Feeling stuck at a score of 8 on the CELPIP exam can be frustrating, especially as you gear up for your next attempt. It’s vital to understand that using templates isn’t the golden ticket you might think it is. In fact, templates can often backfire and pull your score down instead of boosting it. Instead of relying on memorized responses, I share practical strategies that can help you engage more naturally in conversations and build your speaking confidence.

Grab your free audio course!

The Top 5 CELPIP Speaking Task Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

(If you want to join my upcoming CELPIP Speaking Skills Bootcamp, you need this audio course first!)

Takeaways:

• Using templates for the CELPIP exam can lower your speaking score significantly, so avoid them.
• Engage in daily conversations to practice speaking English naturally without relying on memorized phrases.
• To improve your CELPIP score, build your English skills over time rather than cramming before the exam.
• Surrounding yourself with English speakers is crucial; but you have to seek them out!

Grab your free audio course today! (It's the only way into the 8 week CELPIP speaking skills boot camp that starts September 7!)

And this is actually a very common topic that I see on Reddit threads all over the place.

When they're asking about the Celpip exam, they're hunting for, you know, the golden template that will help them to somehow magically give the best answer possible. But you know what? Templates are a recipe for disaster.

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. This week.

I'm going to be answering a question that I read over on Reddit, and the reason why I'm sharing it here with you is because I've heard it, or kind of very similar versions to it in conversations that I've had with folks over the past couple of weeks. So I'm. I'm thinking it's kind of like a top of mind thing for maybe even you.

So here's the question, and I quote, my Exam is in 5 days, but my speaking is stuck at an 8. After multiple attempts, I don't feel confident in my speaking. Do you have any tips or templates that could help me? So that's the question.

And my answer is this.

To begin with, it really, really, really sucks to feel, and not just feel, but to be stuck at a score that you don't want after multiple attempts at the Cel bib, doesn't it? And before I go on, I want to make sure you know that getting an 8 is a big accomplishment.

It means that you've been steadily working on your English for several years now. And getting an 8 also means that you are at an upper intermediate level of English, which is a major, major accomplishment.

It takes a long time to get there. So first of all, congratulations on getting that far. Thank you.

But I know you want a higher score, and in your question, you didn't exactly say what that higher score is, but I'm imagining it's like at a 9 or a 10 or, or above. But here's the first challenge.

You say you've only got about five days before you're taking your exam again and you're wondering how you could build your confidence about your speaking abilities and actually Break through that. So stubborn 8 to achieve a higher score.

Well, first thing we need to talk about is that those five days probably aren't going to be enough to boost your score.

Now, I'm not sure what your target is, but always remember this, and I've talked about this in other episodes, but the CELPIP measures your level of English. It's not like a typical exam that you do at school where the harder you you study, the higher you usually expect your score to be.

Study harder, usually score higher. The CELPIP doesn't work like that. Unfortunately.

What the CELPIP does, like I said a moment ago, is it tells you more or less what your level of English is. So no amount of hard studying will be able to bump you from an 8 to let's say a 10 or an 11.

An 8, like I said a few seconds ago, is like at a strong intermediate to upper intermediate level of English. But at 10, you're approaching an advanced level skills with the language.

And Moving from an 8 to a 10 can take years, maybe maybe a year and a half of really hard focused daily practice and immersion in the language. So it's not just a matter of studying hard for five nights in order for you to get the score that you're looking for.

So in other words, if you want your score to go up on the celpip, you have to build your general English skills in order to see your score begin to rise, which as I pointed out a second ago, can take quite a long time. So if you're wanting to score higher, make sure that your level of English is actually at that level. You know that you have.

If you're wanting a 10, make sure that you know that you have an advanced level of English or that it's pretty close to being advanced. That way you'll know that you can expect or that you should be able to expect to score that 10.

Another reason why you might not be scoring that 10, maybe you do have that strong upper intermediate level of English or that advanced level of English and you know that you have the right level. You know that you are speaking at an advanced level of English, but you're still not getting the 10.

The reason could be that you're using the wrong strategies and there are things that you should be doing on the exam and there are things that you should not be doing on it. And it's important for you to learn what those things are and actually practice them.

I talk about a few of those in my free five part menial audio course. The top five.

Supplement Speaking Task Mistakes and How to Avoid Them I mentioned quite a few of those common mistakes or common strategy breaks that happen that can pull your score down. If you'd like to get a copy of it, there's a link to that audio course. It's totally free. There's a link to it in my show notes today.

If you haven't already. Make sure that you grab yours. I said it a moment ago, it's totally free.

And and it will help you begin working on a few of those vital strategies to help you bump your score up. And one of the top things that you shouldn't do I heard this in the question I heard or I read the word templates.

You should not be using templates in your answer. And this is actually a very common topic that I see on Reddit threads all over the place.

When they're asking about the CELPIP exam, they're hunting for, you know, the golden template that will help them to somehow magically give the best answer possible. But you know what? Templates are a recipe for disaster.

And templates are something that are probably, if you've been trying to use them, templates are probably what are pulling your score down. They're not helping you achieve the results that you're looking for.

And the big reason that this could be happening to you is that test raters, the ones who are listening to your responses or reading your responses on the writing section of the exam, they're trained to spot template styled answers. And if they feel like you're using one, you can probably say goodbye to some strong points. They'll mark you lower.

Because when you're using a template, you're using like a memorized, formulaic sort of response that doesn't really reflect your level of English, it doesn't really reflect your style of speaking in the real world. That's what they want to hear. The test rater doesn't want to read or to hear you using somebody else's response, which is what a template is.

It's kind of like building a language Runway for you to use.

And if you are just memorizing something and spitting it out on your exam and it totally sticks out, by the way, it's I'm not, I am just a. I'm a Celpip trainer. I'm not a rater. A rater is trained hard on how to grade your responses.

I don't have that special training, but in my time of working with people on getting ready for their exams, I can totally hear and definitely read or Pick out when someone is using one of those memorized templates, and here's why it's or how it sticks out.

As soon as that templated response finishes and you're kind of left out there to finish your response on your own, there's like this usually, usually there's a quite a drastic change in your style of speaking.

It kind of goes from being very, maybe very well polished and put together at the beginning when you're using the templated part of your response, to kind of falling apart or really struggling to move forward when you, when you leave that program, part of your response and you and you begin to speak from your natural skills, it just doesn't, it doesn't work. It doesn't sound coherent. Most of the time, a templated response sounds very robotic. It doesn't sound like you speaking in a natural way.

So if you have been using a template and the person that wrote this Reddit question is asking for, do you have a template that I could use that would help me to bump from an eight to a higher score? My friend, grabbing a template and trying to use one very well might be the reason why you're staying stuck at a lower score.

Because test readers are trained to spot them and they will mark you down if they sense that you're using them or if they can tell that you're using one. You're probably putting yourself at risk to having your score lowered. So do yourself a huge favor and don't try to use a template for one.

Templates can't predict what the questions are going to be like on the exam, so they're not going to be all that helpful for you. Because a template works best when you know, you know exactly what's going to be coming.

You know, it will work the best when there's a definite response that you are preparing for and you're memorizing the words to use in order to answer a specific question.

But on the celpip, you, you're going to have random questions, so you don't even know if the template is going to be, you know, the right combination of words to help you to answer it, so don't use them. Instead, instead of templates, practice engaging in everyday conversations with the people that you see around you.

You go to the grocery store, for example, which is something that I think most of you do. It's something that I do. I just got home from visiting the grocery store.

Actually, when you are interacting with the cashier, that is the perfect opportunity.

Or if you are interacting with someone in the same aisle as you who are, you know, maybe they stop and they ask you for help to reach something, which happens to me quite often because I'm kind of tall. That's the perfect opportunity for you to engage in a conversation where you have no idea what the person is going to say next.

But it's your chance to use your language in an unscripted, untemplated way, which is very similar to what the CELPIP is going to be throwing your way. You know, you need to be able to use your English skills without any kind of, well, formulaic response.

You need to get good at just expressing your ideas in a logical, well connected way. And I think that the best possible way for you to do that is to lean into and create opportunities for you to practice on a day to day basis.

So avoid templates, my friend. Don't use them, don't. Definitely don't buy them. I've seen them, people offering templates for sale on Reddit quite a bit. Please don't do that.

You're probably setting yourself up for lower scores. So in other words, you're paying somebody to help you to score lower. Don't do it. Don't do it.

So as I was saying, the best way for you to get ready for the speaking section of the CELPIP exam, not templates, not memorizing answers and spitting them back out, it's by actually using your English on a daily basis with as many people as you possibly can. Just today I went to the barber shop. It was a new place. I have never been there before.

I never met the barber and I'm usually a quiet and reserved kind of a person, but one I noticed that the barber was quite friendly and he was just from what I was listening as he was working with the only other client in, in his shop. He had just opened his shop a couple of months ago and he was very friendly, very approachable, he was smiling a lot as he was talking.

You could tell that he was passionate about what he was doing. And when it was my turn to be up there, I thought I'm going to try my best to talk with this guy a little bit.

And we began interacting as we were, as we were talking, I was the one who actually initiated the conversation by beginning with the classic. So where are you from? Are you from Victoria, where I live?

And I got to learn all about this guy and his story, why he was there, where he was from originally. And no, he was not from Victoria and we just got to know each other a little bit.

And at the end of the conversation, he asked me what my name was, I asked him what his was. And it was like we created this little connection. And I will definitely go back to visit this guy.

But the thing is, you can either go through your day and notice and engage in the opportunities of practice all around you. Like, I noticed this just this last week.

I was walking to work, and I kid you not, on both sides of the sidewalk, on either side of the street, I saw two people, both of them going in the same direction, on the opposite sides of the street, walking in the same direction.

And both of them, which, and this is why I noticed them, both of them had their cell phones out and they were just staring at their phones as they walked. Both of them, and they were walking along. I don't know where they were going, but they had their faces stuck in their phones.

And maybe I don't know what they were doing, but they were missing out, I think, on the things happening around them. And I wonder if that happens to you too. Not that you necessarily have your face into your cell phone all the time as you're walking around.

I hope you don't.

But what I'm getting at here is that there are things happening all the time, all around you because you live in Canada that could turn into valuable practice opportunities for you. Not just for the CELPIP exam, but for your English skills in general, but also for this, for the exam. If you have your.

Your eyes open for those opportunities. There's lots of them happening around you, so don't miss them. Lean into those opportunities to practice as much as you can.

So that's one of the top strategies that you should be doing all the time. And unfortunately, it's not practiced very often.

And that is using your English on a regular basis more than what you already, you need to increase that as much as possible, especially if your speaking skills is what is holding you back on this helpip. You need to use them more in order for them to grow.

And you know what the most common reason I hear people give for not using their speaking skills more? It's that they feel like they don't have anyone around them to talk to.

And the people that are around them, like at work, for example, they're only, they only speak the. Their first language. So at work they don't have a place to practice. At home, they're surrounded by their first language.

They don't have anywhere anyone to practice with. So they feel like they're kind of stuck. And that, my friend, is a huge problem.

It's a huge problem that you have to solve and, or at least begin working to solve.

Because if you don't, if you find, like if you look around you after you're, after being out at work and you realize that you only used your first language, you have to know that you are in a big problem and you that needs to be dealt with.

Because if you are surrounding yourself all the time with your first language, your growth and development of your English speaking skills are going to be very slow, if at all.

I've told this story with multiple, multiple times, but I have very good friends who have lived here in Canada for nearly 20 years, but they still have a beginner level of English because of this very reason. They've surrounded themselves with their first language at their work, at their home, with their friends.

They don't need to use English because they've surrounded themselves with their first language. That is holding them back. And I don't want it to be holding you back. You need to use your English in order for it to get better.

And that means it's up to you to look for ways to connect with other English speakers. And this week I spoke with one lady who blew my mind with what she decided to do when she realized that she was stuck in that first language bubble.

Her name is Honey and she's a regular listener to this podcast. But she found herself in that situation with nobody to practice with.

So she took one of the boldest moves I've ever seen anybody do in order to break out of that bubble. She decided to sign up for Toastmasters.

If you've never heard of Toastmasters, it's a community kind of organization that helps you to build and practice your public speaking skills. In all my years, I've never heard of someone taking this kind of action to put themselves where other English speakers are. Honey, well done.

I am so excited about that move that you made. I think that's brilliant.

I, I have one other person that I know of who decided they were in the real estate market and they were also in a similar situation. They couldn't find anybody around them to practice with. And because of their, their skills, they were real estate agents.

So they thought, okay, what can I do?

They looked for, like, trade shows, they looked for networking events where other real estate agents were just meeting together, exchanging their business cards and talking with each other. And he decided that he would join that group. Very similar idea to what Honey is doing.

They both realized they were stuck in their own first language bubble and it was holding them back. So they were, they decided to take a huge step and go where they could find someone to practice with.

And I think that that's an amazing move which will 100% help them work on their speaking skills. And if they keep at it, their Celpip scores will start to improve too. So that's my encouragement for you too.

If you don't have anybody to practice with, you need to begin purposefully hunting for those opportunities because you desperately need them.

And I have a special opportunity for you right now that will not only help you get someone to practice with, but it will also help you to master the strategies that you'll need on the speaking section of the celpip exam. Starting September 7th, I'm launching a four week intensive speaking skills boot camp.

Together we're going to cover every single speaking task that you'll face on the CELPIP exam. In just four short weeks. You'll be able to respond confidently to every speaking task the CELPIP can throw your way.

So if you've been struggling to find someone to practice with, my friend, this is your chance to stop going after this on your own.

My four week boot camp will give you daily opportunities to practice specific score boosting Celpip skills with unlimited limited one on one feedback with me. Now if that sounds interesting, we start September 7th, but I'm doing things a little differently this time.

I'm only going to offer this boot Camp opportunity to those who have first listened to my totally free 5 part mini audio course that I was telling you about a few minutes ago and it's called the Top 5 Celpip Speaking Task Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. And you can think about this audio course as a prerequisite to the boot camp.

It's required listening before everything starts and a little secret here. It will also unlock a special price for you when the boot Camp starts that will only be available to those who finish the audio course.

So if you're ready to transform your speaking skills for the celpip, grab your free audio course right now. The link is in my show notes today my friend. That is it for today's episode of the Celpip Success Podcast. Thank you so much for listening.

I hope that you'll come back again next Tuesday. Have a great week.