Hiding in Plain Sight: Tips for Tackling CELPIP Reading Task 2

So this week, something really weird happened to me, and maybe it's happened to you before as well, so you'll know what it is I'm talking about here.

But I felt really foolish because I know for a fact that I wrote down on a grocery list before I went grocery shopping that I needed to buy some juice. And I know I did this because we had been a couple of days without juice, and I kept forgetting to buy it.

So I made sure that I wrote it down on our grocery list for the week. And I know that I went to the store. I know that I picked up some juice, paid for it, put it in the car and drove it home.

And I thought for sure that I had put it away in the fridge when I got home. Next day at breakfast, I go to the fridge, I pull out the milk for cereal, and I couldn't find where the juice was. That's strange.

I mean, we have a specific place that I always put milk and juice and the bigger things in the fridge. It's on the bottom shelf of the fridge, which has the most space between shelves. But I couldn't find the juice. I had no idea where it was.

I closed the fridge door, scratched my head, went back to the kitchen table, sat down, put the milk on the table, and started wondering, doubting myself, did I really buy the juice? I thought for sure I did. I got up from the table again, went to the fridge, opened it up, thinking, maybe I missed it. Move stuff around.

No, there was no juice there. Same thing happened the next day. I just, you know, kind of gave up. I went back to my seat, had my regular breakfast without the juice.

Just kind of wondering, what did I really buy it? Like I said, the next day came, same story. I went to the fridge, opened it up, thinking, okay, maybe it's there. It wasn't there.

And I know for sure that I bought this juice. I'm pretty darn sure that I did. But I couldn't find it anywhere.

So I remember sitting at the kitchen table that day, scratching my head and thinking, okay, so maybe I actually didn't buy it because it's just not there. That is weird. That is so weird. I had to go back to the fridge for something else.

But this something else was actually hanging out in another part of the fridge on the little. You know, when you open up the door, there are sometimes shelves in the back of the door.

Well, the thing that I had to pull from the fridge was actually in one of those shelves. And when I opened up the door, can you guess what I found, yes, the juice.

Someone had put the juice in the shelf and I didn't look there because it wasn't where I was used to finding things. It just used to finding the juice.

I mean, someone had moved it on me and I was looking in the wrong place and the juice was there all the time, hiding in plain sight. And my friend, I think that that's What Reading Task 2 on the Celpip is all about in many ways.

If you found yourself struggling with this reading task, I think a lot of what is happening is we're looking or doing things out of order like we're looking in the wrong place. And that's what today's podcast episode is going to be all about. Hi, my name is Aaron.

If you don't know me, if this is your first time, welcome to the Seltip Success podcast. I'm so glad you're here. Today we're going to take a little bit of a deep dive into reading task 2.

A couple of days ago I sat down and I watched an hour long Celpip webinar all about this topic.

And what I want to do for you today is try to simplify this down for you so that if you don't want to watch that hour long presentation, which was really good by the way, but if you don't have time or if you just don't want to sit down and watch it, I hope that this will be a helpful thing for you if you've struggled with reading task 2 on on this help up exam. So if that's you, I hope that this will help you today. So the first thing that you need to be aware of when it comes to this reading task.

And by the way, keep in mind that story about the juice because I'm going to be bringing it back in just a second. But the first thing that you need to keep in mind is on the reading section of the exam.

On reading task two, you're going to have nine minutes to complete this this section of the exam. And in those nine minutes you're going to have to answer eight questions about a diagram.

And then there's actually going to be an email related to that diagram that you're going to have to work with as you are answering the questions.

And some of the questions are going to be on, yeah, the question itself are going to be based in an email on or about the diagram itself, if that makes sense. So you're going to be looking at them both at the same time on the left hand side of your screen.

You're going to see your diagram, whatever it might be and we'll talk about the different kinds of diagrams that you might see in just a moment.

And then on the right hand side you'll see this email written out for you with drop down boxes that you will have to use to select the right answer pertaining to the diagram. So that's how this reading section works.

And the kinds of diagrams that you can find on this fabulous and wonderful section of the self exam could be things like bus routes, it could be things like a, a a formal invitation to something like maybe a wedding. It could be like a itinerary for a big event. Like if you've ever gone to an event sometimes they give you these little papers.

I went to one of the oh about maybe four or five months ago and it was a multi day event and we had this little pamphlet filled with each of the things that we were going to be doing like with the times, with where we were going to be meeting and so on and so forth and the topics that we were going to be talking about. And all that was located all that was on our itinerary. So you might have a diagram like that.

It could be a guide around filling out a certain application form. And I know my friend, for you your probably an expert at filling out government forms by now. I'm so sorry.

There are so many of them that you need to work through. They are a pain in the butt aren't they? They are so hard. I had to help my wife with her paperwork to get her citizenship and for my children as well.

So much paperwork and so many guides that you have to follow as you're working through. Right? It's just, oh just so much it makes my head hurt just to think about how much work those things are.

So maybe one of the diagrams that you'll have to be working on is a guide on filling out a certain form. And finally you might be faced with a brochure, like a travel brochure and actually on the CELPIP webinar that I watched they were working on.

Well there were four different brochures or, or information packages about four different locations and it was all on one page but four different ones. And so that might be something that you will have to deal with. So that's what I mean by diagrams. So what should you do?

And this is kind of where that juice story comes in because I was looking in the wrong place for something that was in kind of plain sight. It was, it was right there in front of me. I just needed to look in the right place.

And I think that one of the biggest mistakes that test takers make when they're doing the reading section of the selpip is that they immediately dive into trying to answer the question. They get all worried and concerned about that ticking time that they have. Oh my gosh, I only have nine minutes.

And they can see that the time is already running away and they, they know they have eight questions. So they just immediately dive in and begin working on it.

And my friend, what I would invite you to do is to resist that temptation to dive in, because if you do, you're prob going to have that juice situation happen to you where you're going to be looking for something that will be hiding from you in plain sight.

And this first step that we're going to talk about is going to help you to look in the right place so that you don't, you know, open your fridge, look in there, and don't find the thing that you're looking for, and you close the fridge and you give up. I know we're talking about an exam, okay? But what I'm trying to get at here is if you skip this step, it's called previewing.

If you skip it, chances are higher that you're going to miss what you're looking for and it's just there in plain sight. But you didn't know where to look, and previewing will help you to solve that problem.

And all previewing is doing is looking at the diagram in front of you and first of all, figuring out, what is this? Is this an invitation to a wedding, for example, or to a formal event? Is this a travel brochure?

Is this a bus itinerary or a bus schedule or a bus route? Or what is it that I'm looking at? Quickly determine in your head what it is. Give it a name.

Second of all, you want to pay attention to certain details inside of that diagram. Not with the purpose of memorizing, no, with the purpose of knowing where they are. So the first thing that you're going to be looking for are dates.

Are there important dates like in the case of that travel brochure?

Probably one of those dates would be when there are openings available for you to travel to this place and book a spot, you will also find price information, probably pay attention to that. You'll also want to pay attention to locations, names of places, etc. In the email itself.

So looking on the right hand side of your screen, you want to pay attention to who is doing the writing and that will be at the bottom of the email. Right. You'll also want to be paying attention to who it's being addressed to. And that will probably be B. That will probably be B.

That will probably be at the beginning of the email. Right. You also want to pay attention to if there's a purpose statement in that email, why is the writer writing? What's, what are they looking for?

And that will probably be hanging out in the first line of the text.

And finally, you want to pay attention to see if there are any special requests being made inside of that email and that might be hanging out at the last part of that, of that email. And again, the idea here is not so that you memorize it, it's just so that you know where it is inside of the text and inside of the diagram itself.

I hope that makes sense. So, first step, don't rush into answering the question. Pay attention to certain things going on inside of the diagram first.

And as far as time goes, you're not, we're not talking about minutes here, we're talking about seconds. This should only take you about, you know, you should only give yourself about 30 seconds to do this kind of preview work.

So you're very quickly looking over the diagram to see dates, to see where prices, if there are any, you're looking to see if there are any names of places, you're looking to see if there are any features of that place being listed, things like that. You're looking for those, that kind of information, where it is. So that when you begin working to answer the question, you'll know where to, to look.

The second thing that you're going to be paying attention to are keywords. And keywords are those things that we were just talking about, right?

We're talking about pricing information, we're talking about the names of locations, we're talking about dates being, being highlighted in the diagram itself. All of those things could be really important keywords that may appear in the questions itself.

And the idea here, when we're working with finally starting to answer the question, and after you've spent about a minute, you know, looking over the diagram, identifying where things are, pulling out those keywords like the pricing, like the dates, like the name of the, the properties or the names of the bus stations or the name of the hotel, all of those things, once you've located where they are on the diagram itself, that's when you're ready to actually start answering the question. And the idea here is using a skill called skimming and scanning and scanning actually is where we're going to be focusing.

Like if you want to think about it, when you're previewing, you're kind of skimming over the diagram itself. You're just looking for certain keywords, certain pieces of strategic information that will help you to answer the questions later.

And when you're actually working to answer the questions, you're going to be using a skill called scanning.

And all that means is you're going to read the question and then look for a keyword in the question and then use that keyword in the question to jump over to the diagram and see if you can find that information that it's asking for. So let's say that you're working on a wedding invitation.

All right, we'll, we'll break away from the, the travel brochure discussion for a minute and let's imagine that the diagram that you're looking at is actually this very elaborate wedding invitation. And let's say that in the email the writer is asking a question about what time they should arrive at the event.

Now, if you did your preview part well, you'll know where to look, right?

You're not going to be looking over the order of service, you're not going to be looking at the hotel information, you're not going to be looking at who's inviting who, you're not looking at who the bride and groom is. You're not wasting your time looking at that, right? Because you should probably have an idea. Oh, I remember reading about the time here.

And then you will very quickly jump to that part to begin looking to answer the question. So that's how scanning words works. Sorry, you're pulling out a keyword in the question itself.

In the four different options, like when you come to the, in the email, you'll see a blank where a question is and you'll be able to click on it on, on your computer screen. And then this drop down menu will appear with four different options.

And so you'll look through those four different options and pull out a keyword that will help you to jump back over to the diagram and begin looking for that information. So in our example, we were just talking about time, right? What time should I arrive?

So there'll probably be four different options about the different times.

Maybe one of the options might be before noon, or maybe one of the options would be at 1:30pm or maybe one would be in the evening, or maybe the final option would be at 4.30pm, right? So what you would do is look at those different ones and maybe you'll know the answer immediately because of what you remembered.

If you, when you were previewing, you probably won't be able to remember everything, right?

But you'll just jump over to the, the diagram, find where it's talking about the different times that the event was going to start and run and what time you know the reception would be. There might be multiple times going on. So pay attention to that.

Like in this case of the wedding, there might be a reception time, there might be the ceremony time, there might be the party, like the, the after the ceremony party. There might be multiple times being talked about. So be watchful for that. That would be kind of like maybe the tricky part of that question.

So find out what the email is asking you for what specific time and then look in the. Right. You'll. You'll be able to use that to hunt down the specific information inside of the brochure itself or inside of the invitation itself.

So that's how that works.

Use a keyword from the email, jump over to the brochure or the, the diagram, whatever it is that you're working with to see if you can find the exact match. You might find exact matches like in this for the example of the time, maybe you'll find 4:30 being mentioned inside of the, the invitation itself.

If you do, this is where you need to put your detective hat on. If you do find an exact match.

If you see 4:30 for example, as an option in the email itself and you know that there's a 4:30 being talked about on the wedding invitation, don't automatically assume that that's the right answer. That's really important.

You should definitely zoom over to the diagram and look really closely at that and make sure that, okay, I know I saw 430 going to jump over to the diagram. I'm going to double check and see if that 4:30 is talking about the same thing as being mentioned in the email.

So let's say for example, that in the, in the email the question is what time should I arrive right for the ceremony? The very, the first part. And if I jump over at the invitation, the wedding invitation, maybe there is a 4:30 being mentioned there.

So you'll think, oh, maybe that's, maybe that's something I should pay attention to. And you look at it, but then you determine, oh no.

And on the wedding invitation, the 4:30 is actually talking about when the party is going to start after the wedding. So that would not be the correct option for you to pick.

But a mistake would be to see that match that number match the time match and automatically assume that it's the, the right answer.

In fact, I think I've done this when I was, when I've done my practice exam for, for this, I think I've actually gotten one of them wrong because I just saw that the time or the number or I saw an exact match and I didn't take the time to actually zoom in on the diagram itself and to make sure that it's actually talking about the same thing. So it's an easy mistake to make. So if you do see that automatic that that match, don't automatically assume that it is the right one.

Double check the context to make sure that you're talking about the same thing. Another thing that you need to be aware of is paraphrasing.

So maybe what the email part is asking for is worded differently than what is in the brochure. So maybe thinking about that, the wedding invitation. Again, maybe on the, on the brochure, the word being talked about is reception.

Like, it's more of a fancy word, right? There's a reception. It's like where the meal is going to be, where everybody's going to have the cake.

You know, where we're going to just spend some time eating with the bride and the groom after the ceremony. So that's called a reception.

Maybe in the email the person will talk about it as not being the reception, but maybe they're saying the, I don't know, the buffet. Like maybe they'll say what time will the buffet begin?

So you'll know, you know, buffet and reception, while they're not exactly word for word meaning the same thing, you'll know that they are talking about the same event or the same moment inside of that wedding, the reception, the buffet. So paraphrase, be, be wary of that. And we're going to talk about that part being becoming a better paraphrase recognizer. If that's the right word.

I'm going to talk about that in just one minute. So I think that those were the two most important things for you to keep in mind when it comes to reading.

Task 2 One, pay attention to previewing your diagram before you actually start working on answering the questions. All so that you will know where to look for specific information when the time comes.

Don't just dive in and begin answering questions because you'll probably miss things. Number two, use keywords really carefully. And when you're hunting for keywords, pay attention to paraphrases.

And also pay attention to make sure that even though they're there might be an exact match between one of the question options and the information inside of the diagram.

Make sure that you're talking about the same thing so that you don't make the assumption that, oh, I see the exact time from the question being mentioned in the diagram itself. So that must mean that it's correct, right? Maybe that's a silly example, but it's, it's something that can mess you up.

I know for a fact that I've done a practice test and I've gotten one wrong because I didn't take the time to zoom in and check out the context on the, on the diagram itself. I just saw a match and I thought that's got to be right. And in the, in my rush and trying to get through all the answers, I made that mistake.

But when you do see a match, double check.

All right, so a moment ago I was talking about things that you could do to become a better paraphrase decipherer or someone who works through paraphrase. Well, and that, my friend, is to always be building your vocabulary. Always be building your vocabulary.

This is super important because your vocabulary can make you or break you in the reading section of this help up and in all parts of it, on the writing and in the speaking as well, and in the listening too. So it's, it's really important to be building your vocabulary all the time. And the best way for you to do that is to be reading widely.

Like spend a little bit each day reading something different than what you read the day before. And it could be something as simple as a news story, it could be a magazine article, could be, I don't know, like a book.

Always be reading something different so that you can begin meeting new vocabulary words because that's what is going to help you to be able to, you know, to work through paraphrase.

When a word means the same thing as another word, but it's written or expressed in a totally different way, you want to be able to identify what those paraphrases are. And you'll do that by building your vocabulary skills. And unfortunately, there's not a fast way to do this.

This is a long term strategy and it's something that you should be doing a little bit each day if you can.

You don't have to be, you know, pouring hours of reading time in on this because you probably don't have it, but you should be reading something every day, preferably a different thing that you are normally used to reading. Like, don't always read the same thing. Just because it's comfortable for you. I'm guilty of that.

I I have my favorite kinds of things to read, but it's really important for you to step out of what you're used to so that you can find different words, different phrases, different ways of expressing ideas. And the best way for that is by reading widely a little bit each day. My friend, we covered a lot of ground today. I hope that it was helpful for you.

I hope that you were able to pick out some useful tips to help you with reading task two. And thank you so much for listening. If you made your way all the way through this episode, I'm so glad that you stuck with me.

And I want to encourage you to come back again in two weeks for the next episode of the Supple Success podcast. Have a wonderful week, and we'll be in touch later.