What "Reading Correspondence" Means in CELPIP (Part 1 Explained)

In CELPIP, "Reading Correspondence" is the name of Reading Part 1. Correspondence means written messages between people: emails and notes, not articles or reports. You read one everyday email, then complete a short reply with missing words. 11 questions in about 11 minutes: 6 on the message, 5 on the reply. Four options, one point each, no penalty for wrong answers.

See it instead of reading about it: the free Reading Part 1 practice set is a complete Part 1, all 11 questions on the real timer, no login. Ten minutes there explains the name better than any definition.

What does "Reading Correspondence" mean?

Start with the word, because the word is the problem. Correspondence is a formal English word for something very ordinary: the letters, emails and messages that two people send each other. The Cambridge Dictionary gives two everyday senses: "letters, especially official or business letters" and "the action of writing, receiving, and reading letters, especially between two people." So "reading correspondence" just means reading somebody's messages.

Most of my students have never used the word in their life. You do not say "I checked my correspondence this morning." You say "I checked my email." That is why the phrase stops people when they first see it on a test format page. It sounds like a special kind of reading. It is not. It is the most everyday reading on the whole test.

In CELPIP the phrase is a label. Reading Part 1 is called "Reading Correspondence" because the text you read is one person's email to another. The three parts after it have their own labels for the same reason: Part 2 is Reading to Apply a Diagram, Part 3 is Reading for Information, Part 4 is Reading for Viewpoints. The name tells you what kind of text is coming, nothing more.

What is CELPIP Reading Part 1?

Part 1 gives you two short texts. The first is the main text: an email from one community member to another about an everyday social or work situation. The second is a short reply to that email, with blanks in it, and you choose the missing words from the options offered. Prometric, the company that runs CELPIP, describes both texts exactly this way in its Reading Pro Study Pack.

The situations are deliberately ordinary. Prometric's own examples are baseball team members discussing an upcoming competition, a customer asking a bakery for a graduation cake, a community member emailing an animal shelter about volunteering, and colleagues making travel arrangements for a conference. Our free practice set is an email about returning a camping trailer. Nobody is writing about economics or philosophy here.

The tone is ordinary too. Prometric describes the Part 1 texts as "conversational, social, friendly, familiar", with no extreme informality, so no slang. If you have been told that this part is about formal business letters, that is not what the test maker says. Read the email the way you would read a message from a neighbour or a colleague.

How many questions is Reading Part 1, and how long is it?

Eleven questions in about eleven minutes, and the split matters more than the total.

Every question is a choice from four options. Each correct answer is worth one point, and points are not deducted for a wrong answer, so you answer every single question even when you are guessing. The Reading test has 38 scored questions in total across the four parts, and Prometric says there may be one unscored part that you will not be able to identify, which is one more reason to treat every part as real.

Two details from the same source that people miss. First, the reading passages and questions increase in difficulty from Part 1 to Part 4, so Part 1 is where the test is most generous and where careless points hurt most. Second, that "11 minutes" is approximate and the test moves you forward automatically when time is up. You cannot go back to a part you have left.

If you want the scoring side of this, how 38 questions become a level from M to 12, it is on our Reading score chart.

Is "Reading Correspondence" the same as Writing Task 1?

No, and the two get mixed up because both are about emails. Writing Task 1 asks you to write an email of 150 to 200 words in 27 minutes. Reading Part 1 asks you to understand an email someone else wrote, then finish a reply by choosing the missing words. Same kind of text, opposite skill.

The confusion is useful, though. The email in Reading Part 1 is a model of the everyday, friendly register the Writing test also rewards, so reading it closely teaches you something about your own Task 1 emails. If Writing is your weaker skill, the Writing Task 1 email template is the page you want after this one.

Where can I practice Reading Correspondence?

Three places on this site, in the order I would use them. Start with the free Reading Part 1 practice set: one complete Part 1 on the real timer, so you feel the 6 + 5 split before anyone explains it. Then read the Reading Correspondence lesson in the free course, which walks through how to map the email and how to test each reply blank. Keep the Reading Part 1 vocabulary list open while you do both.

For the whole test, not just this part, the CELPIP Reading tips page covers timing and question types across all four parts, and the test format guide puts Reading next to Listening, Writing and Speaking.

Try Part 1 now: the free Reading Part 1 practice set scores all 11 answers instantly and shows you which of the two halves cost you points.