CELPIP Writing Mock Test 16
The last of the sixteen writing tests and one of the friendliest: an apology to a classmate you have let down, and a survey where both options cost the same sixty parking spaces.
Writing Mock Test 16 is rated Easy. Both prompts are everyday situations with no technical vocabulary in them, which makes it a good test to sit early, and a good one to sit again late when you want to see whether your band is limited by the prompt or by you.
Task 1: the informal email
You and your classmate Bianca are partners on a group presentation in a night course in Edmonton. Your shift was changed at the last minute, so you missed last week class and Bianca planned the whole thing on her own. The presentation is in ten days and you have sent her nothing at all. The bullets ask for the exact evenings and hours you are free next week and the date of the presentation; which parts of the presentation you will take on, in what order you will do them, and how you will get your slides to her; and an apology for leaving her with the whole plan, together with something concrete that makes it even.
The word to watch in that last bullet is concrete. An apology with no offer attached is the commonest way to lose the third bullet on a prompt like this one, and Task Fulfilment counts bullets rather than sentiment.
Task 2: the survey
The Bike Lane Survey. Your city is reallocating the same 3 kilometres of Main Street and both plans remove the same 60 on-street parking spaces. Option A is a protected bike lane: a two-metre lane behind a concrete curb for the full 3 km, on a street counting about 900 cyclists a day in summer but only 120 in winter, and it still has to be cleared all year. Option B is wider sidewalks and patio space: sidewalks widened from 2 to 4 metres with room for 14 restaurant patios that pay the city a fee each season, with cyclists still sharing the traffic lane.
This is an unusually clean Task 2 because the cost is identical on both sides. Sixty spaces go either way, so an answer that argues about parking has not engaged with the choice at all.
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
Content and Coherence (30%), Vocabulary (20%), Readability (25%) and Task Fulfilment (25%), banded 1 to 12 each against the official descriptors and combined into a weighted overall band, with error highlights and a high-band rewrite in the report.
Tips for this test
- Put real times in bullet one. Tuesday and Thursday after seven is an answer; next week sometime is not.
- Make the apology specific to what she did. She planned the whole thing alone, so say that.
- Attach an offer to the apology. Concrete means a task you will take, not a feeling you have.
- In Task 2, ignore the parking. Both options remove the same 60 spaces, so it decides nothing.
- Note the winter number. 120 cyclists a day against 900 in summer is the strongest argument the other side has, which makes it the best concession to answer.
Free, both tasks on the exam clock, with expert feedback and a CLB band.
FAQs
What is on writing test 16?
Task 1 is an informal email apologising to a classmate called Bianca, who planned an entire group presentation alone after your shift changed at the last minute, with ten days left before the presentation. Task 2 is a survey choosing whether three kilometres of Main Street should become a protected bike lane or wider sidewalks with restaurant patios.
How hard is writing test 16?
It is rated Easy. Both prompts are everyday situations with no technical vocabulary, so the marks turn on structure, register and bullet coverage rather than on subject knowledge.
Why does the Task 2 prompt say both options cost the same?
Because both plans remove the same 60 on-street parking spaces, which removes the easiest argument from the table. An answer that spends its words on parking has not addressed the actual choice between cycling infrastructure and pedestrian space.
Is this test free and does it come with feedback?
Yes to both. Writing test 16 is free, and the report gives you an overall CLB band, a band on each of the four criteria, error highlights and a high-band rewrite of your own content.