CELPIP

Both versions are taken at a test centre on a computer, in one sitting, with no separate speaking appointment. The timings and question counts below are from celpip.ca’s CELPIP-General, CELPIP-General LS and Test Format and Scoring pages, read on 21 October 2026.

Speaking comes last. Per CELPIP’s Speaking Pro Target 9+ Study Pack (revised May 2026), most tasks give 30 seconds to prepare and 60 seconds to speak; Tasks 1 and 7 give 90 seconds to speak, Task 6 gives 60 seconds to prepare, and Task 5 gives 60 seconds to choose between two options without speaking, then 60 to prepare and 60 to speak. When the preparation time ends, the screen moves on and recording starts by itself. Three test-room facts from celpip.ca’s test-day page matter for Speaking: you may hear other candidates speaking and typing, which CELPIP calls a standard test room condition; you get a pen and notepaper; and you must arrive 45 minutes early, because check-in closes 15 minutes before the start and late arrivals lose the fee. Practise with background noise, and at a normal speaking volume: the Study Pack says speaking too loudly or too softly can hurt Listenability, and that raters hear you clearly at normal volume despite the room noise. The format page walks through the Speaking room minute by minute.

The eight tasks are numbered and named on celpip.ca’s format page, and you meet them in that order. Each is a small piece of everyday life, usually with a named friend, family member, neighbour or customer, and the raters judge whether you did what that situation needed. The descriptions and timings are from CELPIP’s Speaking Pro Target 9+ Study Pack (revised May 2026); the last column is TalkDrill’s judgement, not CELPIP data.

Our CELPIP Speaking guide is the short overview of all eight. The task-by-task page has an outline, model answers written by TalkDrill and the trap for each task, and the practice bank gives you prompts to run against the timer.

Every component gets a CELPIP level from 0 to 12. CELPIP calibrates its levels against the Canadian Language Benchmarks, and from Level 3 to Level 12 the numbers are the same; Level 2 covers CLB 1 and 2. IRCC’s Express Entry language-testing page (modified 16 October 2026) lists CELPIP 7, 8, 9 and 10 or more as CLB 7, 8, 9 and 10 or more, skill by skill, and gives points per ability, so a 10 in Listening does not make up for an 8 in Speaking.

Speaking is rated by three to five trained raters, each working alone on your recording, per celpip.ca’s results page. If their ratings disagree, a benchmark rater is assigned. They rate four dimensions, each with five performance levels: Content/Coherence (number, quality and organisation of ideas, examples and details), Vocabulary (word choice, precision, range, suitable use), Listenability (rhythm, pronunciation and intonation; pauses, interjections and self-correction; grammar and sentence structure; variety of sentence structure) and Task Fulfillment (relevance, completeness, tone, length). Two things follow. Listenability is not an accent score; grammar and sentence variety sit inside it. And Task Fulfillment includes tone and length, so a correct answer in the wrong register, or one that stops halfway through the timer, loses marks even with perfect pronunciation. The scoring page has the full chart and a self-rating sheet.

IRCC’s Comprehensive Ranking System criteria page (modified 16 October 2026) gives points for each of the four abilities in your first official language. The jump from CLB 8 to CLB 9 is the largest single step on the grid.

For a single applicant, moving all four abilities from CLB 7 to CLB 9 adds 56 core points (14 per ability); with a spouse it adds 52. CLB 9 in all four abilities also doubles the language-linked skill transferability points on the same page: a post-secondary credential of one year or longer earns 13 points with CLB 7 or more and 25 with CLB 9 or more in all four; three or more years of foreign work experience earns 25 and 50. Those rows need all four abilities at 9, so a Speaking 9 alone does not open them. IRCC’s Federal Skilled Worker points table, on the language-testing page, starts at CLB 7. Whether you need 9 depends on your programme and the draws; cut-off scores move with every draw, so we do not quote one here. If your Speaking is at 7 and the rest is close to 9, our 30-day plan is built for you.

CELPIP charges per sitting and sets prices by country. These are the prices shown on celpip.ca on 21 October 2026, read from each country’s test-date table or, for Canada, from the overview and residency pages.

In India, celpip.ca says the test is “widely available across India within 2 weeks at 25 test centers in 15 cities”; the date table we read listed Chandigarh, Bathinda, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Kozhikode and Panjim. The policies on the overview page: cancel at least seven calendar days before the test for a 50 per cent refund, nothing after that; transfer at least seven days before for CAD 50 plus tax; and register for no more than one sitting in any five calendar days. Results appear in your CELPIP account in 2 to 4 business days as an official PDF score report (the overview page says 3 to 4), and you upload that PDF to IRCC. You can ask for a re-evaluation of any component within six months of the test; the fee is refunded for a component whose level changes, and each component can be re-evaluated once. The dates block on this page is checked weekly. The fees page, the dates and centres page and the results page go further.

Permanent residence. CELPIP-General is accepted for Express Entry (Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Worker, Federal Skilled Trades), provincial nominee programs, the post-graduation work permit and the Start-Up Visa, per celpip.ca’s Canadian Residency page. IRCC’s Express Entry page says you must take CELPIP-General, and that your results must be less than two years old when you complete your profile and when you submit your application. Citizenship. Applicants aged 18 to 54 must show CLB 4 or higher in speaking and listening, per IRCC’s citizenship language page, and CELPIP-General LS is CELPIP’s test for that. Australia. CELPIP’s chart lists Competent English as at least 7 in each component and Proficient English as Listening 9, Reading 8, Writing 10 and Speaking 8.

Our readers are mostly Punjabi speakers from Punjab and Haryana, and Punjabi-Canadians sitting LS for citizenship; then Hindi speakers from Delhi and the north, Gujarati speakers near the Ahmedabad and Vadodara centres, Malayalam speakers near Kochi and Kozhikode, Filipino candidates in Manila and the Gulf, Nigerian candidates in Lagos and Abuja, and Arabic speakers and South Asian workers in the UAE. CELPIP publishes no results by first language, so our first-language pages describe tendencies, each with a fix and a drill, and never invent a statistic. Start with the page for Punjabi, Hindi and Gujarati speakers or the page for Filipino and Nigerian candidates.

For candidates whose CELPIP Speaking is at Level 7 now and needs to reach 9. Six study days a week of 30 to 45 minutes, one action a day; the seventh day is rest. After week 4, day 28 is rest, day 29 is a ten-minute warm-up and day 30 is the test. Each week trains one part of what separates 7 from 9 in CELPIP’s published level descriptors: structure and developed reasons, then Listenability, then vocabulary and tone, then full mocks. CELPIP’s own 30-day study plan suggests 1.5 to 3 hours a day across all four skills; this roadmap is the Speaking part. If you also need 9 in Writing, add the Writing page on alternate days. The reasoning for every day is on the 30-day plan page.

Forty CELPIP Speaking prompts written by TalkDrill, arranged as five complete mock tests of eight tasks each, in the order of the real test and with the preparation and speaking times CELPIP lists in its Speaking Pro: Target 9+ Study Pack (May 2026). Each prompt shows the timer to set, a scoring focus (what the raters will listen for on that task), a model response written by TalkDrill to the Level 9 and 10 descriptors, and a note naming the dimension the prompt really tests. Record your answer before you read the model. Then use the model to find ideas and phrases, never as a script: CELPIP warns that memorised or copied content can lead to results being invalidated, and its raters are listening for spontaneous, original speech.