Let’s dive right into the essentials for acing your CELPIP speaking test. The first and foremost takeaway is to nail your timing—finish your responses in the last 10 seconds of the allotted time. I’ve seen countless students either ramble on too long or wrap up their answers too quickly, and both can cost you points. It’s crucial to practice with a voice memo app on your phone to get a feel for pacing yourself and hitting that sweet spot. Secondly, don’t skimp on details; for every statement you make, back it up with a reason or example, and aim for three solid points to create a complete response. Lastly, remember that making mistakes is part of being human; if you stumble, pause briefly and correct yourself to keep the flow going. Stick to these strategies, and you’ll boost your chances of success on exam day.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve had the chance to work closely with many individuals prepping for their CELPIP exam, and let me tell you, I’ve seen some patterns emerge. A few common mistakes pop up time and again, alongside some golden strategies that really shine through. In today’s talk, I’m diving into three of the biggest pitfalls I’ve noticed, plus one standout technique that can set you apart. First off, let’s chat about timing. A major blunder I see is students not wrapping up their speaking tasks correctly—either they finish too soon or they run over the time limit. Each speaking task has a specific time frame, and it’s crucial to nail that sweet spot right at the end. For instance, if you have 60 seconds, aim to conclude your answer in the final 10 seconds. I advise practicing with a voice memo app on your phone. Record yourself answering mock questions and pay close attention to the time. This practice can help you get comfortable with pacing your responses without going over or finishing too early.
Next, let’s tackle the issue of specificity in your responses. Too often, I hear vague statements lacking the necessary depth. To avoid this, remember to formulate your answers with a clear structure: make a statement, provide a reason or example, and repeat this three times. This formula not only boosts the quality of your responses but also helps you articulate your thoughts more clearly. If you say something like “Taking a cruise is the best budget travel option,” follow it up with “because it allows you to see multiple destinations without the extra travel costs.” This way, you’re substantiating your statements, making them richer and more compelling.
Finally, let’s not forget that mistakes happen. It’s perfectly normal to stumble during your speaking tasks. The key is how you handle those slips. Instead of panicking, if you catch yourself making an error, simply correct it on the fly and keep moving forward. I’ve seen students recover seamlessly from small mistakes, and it doesn’t typically result in point deductions as long as they’re minor and infrequent. Remember, the examiners are looking for your overall ability to communicate, not just a flawless performance. So, don’t be discouraged by slip-ups; quickly adjust and carry on. Keep these tips in mind, and you’ll be well on your way to acing your CELPIP exam!
Takeaways:
- Always finish your speaking task within the last 10 seconds of the time limit to avoid penalties.
- When answering questions, provide three statements supported by reasons or examples to show depth.
- If you make a mistake during your speaking test, quickly correct it and continue without losing confidence.
- Practice using a voice memo app to time your responses and improve your speaking accuracy.
- Avoid rushing your answers by pacing yourself and using the full allotted time wisely.
- Prepare for the exam by simulating the test conditions and focusing on clarity and structure.
Transcript
So over the last two and a half years almost, I've had the privilege of working with quite a few people as they get ready for their CELPIP exam.
And during that time I've noticed some frequently committed mistakes as well as some frequently committed correct things to do if that is the right thing to say.
And what I wanted to share with you today is three of the top mistakes that I've heard plus one of the best things that I've seen students do over that time with the whole point of helping you have some things to make sure that you're not doing and one thing that you are making sure that you are doing. Hi, my name is Aaron. If this is the first time that you've listened, thank you so much for stopping by.
I'm so glad that you're here on this channel, in this podcast we work towards helping you succeed on the self of exam. So let's get started. I hope you'll sit back and relax and enjoy today's episode.
And the first thing that I wanted to talk about today is probably one of the most common mistakes that I see students making, and that is not finishing their speaking task on time or finishing too early. But by far, by far over the last two and a half years, I've noticed that the most frequent mistake is actually speaking for too long.
And in case you're not familiar with it, the CELPIP exam has a speaking section of the test and each of those eight speaking tasks has a time limit attached to it. And they're not all the same. Some of them are for 90 seconds or 1 minute and 3 seconds. And the most frequent one is 60 seconds.
And you'll know how much time that you'll have for each of those speaking tasks before you actually start talking. So you don't have to memorize. Oh, speaking task one has this amount of time and so on that will it will show you on the screen.
But what you do need to practice doing is finishing inside of a sweet spot. And that sweet spot is in the last 10 seconds of your recording time.
So for example, if you have a 60 second response, your goal is going to be to finish or to be finishing your response in the last 10 seconds of that 60 second time allotment.
So once you hit the 50 second mark, that's when you want to begin tidying up and finishing your answer and definitely be done talking by the time those 60 seconds are up and it's completely okay for you to finish inside of those last 10 seconds. What is not okay? And this is Where I was sharing before, this is the most, probably the most frequent mistake that I see being made.
It's not okay to finish speaking after that time limit is up. When you're practicing on your own, and I hope that you are when you're practicing on your own.
Nothing's going to happen if you keep talking beyond that 60 second mark.
Like if you go three seconds over or five seconds over, you're not going to notice anything happening, which makes it maybe kind of an easy mistake to make. But on the exam itself, guess what happens when your time limit is up? The exam is not going to sit and wait for you to finish, unfortunately.
It's just going to move you on to the next question and that's going to cut you off. So if you are in the middle of giving an answer and you run out of time, it's just going to cut you off and go to the next question.
And that cutting off part could be a loss of points for you. So you want to avoid that.
And you also want to make sure that you avoid finishing before that sweet spot I was telling you about in the last 10 seconds. You don't want in a 60 second, for example, recording.
You don't want to finish Your response in 45 seconds, for example, you want to try to aim for as close to the 60 seconds or, or as close to the 90 seconds as you possibly can without going over. So that, my friend, is the very first mistake that I see most frequently made by students.
And the way for you to counter that, the way for you to prepare and make sure that you don't have that mistake happen to you, is simply practicing using this. You probably have the cell phone handy with you.
And on all the cell phones that I've seen nowadays, modern cell phones, they all have a voice memo app. That, my friend, is your best friend when it comes to practicing. If you're working on your own, that is.
And what I suggest you do is practice going through mock questions, giving yourself a time limit and you recording yourself using your phone's voice memo app for the designated time limit.
For example, if you have a 60 second time limit on, you know, trying to, let's say, give it, talk about a past experience, something that happened to you.
Make sure that you are practicing giving your answer into your cell phone and at the same time watching how long you've been speaking for, that right there is the skill to practice speaking and watching how long you've been speaking for so that you can be making sure that you're finishing on time all right, so that's point number one. Make sure that you are finishing in time, not going over. Finish inside of that sweet spot the last 10 seconds of your recording time.
That's when you need to be finishing, not before and definitely not after. The second thing that I've seen students do that can lose you points is not giving enough specific information.
And I've got a little phrase here for you that might help you to remember what you need to be doing inside of your answers.
Almost all of your answers need to have this, is that you're going to make a statement, then you're going to give a reason or an example for that statement, and you're going to do it three times. That's what I mean by statement plus plus reason or example by three equals a complete response.
What you don't want to have happen is for you to give a simple statement without any explanation whatsoever. That right there, my friend, is a quick way for you to get lower points on the exam.
So whenever you give a reason or whenever you give a statement, always make sure that you answer why. Why does that matter? Why is it important?
Like if you were talking about, you know, giving, helping a friend with advice about maybe, I don't know, if they should take a cruise. It's not enough for you to say taking a cruise is the best way to travel on a budget. Why you need to answer that question, why?
Why is it such a good idea? Why do you think it's a good idea? So whenever you make a statement, always back it up by answering the question why?
Or give an actual example to help back it up.
And for most of the most of the speaking task questions, you should give three statements and back up each of those statements with a reason or an example. So keep that in mind.
That's mistake number two that I see most frequently made is not giving enough either not enough statements like three or not backing them up enough. So don't do that.
The next one that I see happening a lot, and this one is not a mistake, this one is actually what I've seen my students doing really well. And I wanted to put that out there for you so that you can do this as well. When you're speaking, you're probably going to make a mistake.
In fact, if you watch this, you've probably seen me make a mistake or hesitate or forget what I was going to say next. That's probably going to happen to you on test day as well. What should you do? What should you do if you make a mistake?
I'll Tell you, and I'll be honest, it took me, I think, about two takes to get this recording going.
I would start talking and then I would get talk myself into a corner or make a mistake, and I would get frustrated with myself and I would hit stop, then start again. Well, on the CELPIP exam, if that happens to you, you can't do that. You can't hit stop and then start your answer again.
So if you find that you make a mistake during the speaking section of your exam, don't let that rattle you. Don't let that throw you off and make you think, oh, no, I'm a terrible English speaker, I totally screwed this up.
And then get really down on yourself and think that maybe all hopes of you doing well on this test have just gone down the toilet because of a simple mistake that you make.
No, if you make a mistake or when you make a mistake because you, you probably will just because you're human, just because you're nervous, if you make a mistake, quickly correct it and then keep going.
The thing that I've seen students do really well, or I've heard students doing really well is that they'll be talking and then all of a sudden, maybe they'll use the wrong vocabulary.
Maybe instead of if the word needed to be plural, they used it in singular format, for example, or if they use the wrong grammar construction, like if they're talking in the past or they're trying to talk in the past, but they use a present tense verb instead by mistake.
The thing that I've heard many students do is right in the moment, as soon as they realize they made the mistake, they quickly stop and then repeat that same idea, correcting the mistake. So that's what I want to encourage you to do as well. Try not to let that mistake throw you off course.
Like, don't let that mistake make you think that you're a failure. Make you think that, you know English is just not for you. Because that's not true.
All I want to encourage you to do is if you make that mistake, quickly pause. Like, don't let that pause be longer than you know, like a half second.
And you know instantly in your head as soon as you said what you said, oh, no, I made a mistake quickly, re say what you needed to say, correcting that mistake, and then keep going. I don't think that that's going to lead to a point reduction for you if you're correcting your mistake in the moment.
Now, if this is happening all the way through, your response, then, yeah, you could be facing a point reduction here, but if it's happening now and then as you go along and you're auto correcting yourself, I don't think that that's going to negatively affect you. So, my friend, those are the three things that I wanted to share with you today.
Number one, make sure that you're not speaking longer than the time allotted for or too short. Like not. Don't finish your speaking task response before that sweet spot of time in the last 10 seconds of your answer.
Number two, make sure that for each statement that you make, you are backing up that statement with a reason or with an example and you're doing it three times. Always aim to have three statements to back up what you're trying to say.
And finally, if you hear yourself make a mistake when you're giving your answer, please know that that's normal. Everybody makes mistakes. You probably heard me make a few. If you do sense that you make that mistake or that you made a mistake, I just did it.
If you do sense that you made a mistake, quickly see if you can re say that the last few words and make that correction so that you can keep going. Don't let it stop you. Those are the three things that I wanted to share with you today.
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode and I will look forward to seeing you again next time. Bye bye.
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