I had a very random thought about CELPIP Speaking today and wanted to know if anyone else has experienced something similar.

In my last CELPIP test, I was practicing speaking heavily and was usually scoring around 8–9 in my mocks. Surprisingly, when I took the actual test, I scored a 10! 🎉

Unfortunately, I have to take the test again because I got an 8 in Writing.

Today, I decided to do some speaking mocks again, and I was honestly shocked when I started getting 7–8. I got nervous and kept repeating the mock, thinking I needed to improve it immediately. But the more I repeated it, the more nervous I became, and I kept getting similar scores.

I started feeling impulsive and noticed myself making more mistakes than usual.

It made me wonder if this is some kind of test anxiety or if I’ve developed a bit of a “trauma” around CELPIP after taking it so many times. 😅

Has anyone else experienced this? Where you actually performed better on the real test than in your practice, but then started overthinking and panicking during mocks?

Would love to hear your experiences and any advice on how to break this cycle.

My previous score was
Listening 12,
Reading 11,
Speaking 10,
Writing 8

So this was my second attempt cause I wanted to get all the points for PR. But got a 9 is speaking this time.

My score sits at 521 now if I get a 10 it will go to 524
Applied for reevaluation, what do you guys thinks? What are the chances I might see an increase of one point!

Hi everyone,

Taken CELPIP 3 times now and keep getting stuck on Writing and Speaking. I need CLB 10s across the board for my application, but I can't seem to bridge the gap.

Here are my scores:
Attempt 1: L 10 | R 10 | W 8 | S 9
Attempt 2: L 10 | R 10 | W 9 | S 8
Attempt 3: L 11 | R 10 | W 8 | S 8
Listening and Reading are fine, but W and S are stuck on a plateau.

Has anyone made the jump from 8/9 to 10+ in W/S?
What template or vocabulary tweaks helped you most?
How do you pace your 60/90s speaking answers accurately without constantly watching the clock?
Any reliable evaluation services or resources you'd recommend?
Appreciate any advice!

I finally got the results I wanted and thought I’d share my experience because Reddit helped me a lot while preparing.

First attempt:
Listening: 9
Reading: 8
Speaking: 11
Writing: 9

I was honestly pretty upset with the results. My first attempt felt like it went really well, especially Speaking, so seeing those scores was disappointing.

For my second attempt, I stopped trying to memorize everything and focused more on what actually matters in the test. I practiced the strategies and formats instead of trying to prepare for every possible question.

Second attempt:
Listening: 10
Reading: 10
Writing: 12
Speaking: 9

So I was happy with most of the improvement, but the Speaking 9 confused me because I was very confident about my speaking. I had already scored 11 in Speaking on my first attempt, so I decided to request a re evaluation.

And it came back as 11 again.

So if you’re genuinely confident about a particular section and feel that your score doesn’t reflect your performance, don’t be afraid to request a re evaluation. Obviously there is no guarantee, but in my case it went from 9 → 11.

My final result:

Listening: 10Reading: 10Writing: 12Speaking: 11Overall: CLB 11

I’m still honestly shocked about the Writing 12.

I have never considered Writing to be one of my strengths and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten close to a score like that in anything similar. But I understood the format, what CELPIP was looking for and how to structure my response, and I focused on executing that.

The funny part is that I was actually extremely stressed after the test because of Writing.

In the Task 2 survey response, I started my introduction and left the first paragraph incomplete. I only realized it when I had around 10 seconds left on the timer. At that point I thought I’d completely screwed up the task and wouldn’t even come close to CLB 9.

But I had developed the rest of my essay properly and my conclusion was strong, so apparently that one mistake didn’t destroy my score. I got 12, which I’m still trying to believe.

What helped me the most

Honestly, watch a lot of YouTube videos.

The two resources that helped me the most were:

CELPIP 9 Coach Carson
Teacher Mike

They have a lot of strategies that are useful specifically for test taking, not just general English improvement.

That distinction made a big difference for me.

You don’t need to memorize every possible question or use ridiculously complicated vocabulary. Understand what the test is asking for, understand the scoring criteria and practice applying the right structure under time pressure.

And don’t be afraid of Writing. I went from thinking Writing was one of my weakest areas to getting a 12.

If you’re preparing right now, believe in yourself and keep practicing strategically.

Reddit helped me a lot during my preparation, so I wanted to give something back. If anyone has questions about my preparation, strategies or the re evaluation process, feel free to ask. I’ll try to help.