First attempt: 12/12/11/10
I took the test last Saturday and got the results this morning! Tbh I didn’t expect these scores, so I was hoping I’d at least get 9 in all parts. I definitely didn’t feel super confident after the test. I guess it’s my fault, but I thought I could adjust the volume on my own. Somehow I couldn’t? Cos there was no volume bar to adjust in the question and the audio was way too loud, so it was hard to focus… and I wasn’t able to really call someone to help as the test had already started.
Anyway, the first part was a bit shaky, but I got my groove along the way. For me, the biggest hiccup was Part 7 of speaking. Omg I was literally rambling cos I couldn’t find two good supporting points lol, so I felt extremely frustrated. I thought I’d definitely be getting 7 or 8, but tbh I think I did okay except for Part 7, hence the Band 10.
I had ample time to prepare for this test, so I purchased a CELPIP official test bundle (7–13) and finished all of them. It helped me get familiar with the test format and questions. There were sample answers for 10–12 bands and tbh they don’t sound or seem that advanced imo, so I was a bit relieved that maybe their scoring could be generous?
Anyway, when I first prepared the test, I struggled with the writing part a lot, so I put immense effort into writing. For my writing answers, I had Gemini review them with revised versions (minimal revision, yet Band 10+ level answers). Tbh I mostly got 9, sometimes 10 from Gemini, so I believe AI scoring can be a bit conservative. If you get 8–9 from AI, I think you’d get 10+ in the real exam. In addition to this, CELPIP 9 Coach Carlson on YouTube was very helpful. I followed his writing structure for Part 2 and it was effective. He has no paid course, but his content is high quality, so I recommend checking it out.
Oh also, I took PTE Core a few days before CELPIP as I got perfect all 90 two years ago lol. But oh man, this time I got only 69/90/90/77 for PTE Core… and tbh I feel like the questions and exam quality are pretty bad. Of course it requires real English proficiency, but to me it’s more about how you can trick the AI to get a score
, so I’m glad I decided to go with CELPIP as well.
I hope everyone gets their desired scores, good luck 🍀