CELPIP Reading: Introduction
CELPIP Reading:
The Reading part of the CELPIP exam attempts to measure how well a person understands what they read in the contexts of their social, personal, and workplace lives. A test taker’s reading skills will be analyzed through everyday materials in print: charts, email messages, personal and business correspondence, and informational texts. Also, test takers must interpret differing opinions offered in a short text. Each part of the test will expose different reading skills needed by clients.
The Reading part of the CELPIP exam is approximately 60 minutes (55- 60 minutes), and there are 4 parts to the test. Paragon Testing, the creators of the CELPIP Exam, also add a practice question and questions they will use for development purposes – these questions will not be scored as part of your test results; however, you will not be able to tell which question will be discarded.
The chart below shows the 4 different types of questions and their descriptions. Please note the number of questions for each type of task and the ‘suggested’ time to complete each question.
Remember: The Reading Test increases in difficulty from Part 1 to Part 4, so the easiest part is Part 1, Part 2 is more difficult than Part 1, Part 3 is more difficult than Part 2, and Part 4 is the most difficult.
| Part | Type | Description | # of Questions | Suggested Time to complete |
| Practice Task | Practice reading and answering a question | 1 | 1 minute | |
| Task 1. | Reading Correspondence (2 readings) | First, read a text and then answer 6 questions; then read a response to the first text and fill in the blanks by choosing the best choice | 11 questions | 11 minutes |
| Task 2. | Reading to Apply a Diagram(1 reading and 1 diagram) | Read a text, then observe the diagram, and then choose the best answer | 8 questions | 9 minutes |
| Task 3. | Reading for Information(1 reading) | Read a text and decide which paragraph (possibly none) supports each statement | 9 questions | 10 minutes |
| Task 4. | Reading for Viewpoints(2 readings) | First, read an opinion report and answer 5 questions; then read a response and fill in the 5 blanks by selecting the best answer. | 10 questions | 13 minutes |
| Total | 38 scored questions | 44 minutes/16 minutes to review |
