How to Keep Your Mind Focused During CELPIP Speaking Tasks 3 and 4

As I've been working with people to help them prepare for the CELPIP speaking skills, I've noticed a common or a reoccurring challenge, and that is staying focused, especially during CELPIP speaking tasks three and four, where you need to focus on describing an image and then in task four, making predictions around what you think will happen logically next.

Test takers, or many of the people that I work with frequently mention that it is hard to keep their minds focused on the image.

Instead, their thoughts wander or go onto something totally unrelated to what they're trying to do.

And this wandering makes it really hard to focus on answering the questions.

And that makes it really hard to actually finish answering the question correctly inside of the time limit because you're busy wrestling with your thoughts, trying to get them to come back and stay focused on what you're actually trying to do.

That sounds like a pretty rough challenge.

And if that's what you're struggling with, then I want to invite you to sit back and relax and enjoy today's episode.

Because I've made it just for you.

You.

And before I go any farther.

Hello there.

If you don't know me, my name is Aaron.

Welcome to the Celpip Success Podcast.

This is the podcast that is designed to help you get ready for your Celpip exam.

And today our topic is how do I stay on target?

Well, how do my.

How do I keep my mind on target when I'm trying to answer such important exam questions?

And especially speaking task three and four, which is where, well, many people struggle to keep their thoughts in order and to to actually work through those pictures in an orderly fashion.

So, yeah, like I said before, the idea of this episode is to help you begin working on solving that issue.

And as you're listening, if there are things that you've noticed that you've been able to do and to use that have helped you, I would really love it if you would send me an email or to leave a comment on this episode and let me know what has been working for you.

And I will gladly share it with everyone in a future episode.

Because here's the thing.

I don't know everything.

There's a lot of things that I don't know and I did a little bit of digging around and research on this because I'm trying to help some clients that I have that are struggling with this.

And I've just heard a lot of people over the time that I've been doing this the last, you know, two plus years.

I've heard A lot of people say that this is a problem for them.

So I hope that what I find today is helpful.

And as you are listening, like I said a moment ago, if you know of something that works for you, and I haven't mentioned it here because I only have like three or four things that I'm going to share.

So I know there's probably lots of other strategies out there that work.

And if you don't hear the one that you use that works for you, I would love it if you'd share it with me.

Okay, so the first idea that I'd like to share with you comes from the folks over at the Attention Deficit Disorder association.

And before I go any farther, many of the resources that I'm going to be sharing with you today do come from sources and websites that have to do with ADD or adhd, which may or may not be the cause of your difficulty in staying focused.

I mean, only you know what that cause is.

Maybe you're just naturally, you have a naturally free flowing brain, you know, that just loves to, to, to wander all over the place and ADHD or ADD is, is not the cause.

Or, or maybe you know that ADHD is something that is a challenge for you or something that is a part of your life and you're working within that disorder.

I don't know, like, I don't know if that's your situation, but I just wanted to point that out that many of these tips come from these kinds of resources.

But I think that it will help you no matter what.

Like if, if ADHD is something that you deal with or, or if your mind is just free flowing a lot of the time, I think some of these ideas will be helpful and useful for you.

Okay.

All right, so let's dig in.

Idea number one, like I said before, comes from the folks at Attention Deficit Disorder association and their idea is this, that you keep a notebook handy with you at all times.

Especially.

Or, yeah, especially when you are practicing for the CELPIP and what you're supposed to do with this notebook and whatever writing tool you use, a pen or a pencil, whenever you have a stray thought jump into your mind that has nothing to do with you and your practice for the exam, you don't ignore it, you don't try to fight it.

You take that thought and you put it on paper, you just write it out.

With the idea being that when you put it on the paper, it's like you're giving your mind permission to just let it go because it's on the paper.

You acknowledge that it's there.

And then at the end of the day, you can come back and like, if, if you suddenly remembered, oh, no, I know, I need to go buy groceries, or, oh, no, I needed to call the doctor, or, oh, no, I forgot to pick up this or that thing, or you just want to go and watch your favorite Netflix show and you just remember the name of it and, and you wrote that down.

You know, this is your chance to go back.

At the end of the day, when you're done, what you really needed to do, you can revisit that list that you created and actually do the things that your mind was telling you that you needed to do.

And according to the.

To the Attention Deficit disorder association, when you.

And I quote, when you write this down, it helps you to acknowledge, like I said a moment ago, it helps you to acknowledge the thought without getting distracted from your work.

And at the same time, because you're writing it down, it ensures that you'll be able to remember to do it later when you're, when you're all finished.

So that's the first idea.

And like I said before, this idea is going to help you to stay focused when you're practicing.

Probably is not going to be a good solution for you on your exam day simply because you don't have time to be writing down stray thoughts on your exam because the clock is already ticking.

So, yeah, you won't have time to be writing that kind of thing down, but in your practice time, I think it's a great idea.

Write down those stray thoughts and then revisit them later if you need to do something about them.

Okay, so the next idea.

And if you've been a regular listener of this podcast, you've already heard me talk about this, but I think it's one of the strongest strategies to deal with speaking task three and task four, and that is to avoid the temptation or the trap to try to talk about everything going on in the picture.

Instead, what I want to encourage you to do is to imagine that that picture is split into four equal parts or split into two equal.

Equal parts, if that works better for you.

Or.

I was even talking with someone the other day, a client who said that they divided into nine equal parts.

Whatever works for you.

Do it with the idea.

With the idea being after you've divided that picture mentally, like on the exam, you're not going to be able to divide it physically.

Like, you know, edit the picture in some way so that you're breaking it up.

But.

But use your imagination and draw like a, like a crosshair, you know, breaking the picture up into four equal sized blocks.

And next what you do is you focus on the block or the square that you feel the most comfortable with or that you feel has the most words or ideas that you know, you'll be able to talk about and begin there and then begin moving through those different squares in a logical manner, keeping in mind that even though you've divided it into four spots or nine spots or into, into two spots, you still don't have to talk about everything that you see in the picture.

Pick maybe three things in total, but make sure you go into enough like a lot of detail about those three things.

And dividing the picture, like I said before, will help you to stay or it will make it a little bit easier for you to stay organized as you're working through.

Working through the picture.

Because here's the thing, all the pictures that I've seen for, you know, Celpip practice exams or on the YouTube channel, the Celpip YouTube channel, all the images that I've seen that people are working with are very busy, which means there's a lot of things packed into that image.

And for a mind that finds it easy to wander or to get distracted or to get overwhelmed by too many things showing up on the picture at once, which is what a very common report that I hear from test practice, like from the people that I help, they say that it feels like their mind gets distracted by so many different things happening in the picture that they don't know where to focus first.

And that's why I think dividing the image into 4 or into 2 or into 9.

If you're like the friend that I was working with just this week, breaking it up like that will give you something to focus in on and ignore.

Rest like give yourself permission to just not even care about the other, you know, two or three sections of the picture only focus in on the one that you're talking about.

And like I said before, narrow your talk down to about three parts in that picture.

You don't have to talk about everything, but you do need to go into detail about whatever you decide to talk about.

So.

So if you struggle to focus, following this strategy will help you to narrow down what you're looking at and stick with one spot at a time and logically move from one to the other.

I think that will go a long way.

If you practice doing this, I think will go a long way to helping you stay focused.

And directly related to that one is the second idea that I have, that I've used successfully with people who, who have ADHD and who have a hard time reading, like staying focused when they're reading.

And what the idea is is that you use your finger to actually follow, like to trace your finger along the text that you're reading.

And.

Well, when I was helping someone with their reading skills, that's what they were dealing with, trying to read a text and their mind was just going off in a million different directions.

So what we started doing was I got them to use their finger, put it right on the screen and go along under each word as they read it.

Like, let their finger guide their eyes from one sentence to another, word by word.

You know what I mean?

Like the, the finger.

Using your finger on the screen and moving along with the text as you read it helped them to keep their attention focused on the text as they were reading and it dramatically improved their ability to stay focused.

I have a feeling that this will also work when you're trying to describe an image.

And I want to encourage you to try it out and get in touch with me and let me know if it actually does.

Okay, so here's the thought.

Just like in the previous.

In the previous tip, I'm suggesting to break that image into four, for example, into four equal spots.

When you're describing one of those spaces, one of those blocks, actually put your finger on the place on the screen that you're describing and then move your finger around on the screen, depending on what you're talking about.

I have a feeling that that will, will help you to also stay on target or focused on the thing that you're talking about without going without, you know, falling into distraction because your finger is kind of guiding you along through the scene.

And there's a quote that I wanted to share with you from the website called Neurodivergent Insights.

And I'll be having links.

These links that I've been mentioning so far, I'll be including them in my show notes today.

So if you want to check them out yourself, you totally can.

But I've got a quote from their website that I that I think kind of maybe backs up or reinforces this idea about using your finger to ground your description, like to ground your mind as you are trying to talk about the image.

This is what the quote says.

For many neurodivergent people, especially ADHDers, learning is more accessible when the body is involved, not just the mind.

This might look like learning through building, drawing, walking while thinking, acting things out, using gestures or working directly with materials, movement can help organize attention, support memory, and ease cognitive overload.

End quote.

So I think like interacting with the environment around you as you are trying to stay focused and describe that image, I think it will help you a lot.

And interacting with the environment, in this case, you actually putting your finger on the part of the screen, on the part of the image that you are talking about, and letting your finger help guide you through each part of the picture as you go along.

So.

So like I said before, I'm no ADHD expert and I'm not an expert in, you know, focus during.

During exams.

That's not my area of expertise.

But I have a feeling that this will work.

It helped one of my clients with their reading skills.

I have a feeling that it will help with your descriptive ability.

Like when you are actually working on a complicated image, keeping your finger on the screen, following it along as you are describing, whatever part of the picture you are describing, I believe will help you to stay focused and not lose your attention on something that is not related to the.

To the picture or what you're trying to describe.

So give that a try and let me know how it goes.

Okay.

The third and final idea is all around fidgeting.

Fidgeting.

Have you ever heard that word before?

It is such a funny word, isn't it?

Well, fidgeting is when you have something in your hand or your hands and you are moving it or you are manipulating it in some way.

When I was in school, I know one of the things that I would often do, probably to the great frustration of my teacher, like when we were in junior high school and high school and we were finally allowed to use pension.

See if you can recognize this sound.

Do you know what that is?

If you're saying that I'm playing with my pen, like clicking it open and closed, open and closed, open and closed.

Yeah, that's.

That's a way that you can fidget.

It's like giving your.

Giving your hands something to do.

And for someone who finds it hard to focus, for someone who has adhd, fidget is a great way to help create focused.

And there are some ideas that I, I found and I cannot remember where I saw them, and that's my bad.

But some of these ideas are not mine.

But I think that they are really helpful and kind of ingenious in a way, because they are things that you can take with you on your exam day.

The first one that I read, and I wish I wrote down where I read it, that was my bad.

But they suggested Chewing gum.

If, if.

That's.

If.

If you need to keep some part of you in motion as you are trying to concentrate and it helps you to stay concentrated that.

That movement, chewing gum might be your best option.

Another one that they suggested was keeping an elastic band around your wrist.

And I like this one because it's something that you would be able to easily take with you on your exam day.

You know, it's something that you're just wearing around your wrist and that you can fidget with.

You know, you can pull it and you can, like, snap it.

You have to be very careful about that because you don't want to create a distraction for anybody else.

But having that around your wrist and maybe something that you can pull off and stretch and pull when.

When you're thinking or as you're talking, it might also help you to stay focused.

That second idea would be take an elastic band with you and wear it around your wrist and play with it during your exam to see if it helps you to stay focused.

And you might want to try this out in your practice sessions as well, just to see if it does have a positive impact on you as you are, you know, practicing.

And if it does, then by all means, take it with you.

And I've also seen small fidget toys, like little cubes, little rubber kind of, I don't know, like rubber pads that have little ball.

Like, I don't know if you've seen bubble wrap, you know, that things are wrapped in.

Like if you get a parcel or something in the mail from Amazon or something like that sometimes, whatever.

If it's a fragile thing that it's wrapped with bubble wrap.

Well, I've seen, like, these soft plastic versions of bubble wrap that don't pop, you know, like.

Like the plastic ones do when you actually.

When you actually pop the bubbles.

But I have seen these.

These.

I don't know if they're plastic.

It's more like.

I can't think of what the word is.

It's soft and it's.

And it simulates what bubble wrap is, except you don't get that popping sound whenever you move the bubble in and out.

That might be something that you might consider taking with you.

It would have to be small, and you might need to ask for permission if you can take it in with you.

But I've seen small fidget toys or fidget gizmos that fit into your pocket that are not in any way, that will not look like a cheating device.

You know, that's something that you have to be really careful about.

You need to be able to one, show it to the test examiner or the exam center on your exam day and ask if you can use it.

But just show it to them and let them know that, you know, this is just to help you to stay focused.

But there's nothing like actually show them so that they can see that there's nothing, you know, that you could be accused of using to cheat.

That's my only concern for you and why I was suggesting, you know, the elastic band idea is pretty cool because that one, I mean, it's just wrapped around your wrist and there's no way that you could use it to cheat.

And, but see if, if there are small fidget toys that could easily fit in your pocket that you could show to the test center on your day of the exam and, and demonstrate that there's nothing on it that would help you to cheat or something like that.

But it's just to help you to, and explain that it's just to help you to focus and stay, you know, present during the exam.

I think that that would be a great idea because I've seen small fidget toys that easily fit into people's pockets and they can just take them with you and use them whenever you want.

The only thing to keep in mind is it should be soundless.

It should be something that does not create sound like, I wish I could use the right words, but those kind of like rubbery bubble wrap simulator things that I was just talking about before, those are really good because they don't make a sound.

They are.

The ones that I've seen are small so they're easy to fit into your pocket and you can just pull them out and play with them.

So that is something that might help.

And I've got a quote here for you also from the Attention Deficit association, kind of underscoring how important or how useful fidget, fidget toys or fidgeting actually is.

And here's the quote.

Science suggests that fidgeting helps ADHDers boost their focus, functioning and productivity.

And that's an inquote and I'll be including that quote also in my show notes today.

So there you have it.

3 I hope actionable ideas that will assist you in staying focused on your exam day and also before your exam day when you are practicing and those are breaking your picture down into equal parts when you are trying to describe it so that you will not get distracted and you know, try to talk about everything and just gradually move through the picture one section at a time.

The second idea, get physical.

Actually touch the part of the picture that you are describing.

And finally, use fidget toys to help you to stay focused and to give your fingers or your hands something to do while you're actually doing your exam.

Just make sure that they are soundless and that the test center actually approves.

And you know you wouldn't get accused of cheating in some way.

And the idea that I gave you before that had that would help you in the in your practice sessions is to have a notebook and a pencil or pen ready and whenever you have a stray thought, just dump it down onto that text onto that notepad so that you don't have it stuck up in your head pulling you in wild and strange directions.

My friend.

That is it for today's episode.

I hope that it was helpful for you and if you have any questions about it or if you have any ideas that I did not mention that I that you know, work for you and you want to share it or you would like me to share it in a in an upcoming episode, please leave a comment and let me know what it is.

I will gladly share it with everyone I can in an upcoming episode.

Thank you so much for listening today.

Hope you have a great rest of your week.

Bye Bye.