Got CLB 9 on my first CELPIP attempt as someone weak in Speaking
Hi everyone, I wanted to share my CELPIP experience because Speaking was the part I worried about the most.
I got CLB 9 on my first attempt, but honestly I did not feel confident after the exam. I felt bad enough that I had already started thinking about preparing for a second attempt.
Speaking has always been my weakest skill. I also personally found CELPIP Speaking harder than IELTS Speaking because each answer has a short fixed preparation time and recording time. For me, the hardest parts were Task 3, Task 4, and Task 8, especially the image-description tasks. Sometimes I was not familiar with the everyday objects in the picture, so it was hard to describe everything smoothly.
One thing that helped me was making my practice closer to the real test. I did full Speaking mocks with all 8 tasks, using the same preparation time and recording time as the actual CELPIP format. That helped me get used to the pressure instead of only practicing individual questions.
I also recorded my answers and listened back to them. For harder tasks, I would answer the same question again and compare my first answer with my second answer. That made it easier to notice repeated problems, like hesitation, weak structure, unclear details, missing vocabulary, or spending too much time thinking.
I kept a simple record of my practice and reviewed the words or phrases I kept forgetting. After doing this for a while, Speaking started to feel a little less random. My practice results had already been around my target range, and the final result showed me that consistent practice can be a useful signal.
This was a big personal goal for me since coming to Canada. Just wanted to share my experience in case it helps someone else preparing for the Speaking section.