If note taking on the CELPIP is hard for you, then this is for you. We're going to quickly dig into how you can take effective notes on the CELPIP exam. You know, few students that I've worked with say that they don't struggle with listening and taking notes at the same time.
Most struggle with it. They frequently say that they can either pay full attention to what is being said, but not take notes. Or, they can focus on writing an idea down, but they find that they lose track of what is happening in the audio they are trying to listen to. The same is true when watching a video segment.
Either I'm writing down a key point, or I'm watching and listening to what's happening. I struggle to do both. To overcome this common challenge, here are three things that you can focus on today. 📍
Well, hello there, and welcome to the Speak English Fearlessly podcast. This is the podcast for motivated English learners who want to speak English fearlessly and learn practical tips and strategies to conquer the CELPIP exam. I also love to feature encouraging interviews with regular people, people just like you, who are working towards becoming fluent in English, so we can learn from their experiences together.
Who am I? My name is Aaron Nelson, and I've been an English teacher for over 16 years, and I now help students prepare for the CELPIP exam through online classes.
If you listened to my previous episode around effective practice for the CELPIP, and I'll be linking to it in today's show notes if you missed it, then you'll know that my first point for you is this. If taking notes is challenging for you, then you need to focus your practice time on taking notes.
Don't avoid them because you find it hard. Instead, lean into this area of weakness and purposefully spend time practicing taking notes. You can watch your favorite English TV show. How many of the five W's can you note down?
And just as a review, the five W's are who, what, when, where, and why. You know, in any program that you watch, if it's like a TV show, there's usually a conflict, or there's a problem. And the characters in that show need to find a way to overcome whatever that conflict or problem is. As you're watching, as you're listening, try to take notes on who is facing the problem.
Identify what that problem is. and identify what they try to do about it. Or if they come up with suggestions, you know, if they're talking about options, things that they can be doing to overcome whatever their challenge might be, see if you can take notes about that and then try to figure out as you're listening, why it matters to them.
Why is it so important that they overcome this challenge or this problem? Write it down, take notes. And finally, where is this taking place? And. As you're listening, as you're watching, rather, pay attention to what the characters are wearing. And all I want you to focus on is prominent clothing features, like a sweater, or a dress, or if they're wearing glasses, or if they have a hat on.
Pay attention to prominent clothing features. After the show, see if you can use your notes to retell what the show was about. The whole point of this, if note taking is hard for you, make sure that you are purposefully practicing it. Don't avoid it. Number two, set yourself up for success.
The intro statement of each listening section on the CELPIP exam will tell you how many speakers there's going to be. It will also tell you if they're male or female. This will help you as you're setting up your note paper to take notes. If there are three speakers, for example, you should divide your paper into three sections or the three columns. And for each column, identify if it's male or female. And if you can, as you're listening, if you hear their names being spoken, write the letter of their first name under their different headings. And every time that person is talking, Make sure that as you're taking notes, you're taking notes under their column.
That is how you can set yourself up for success. Use the introduction to each listening section as a way to help you prepare your note taking paper for what's to come. Don't waste this valuable information. The test is giving you clues. as to what's going to be coming next, and you can use it for your advantage.
Make sure you do. For task five, you're watching and listening to a video. Here are some important things that you should be noticing as you're taking notes. Number one, pay attention to what the topic is all about. What are they talking about? What's the main focus of their conversation? Write that down on the top of your paper.
You should also be paying attention to how each speaker feels about the situation. And to figure that out, you can be watching their facial expressions, their body language, but pay attention to feelings. How do they feel about the problem or the situation or the challenge that is being talked about in that video?
Next, notice who agrees or disagrees with the topic. If the first speaker, for example, is strongly disagreeing, make sure that you say, or that you note down, maybe with an X, meaning this person does not agree. If the second person strongly agrees, maybe you can put a checkmark, and so on. But notice who is agreeing and who is disagreeing with whatever is being talked about.
Now here's a tricky one. You won't be asked about specific details like how many people are in the room or who was wearing glasses and who was wearing a blue dress or a red sweater, but You may need to answer a question that references the person who is wearing a blue sweater or who is wearing a tie or who had glasses on.
So as you are watching, make sure that you're paying attention to the most important items of clothing that the person has. Again, not so that you can answer questions about clothing.
What kind of sweater they had on or what color it was or what glasses they had on. But just in case the question references the person wearing the black glasses said, and then you needed to fill in the blanks.
And I already mentioned this before, whoever is doing the speaking, make sure that you're taking notes under their specific column that you set up at the beginning if you were following along with what I was saying before. If the exam question tells you that there's two men and one woman, make sure that whatever man is speaking gets the notes put under their specific column.
Section, and also true about the woman, if she is the one speaking, make sure that you're taking notes under her column and not getting it confused. This will help you to be able to find the information that you need later on. You should also be paying attention to names, to dates, and to any events that are mentioned.
The most important thing. that you should be doing on a regular basis in order to develop your note taking skills. If note taking is a difficult thing for you, the most important thing for you to do to get ready for the CELPIP exam is to be listening to a wide variety of content, from news stories, to interviews, to TV shows, to movies, all in English, by the way.
But the point is, be exposing yourself to a variety of different audio and visual content. Uh, listening activities
and don't forget to include a combination of audio. And visual like movies or TV shows. And as you're listening, especially to news stories and interviews, try taking notes around the five Ws. And we talked about that already. The who, the what, the when, the where, and the why. It's so important to be practicing these skills in a variety of content settings.
both audio and video. Don't rely only on one. Make sure that you use a combination of both because the exam will be testing you in a variety of different situations, both audio only and on video. So practice both. To summarize, to develop your note taking skills for the CELPIP, you should be purposefully practicing taking notes, especially if this is something that is hard for you to do.
Number two, don't forget to set yourself up for success. Pay attention to the intro statement of each listening task. That intro statement will tell you Important information about what's to come, and it will help you to organize your note taking paper according to the information that they provide. And finally, make sure that you're taking time to be watching videos and TV shows as well as listening to just audio.
Variety and regular contact with it is so important. It's not just pure audio.
If you would like to get your hands on a cheat sheet of all the tips that I was sharing in today's episode, I have it all ready and waiting for you. All the tips, all the strategies that I mentioned in today's episode are waiting for you free If you go to www.celpipsuccess.com/resources, that's.
celpipsuccess.com/resources,
Where you will find a cheat sheet of all the information that I talked about with you today.
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode, and I hope you have a great week, and I'll see you again next Tuesday. Bye bye.
