Eight tasks with six different timing patterns
CELPIP Speaking takes about 15 minutes. You read an on-screen prompt, use the preparation time shown for that task, and record one response. When preparation ends, the screen moves forward, you hear the instruction to start, and recording begins automatically. There is no interviewer and no chance to restart a completed task.
| Task | What you do | Prepare | Speak |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Give Advice | 30 sec | 90 sec |
| 2 | Talk about a Personal Experience | 30 sec | 60 sec |
| 3 | Describe a Scene | 30 sec | 60 sec |
| 4 | Make Predictions | 30 sec | 60 sec |
| 5 | Compare and Persuade | 60 sec to choose, then 60 sec | 60 sec |
| 6 | Deal with a Difficult Situation | 60 sec | 60 sec |
| 7 | Express an Opinion | 30 sec | 90 sec |
| 8 | Describe an Unusual Situation | 30 sec | 60 sec |
Task 5 has an extra stage. First, you silently choose between two options. A third option is then revealed, and you prepare to persuade the named person that your choice is better. The first 60 seconds are not speaking time.
Four dimensions, applied to the whole response
Speaking is rated through Content/Coherence, Vocabulary, Listenability, and Task Fulfillment. They overlap in a real response. A useful example can develop an idea, require more precise vocabulary, and make the response easier to follow at the same time.
- Content/Coherence: the number and quality of ideas, their organization, and the examples or details used to develop them.
- Vocabulary: range, precision, natural word combinations, and whether the words fit the situation.
- Listenability: rhythm, pronunciation, intonation, fluency, grammar, sentence structure, pauses, and self-correction as they affect understanding.
- Task Fulfillment: relevance, completeness, tone, length, and whether the response actually follows the instructions.
One grammar error is not a score by itself. Neither is one filler or a missed final sentence. Review the effect: did it blur the meaning, interrupt the flow, or leave an instruction unanswered?
Prepare for the action, not just the topic
Tasks 1 and 7 give 90 seconds. Advice needs practical suggestions directed to a person. An opinion needs a clear position with developed reasons. Both can fail when the speaker lists ideas without explaining any of them.
Task 2 is a short past-time story. A setting, sequence, turning point, feeling, and brief reflection usually give it shape. If no real experience comes to mind, the official preparation guidance permits an invented one.
Tasks 3 and 4 work from a scene. Task 3 describes what is visible. Task 4 uses visible clues from that same illustration to predict what may happen next. Prediction is not a second description.
Tasks 5 and 6 are social decisions. Task 5 compares options and persuades. Task 6 explains a difficult decision directly to a friend, relative, acquaintance, or customer. The tone can be considerate without hiding the decision.
Task 8 asks you to describe an unusual item or situation to someone who cannot see it. Begin with the setting and a familiar point of comparison, then explain what is unusual in concrete language.
Use READ, then speak from the notes
- Recognize the action.Advice, narration, description, prediction, persuasion, a difficult decision, opinion, and unusual description need different response shapes.
- Establish the listener.Write the person or audience at the top of your notes. This controls direct address, tone, and the amount of background you need to explain.
- Add two or three developed points.Use short labels, then add a reason, example, consequence, or visible clue beside each one.
- Decide the order.Number the notes. Start with the purpose, move through the developed points, and leave a brief ending that fits the task.
Do not write a script. Thirty seconds is enough for something like friend / new job · ask priorities → fewer mistakes · notebook → repeat process · check-in Fri → questions together. Those notes carry the response without forcing you to read.
When the recording starts
Speak at a normal volume. Finish one thought before checking the next note. A short pause between ideas is easier to follow than a rushed chain of half-finished sentences. If you make a small error and the meaning is clear, continue. Repair it only when the listener could misunderstand you.
Turn advice into a useful sequence
Your friend Lina has started a new office job. She is worried because the company uses several unfamiliar procedures and she does not want to keep asking the same questions. Give Lina advice about learning the job during her first month.
Preparation notes: Lina / supportive · ask priorities + examples · own process notebook · repeat task, note gaps · weekly check-in.
Sample responseLina, I’d start by asking your supervisor which procedures matter most during your first two weeks. If you know the three or four tasks you will use every day, you can learn those properly before worrying about the less common ones. Ask for one completed example of each task as well, because it is much easier to check your work against a real file than against a long set of instructions.
I would also keep a small process notebook. After someone shows you a procedure, write the steps in your own words and mark anything you still need to confirm. Then try the task yourself soon afterward. That will show you exactly where you get stuck, so your next question will be specific instead of asking a coworker to explain everything again.
Finally, arrange a short check-in with your supervisor at the end of each week. Bring two or three questions together and ask whether your priorities are right. You will still ask for help, which is normal in a new job, but people will see that you are keeping track and learning from each answer.
The response speaks to Lina, gives three suggestions, and develops each one with a practical reason or method. Its tone is supportive without spending time on reassurance that does not answer the task. This is original PrepEx teaching material and is not assigned an official CELPIP level.
What makes a recorded response harder to rate well
- Preparing the topic instead of the task. The notes contain useful ideas, but the speaker describes when the task asks for prediction or gives an opinion when the task asks for advice.
- Listing without development. Three reasons appear, each in one short sentence, with no consequence, example, or explanation.
- Ignoring the listener. The answer sounds like a general essay instead of a message to the friend, customer, or acquaintance named in the prompt.
- Reading full notes. The language becomes flat and the speaker loses time searching for the next line.
- Starting too quickly. The first sentence arrives before the purpose is clear, and half the response is spent reorganizing.
- Restarting after a small error. Repeating a whole sentence uses time and makes the correction more noticeable than the original slip.
- Forcing a memorized ending. The closing sounds polished but does not fit the person or the action in the prompt.
Build notes that can be spoken
Task 6 situation: You promised a neighbour that you would help at a Saturday yard sale. Your manager has now scheduled you for an essential shift. Explain your decision to your neighbour.
Which preparation line is most useful?
- apologize → work may be busy / perhaps arrive later / neighbour will understand / uncertain
- apologize → essential shift / swap failed / set up Fri + lend tables / warm but firm
- apologize → ask neighbour to move sale to Sun / explain manager’s policy / offer a ride
- apologize → skip essential shift / help at sale as promised / tell manager on Saturday
Reveal the answer
B. It records the required decision, the failed attempt to swap the shift, two practical ways to help, and the needed tone. A leaves the decision uncertain, C asks the neighbour to reorganize the whole sale, and D ignores the essential shift.
Listen once for meaning, then once for delivery
- Did I perform the exact task action and speak to the named listener?
- Was my purpose clear in the opening few sentences?
- Did I develop the main ideas with reasons, examples, consequences, or visible evidence?
- Could a listener follow the order without seeing my notes?
- Were my word choices precise enough for this situation, without forced phrases?
- Did pace, pronunciation, grammar, pauses, or corrections make any part difficult to understand?
- Was the tone suitable, and did I use the response time to complete the task?