CELPIP Listening Part 5: Listening to a Discussion
Part 5 is the heaviest part in the section: eight of the 38 questions, three speakers to keep apart, and every question printed on one screen at once. Here it is inside a free full listening test.
CELPIP Listening Part 5, Listening to a Discussion, is worth eight marks, which ties it with Part 1 as the biggest part of the section. Three people talk for about two minutes. Then every question in the part appears on one screen as a sentence with a gap in it, with one time budget for the whole set and no fixed order.
Two things make it hard. There are three voices instead of two, so an answer attributed to the wrong speaker is simply wrong. And people in a real discussion change their minds, so the position somebody holds at the end is not always the one they started with.
The discussion on this test
Listening Test 8 is set in Moncton, New Brunswick, and Part 5 is Jocelyne, Georgina and Norbert, three volunteers who organise an Acadian community festival, deciding where the tintamarre parade should go this year. It is a genuine three-way disagreement rather than two people and a referee, and the sentence completions ask you to attribute positions as well as recall facts.
How to work Part 5
- Write three names down before the clip starts. You are told there are three speakers and they are shown by position, left, centre and right, so label them before you need them.
- One line each while you listen: what this person wants, and why. Do not try to transcribe.
- Listen for a speaker conceding. Part 5 questions frequently turn on somebody moving position mid-discussion.
- When the completions appear, read all eight before answering any. They come in one budget and any order, so bank the certain ones first.
- Nothing is deducted for a wrong answer, so fill every gap before the timer runs out.
The rest of Listening Test 8
The test is rated Easy and runs end to end in Moncton. Part 1 is a man who has recently moved to the province, at a driver examination centre, exchanging a licence from somewhere else. Part 2 is two long-time friends who have just come out of an aquafit class. Part 3 is a homeowner thinking about a heat pump and the energy adviser who has come to assess the house. Part 4 is a news report on a fish survey on a tidal river in the southeast of the province. Part 6 is a prepared talk at a public meeting about what happened to intercity bus service in the Maritimes after the private carrier withdrew. An unscored practice task at a Canada Post counter runs first.
CELPIP Listening format: where Part 5 sits
| Part | Questions | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Listening to Problem SolvingThree audio sections, spoken questions | 8 | 8 min |
| 2. Daily Life ConversationOne clip, spoken questions, 30 sec each | 5 | 5 min |
| 3. Listening for InformationOne clip, spoken questions, 30 sec each | 6 | 6 min |
| 4. Listening to a News ItemPrinted sentence completions, any order | 5 | 5 min |
| 5. Listening to a DiscussionThree speakers, printed completions | 8 | 9 min |
| 6. Listening for ViewpointsOne prepared talk, printed completions | 6 | 8 min |
| Total | 38 | 41 min |
How Part 5 is scored
Eight marks, one correct answer per gap, no penalty for a wrong one. Part 5 is auto-marked with the rest of the section the instant you submit, and the CELPIP listening score chart converts your raw score out of 38 into a CLB level.
Free, six parts, with Part 5 timed at the real nine minutes.
FAQs
What is CELPIP Listening Part 5?
Part 5 is Listening to a Discussion. Three speakers talk for about two minutes, and then eight sentence-completion questions appear on one screen at once, which you may answer in any order within a single time budget.
How many questions are in Part 5?
Eight, which ties Part 5 with Part 1 as the largest part of the listening section. Together those two parts are 16 of the 38 scored questions.
What is the Part 5 discussion on listening test 8?
Three volunteers called Jocelyne, Georgina and Norbert, who organise an Acadian community festival in Moncton, deciding where the tintamarre parade should go this year.
Why do three speakers make Part 5 harder?
Because most of the questions ask what a particular person thinks, so an answer that is correct about the discussion but attached to the wrong speaker earns nothing. Speakers also concede points partway through, so the view somebody ends on is not always the one they opened with.
Can I answer the Part 5 questions in any order?
Yes. Parts 4, 5 and 6 print every question in the part on one screen with one shared time budget, so you can take the ones you are sure of first. Parts 1 to 3 work the opposite way, one spoken question at a time in a fixed order.