under time pressure is where sentences fall apart.

Closings

Practice

1. Sort the eight (3 min). From memory, write which shape each task needs. Check yourself against the table above. Getting Task 3 and Task 8 into Shape B is the whole point of this page.

2. Count the instructions (5 min). Open four speaking questions and, for each one, write only how many things it asks you to do. Do not answer any of them. Most people find at least one with two instructions they had not noticed.

3. Prep only, five times (5 min). Set a 30-second timer, make the notes, and stop. Do not speak. You are training the decision, not the delivery.

4. Sixty seconds with a full minute of prep (2 min). Try a Task 6 question and use the whole sixty seconds of preparation. Most people have never used more than thirty and are surprised how much steadier the answer is.

• Practise any speaking task with real questions and a live timer

Related: Task 8 and Task 3 for Shape B in full · Listenability for pace and pauses · Scoring and Performance Standards.