CELPIP Listening Part 2: Daily Life Conversation
Part 2 is short and deceptively hard: two people who already know each other, so the conversation moves fast and explains nothing. Five questions, spoken one at a time, thirty seconds each. Here it is inside a free full listening test.
CELPIP Listening Part 2, Listening to a Daily Life Conversation, is one clip of about ninety seconds to two minutes between two people who know each other, followed by five questions. The questions are spoken to you, one at a time, with only the four options on screen and thirty seconds each, in an order you cannot leave.
The difficulty is not the vocabulary. It is that people who know each other do not explain themselves. Names go unintroduced, plans are referred to rather than described, and half the answers are one speaker correcting an assumption the other one arrived with.
The conversation on this test
Listening Test 9 is set in and around Lethbridge, Alberta, and Part 2 is two members of a community concert band packing up after a Tuesday night rehearsal. There is a trailer problem in it, and it is discussed the way two people who both already know about the trailer would discuss it, which is exactly the point.
How to work Part 2 in five minutes
- Count the corrections. In this part most answers are one speaker telling the other that something they assumed is not so.
- Do not wait for names to be introduced. Fix the two speakers by voice in the first ten seconds and hold them.
- The clip plays once and starts on its own. There is no pause and no replay, so listening for the gist first and details second does not work here.
- A question you cannot answer costs thirty seconds whether you answer it or not. Guess quickly and use what is left to get ready for the next stem.
- Nothing is deducted for a wrong answer.
The rest of Listening Test 9
Test 9 is rated Medium. Part 1 is a woman collecting a prescription at a community pharmacy and the pharmacist on duty, after the plan stopped covering it. Part 3 is a man who wants to take out his lawn and the woman who manages a municipal demonstration garden. Part 4 is a news report on the end of a long construction project on an irrigation canal in southern Alberta. Part 5 is Garnet, Loretta and Jarrod, three members of an agricultural society, deciding what to do about the livestock show at their fall fair. Part 6 is a prepared talk to a municipal council on why some wind turbines in the region are sometimes paid to stop generating.
CELPIP Listening format: where Part 2 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 2 is scored
Five marks, one correct answer each, nothing deducted for a wrong one. Part 2 is marked with the rest of the section the moment you submit, and the CELPIP listening score chart converts your total out of 38 into a CLB level.
Free, six parts, with Part 2 timed at the real five minutes.
FAQs
What is CELPIP Listening Part 2?
Part 2 is Listening to a Daily Life Conversation. It is one clip between two people who already know each other, followed by five questions that are spoken to you one at a time with thirty seconds each and a fixed order.
How many questions are in Part 2?
Five, out of the 38 in the listening section. It is tied with Part 4 as the smallest part.
What is the Part 2 conversation on listening test 9?
Two members of a community concert band in Lethbridge, Alberta, packing up after a Tuesday night rehearsal, with a problem about the band trailer running through it.
Why is Part 2 harder than it looks?
Because the speakers know each other and therefore explain nothing. They refer to plans instead of describing them and skip introductions, and most of the questions turn on one of them correcting something the other assumed.
Is the Part 2 question read out or printed?
Read out. Parts 1, 2 and 3 speak the question to you after the clip with only the options on screen. Parts 4, 5 and 6 print theirs as sentence completions on a single screen.