This episode breaks down CELPIP Speaking Tasks 5 and 6.

Task 5 covers comparing and persuading — picking an option, defending it against a new option, and recording your response.

Task 6 focuses on dealing with a difficult situation — being firm, kind, and clear.

Grab your 5 part mini audio course: The Top 5 CELPIP Speaking Task Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

(Only those who download this audio course will receive an invitation to join my upcoming 30 day CELPIP Speaking Skills bootcamp - we start September 7th!)

Key Segments

• 0:00 — Welcome & Introductions
• 1:22 — Speaking Task 5: Comparing & Persuading What the task is, why it feels complex, and how it mirrors everyday conversations (defending a restaurant pick, a movie choice, etc.).
• 1:50 — Task 5 Timing Breakdown Three rounds of 60 seconds: (1) read two options and choose quickly, (2) review a new third option and prepare your defense, (3) record your answer.
• 5:23 — Task 5 Success Tips

1. Be quick at reading and understanding the options.
2. Choose early (first 10–15 seconds) and jot down 1–2 word notes on why.
3. Use the second 60-second block to prepare arguments defending your original choice against the new option.
4. Personalize your answer — pretend you're talking to someone.

• 7:21 — Task 5 Practice Example: Winter Gloves I reference a practice question about choosing between pairs of winter gloves, including wool knit convertible gloves.
• 9:06 — Speaking Task 6: Dealing with a Difficult Situation Why this task is tough — especially for introverts — and why it's an essential real-life skill. The goal: state your decision firmly, kindly, and with clear reasoning.
• 11:03 — Task 6 Success Tips

1. Speak to a person — use their name or invent one.
2. Be firm, not rude.
3. Convey kindness — stick to your decision but do it nicely.
4. Give a clear explanation — offer 2–3 reasons for your decision.

• 12:27 — Task 6 Practice Assignment You ordered an expensive meal at a restaurant, waited 45+ minutes, and it arrived cold. Talk to the waiter, explain the issue, and request a refund.

• 13:22 — 30-Day Speaking Skills Bootcamp Starts September 7th. Two speaking tasks per week. Submit voice messages and get personalized audio feedback from me.
• 13:45 — How to Get Your Bootcamp Invitation Download the free 5-part mini audio course: "The Top Five CELPIP Speaking Task Mistakes and How to Avoid Them."

Links & Resources Mentioned

• Free Mini Audio Course: The Top Five CELPIP Speaking Task Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
• 30-Day Speaking Skills Bootcamp — starts September 7th
• Task 5 Practice Material — Winter gloves comparison exercise

Hello and welcome to the Celpip Success Podcast, the most introvert friendly podcast on the planet, dedicated to helping you confidently prepare for and conquer the Celpip exam.

If you're tired of feeling nervous, stressed and stuck and getting ready for your exam, then, my friend, this is the podcast for you.

Who am I?

My name is Aaron and I've been an English teacher for over 17 years and I'm a certified Celpip trainer and I can't wait to help you get ready for your Celpip exam.

Have you ever had to defend an idea you had to someone at work?

Or even with your friends or maybe loved ones?

Of course you have.

We do it all the time, don't we?

Be it to eat at the restaurant that you really want to go to, or convincing your friends or a loved one to watch a movie or a TV show that you've been really wanting to see.

Well, it happens all the time, and in this section of the Celpip, it's really no different than that.

Remember, the Celpip tries to get you to use English that you use every day.

You're already a pro at this and I bet you've already done it a bunch of times without even knowing it.

Comparing and persuading.

That's what Celpip speaking task five is all about.

Comparing two ideas or more and trying to persuade someone that your idea is the best one.

And this one might actually feel like the most complex one just because of the way that the whole thing is organized around timing.

But by the end of this episode, I hope that you will see that it's really not that hard.

When this speaking task begins, you're going to be shown two different options and you're going to have 60 seconds to read through the information provided about each of those options.

And your only goal here is not to speak or talk about anything.

It's to very quickly decide which option you like the best based on the information that you are provided with.

So you have to try to make your choice within the first 10 or 15 seconds so that you have the rest of your time to think about the reasons why you you like the option that you chose, but choose you should, because if you don't, the exam will randomly pick an option for you and then move on to the next phase of the question.

And my friend, you don't want that to happen.

You need to be the one who picks what you're going to be defending.

You know, you need to be the one who's staying in control of and making sure that your choice is the one that you're going to be talking about.

Because when you are in control, if you make your choice early within that first 10 seconds, you'll be able to use the remaining, like 40 or 50 seconds to be able to come up with reasons why your choice is the best one.

It's important for you to have that in mind.

You need to choose which, which one you like the best quickly and then think through what makes that option the best one for you.

When that initial 60 seconds are over, the option that you didn't pick will disappear and it will be replaced by a third option that you hadn't seen before, and it will also have additional or new information about this new option that it is showing you.

Your job then is, is to use the next round of 60 seconds.

Not to say anything, not to talk, but to read carefully about this new option with the goal in mind of, of still defending your point of view.

Like you, you.

You're not picking this or deciding if you're going to pick this new option.

What you're doing is deciding how you're going to defend your first choice over and against the one that just appeared.

All right, so you'll have 60 seconds to think about this.

Why is your first choice still the best one?

And the idea is you need to think about it in the sense of you are actually going to have a conversation with someone where like, maybe a friend or a co worker is suddenly presenting you with a new idea, but you like your idea and you need to be able to defend your idea effectively with the goal of being able to try to persuade someone that your opinion or your option is still the best choice.

Once that second set of 60 seconds disappears, you will have another set of 60 seconds to actually record your answer.

So that's what's kind of complicated about this section of the exam.

An initial 60 seconds at the very beginning where you're comparing two different options and trying to pick which one you like the best and why.

When that's done, you'll be shown a third option that you hadn't seen before and you'll have another round of 60 seconds where you're just reviewing the new information being presented to you with the goal of still trying to defend why your initial choice is the best one.

When that 60 seconds is up, you're going to be given another 60 seconds and that's when you need to make your recording.

Yeah, it's.

It's a little bit complicated, but if you keep those things in mind, it'll be really helpful.

In order to succeed on task five of the speaking section of the celpip, you need to be very quick at reading and understanding the information that you are being presented with.

Number two, you need to choose which option you like the best and think about why.

And here's where you can use your notes a lot.

Like write down ideas as to why yours, your choice is the best one as quickly as you can.

You're not going to be writing down full sentences, but maybe one or two words that will help you to remember what you like so much about your choice.

Number three, you're going to be shown a brand new option.

And here you quickly need to review the new information being provided.

Use your prep time, that new block of 60 seconds we were talking about a few moments ago.

Use that new block of 60 seconds to quickly come up with several arguments and supporting reasons and ideas about why your initial choice is still the better one.

Remember, you're not trying to decide if the new or option being presented to you is actually better than yours.

No, you are sticking with your choice.

That's the whole idea of this.

But you're sticking with your choice and you're trying to come up with reasons why your choice is better than the new option being presented to you.

And then finally, number four, pretend that you're talking to someone, personalize it if you totally can, when you begin giving your answer.

And remember, for this one, you have 60 seconds to record your answer.

Now, for the purposes of this episode, I'm not going to present to you the different options that I have available here that I'm looking at simply because it'll be really complicated.

But it all has to do with winter gloves.

I mean, we are approaching rather quickly, at least on in our corner of the world.

We are rapidly stepping into the fall and temperatures are already starting to get cooler outside.

I don't know if you've noticed that happening around you, but over here in Victoria, British Columbia, the days are already, already started to get darker sooner.

The temperature is going down and pretty soon it's going to be the weather where you need to dress up warmly and maybe wear gloves and what I'm going to be showing you.

And in today's show notes, I'll share the link to this so that you can look at it and work on it on your own.

But I'm going to be showing you a couple of different pairs of winter gloves for you to be thinking about which ones you'll pick.

And actually one of the pair, they're called wool knit Convertible gloves.

I used to have a pair of these and they were my favorite gloves.

And I'll show you that picture in the show notes today.

But yeah, the whole idea here would be to look at the different pictures that I'll be showing you pick the ones that you like.

Don't be swayed by me liking the convertible gloves.

You pick the one that you like and think about why those ones are best.

So that's basically in a nutshell, what speaking task five is all about.

You picking an idea, you coming up with reasons why your idea is a good one, why you like the options, or why you like the features of the choice that you made.

And then you'll be shown a new option for you to consider.

Not with the purpose of trying to decide between that new option and your original choice.

No, with the whole idea of trying to defend why your first choice is still the best one.

And of course, having to do it in a kind not rude, but still firm and sticking to your ideas and not being swayed by the point of view or by the new option at all.

So that's speaking task five and speaking task six.

If you've been following along, you'll know that each week during the speaking skills bootcamp that I've been talking about that starts this September 7th, we're going to be dealing with two speaking tasks a week.

And the next speaking task is speaking task six, which is all about dealing with a difficult situation.

And, you know, I think that this one is pretty tough.

This one is not easy for me in real life.

And I think that sometimes the hardest things for us to do is to explain why you are making a decision, especially if that decision is a hard one or one that is kind of in the middle of an awkward situation.

You know, I think we all face moments like that, don't we?

But that doesn't make it any easier, especially if you are shy or introverted like I am.

I totally find it hard to give firm responses sometimes.

How about you?

I don't like being in those kinds of situations, and to be honest, I think I tend to avoid them.

But we can't do that and do well in our lives, can we?

We will get taken advantage of or we're going to be ending up doing things or allowing things that we don't really want to.

So it's pretty important, I think, to get practice at being firm, being kind and dealing with those difficult situations and well on the celpip if you don't deal with a difficult situation, that they're going to be Presenting you with, you'll lose points, and I know you don't want that to happen.

So it's important to do a good job of stating the reason for your decision.

Even if it's a difficult one or an awkward one, you need to do it in a firm and kind way.

And that's what we're going to be practicing today.

To succeed in this section of the exam, here is what you need to be including in your response.

Number one, make sure that you're speaking to a person.

Pay attention to who the exam is having you talk to.

If you can, use their name or invent one, but make sure that you're personalizing your response as much as you can.

Number two, make sure that as you give your response, you remain firm but not rude, making sure that you're letting the other person know you're not going to change your mind.

And third, make sure that your answer conveys kindness.

You still need to stick to your decision, but you need to do it nicely.

Fourth, make sure that you give a clear outline or an explanation of why you're making the decision that you are making.

It's not enough to simply say no, you can't have a refund or no, you can't stay an extra night for free.

You need to try to offer a couple of reasons, like two or three reasons in your answer to help you to explain why your answer is the way it is.

All right, all right.

Here's the assignment.

One of the assignments that we're going to be working on together in the boot camp.

Here it is.

You ordered an expensive meal at an expensive restaurant and waited over 45 minutes for your order to arrive.

When it finally did, you discover, much to your great disappointment, that it was already cold.

You need to talk to your waiter and explain the issue and also request a refund.

There you have it.

Your assignment.

See what you can do with it.

And if you join the 30 day speaking skills Bootcamp, not only will you be able to practice giving this response, but you'll also be able to get feedback from me on the ideas that you present.

You'll share with me a voice message with your answer.

I will listen to it and record a voice message back to you, helping you pinpoint what you're doing great at and helping you also discover and improve on the points where you were weak.

If you would like to get the invitation to join this boot camp, there's one thing that you need to do first.

And if you've been listening, you already know what I'm going to say.

To get your invitation, you just need to do one thing.

You have to download the five part mini audio course called the Top 5 Celpip Speaking Task Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.

It's totally free, it's totally practical, and it's going to help you avoid some of the most common mistakes on the speaking section of the CELPIP exam.

There's a link to that in my show notes today.

Please grab yours today if you haven't already and I'll see you, I hope, inside of the boot camp.

Thanks for listening and have a great day.