CELPIP Writing Task 1 Time Limit: 27 Minutes
Twenty-seven minutes for Task 1, twenty-six for Task 2, and an automatic advance when the first timer ends. Here is how to spend the 27, and a free test that runs on exactly that clock.
The CELPIP Writing Task 1 time limit is 27 minutes. Task 2 gets 26, for 53 minutes in the section. The detail that catches people out is not the number, it is the transition: when the Task 1 timer ends the test moves you to Task 2 by itself, and you cannot go back. An unfinished email stays unfinished, and Task Fulfilment sees a missing bullet.
How to spend the 27 minutes
- Minutes 0 to 3: plan. Read the scenario, then write the three bullets down as three headings and put one invented detail under each. Dates, amounts, names. This is the step that stops you inventing under pressure later.
- Minutes 3 to 6: fix the register. Decide who the recipient is and what that means for contractions, greetings and how directly you can ask. Two minutes here is cheaper than a rewrite at minute twenty.
- Minutes 6 to 21: write, and do not stop. Fifteen minutes for about 175 words is unhurried. Write straight through without editing sentences behind you.
- Minutes 21 to 25: check the bullets, then the errors. In that order. A missing bullet costs more than four typos.
- Minutes 25 to 27: word count and last read. Under 150 is penalised and well over 200 wastes time you needed for Task 2.
What running out of time actually costs
Task Fulfilment is 25 per cent of the writing band and it explicitly covers completeness. An email that answers two of three bullets beautifully bands lower than one that answers all three adequately. That is the arithmetic behind the plan above: the schedule is designed to guarantee three covered bullets before it tries to make any of them good.
The test that runs on this clock
Task 1 is an informal email to your former roommate Tomas. He still has your bread maker and a box of your winter clothes at the old apartment in Hamilton, you have since moved to Ottawa, and he has offered to pack everything up and send it. At the same time the final hydro bill for the apartment has arrived in your name, and the two of you owe each other money. The bullets ask for the exact amount of the bill, your share and the due date; which items you need back and how you would like them packed and sent, including the fragile one; and an apology for leaving your things there so long, plus a way of settling the money that keeps things friendly.
Task 2 is the Pet Bylaw Survey. Your city will make one change to where dogs may run off leash. Option A is three new fenced off-leash parks of about a hectare each, open dawn to dusk, costing $420,000 to build and $35,000 a year to maintain, with dogs on a leash everywhere else all year. Option B is off-leash hours in every park, from 6 to 9 in the morning and after 8 at night, at no building cost, in parks that are unfenced and shared with everybody else during those hours.
CELPIP Writing format: tasks, length and time
| Task | Length | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Writing an EmailEmail to a named recipient, three bullet points | 150 to 200 words | 27 min |
| 2. Responding to Survey QuestionsChoose option A or B and argue for it | 150 to 200 words | 26 min |
| Total | 2 tasks | 53 min |
How your writing is scored
Both tasks are evaluated against the official descriptors on Content and Coherence (30%), Vocabulary (20%), Readability (25%) and Task Fulfilment (25%), each banded 1 to 12 and combined. Your report returns the overall band, the four criterion bands, error highlights and a high-band rewrite of your own content.
Free, both tasks, with the automatic advance the exam uses.
FAQs
What is the time limit for CELPIP Writing Task 1?
Twenty-seven minutes. Task 2 gets twenty-six, so the writing section is fifty-three minutes in total.
Can I go back to Task 1 after the timer ends?
No. The test advances to Task 2 automatically when the Task 1 timer runs out, and Task 1 is closed at that point. Anything unfinished stays unfinished.
How should I divide the 27 minutes?
Roughly three minutes planning the three bullets with invented details, three minutes fixing the register, fifteen minutes writing straight through, four minutes checking bullet coverage and then errors, and two minutes on word count and a last read.
How many words should Task 1 be?
About 150 to 200. Under 150 is penalised for length under Task Fulfilment, and going well over 200 costs you time you will want in Task 2.
What is on writing test 12?
Task 1 is an informal email to a former roommate in Hamilton about getting a bread maker and a box of winter clothes sent on, and settling a final hydro bill that arrived in your name. Task 2 is a city survey choosing between three new fenced off-leash dog parks and off-leash hours in every park.