CELPIP Writing task practice: Test 2
Two writing tasks practised back to back: an informal email asking a neighbour to look after Biscuit for a week, then a staff survey that makes you choose between a $600 fitness allowance and four extra paid days off.
The writing section is two tasks, and they are not one task written twice. Task 1 is a message to a named person that has to sound like a person wrote it. Task 2 is an argument with no recipient at all. Practising them in one 53-minute sitting is the only way to feel how differently they spend the same 150 to 200 words, and test 2 is rated Easy, which makes it the right place to learn the shape of both.
Task 1 practice: the informal email about Biscuit
You are going to Halifax for a week next month to visit your elderly parents, and you cannot take Biscuit, your friendly dog, with you. Your neighbour has met him several times and looked after him for a weekend last summer, so you are asking someone who already knows the animal rather than a stranger. The bullets ask you to explain why you are going away and give the exact dates you need help, describe the dog's daily routine and any special care instructions, and offer to do something in return.
The middle bullet is procedural writing, which is rarer in this exam than it sounds: feeding times, quantities, the walk, the thing he is nervous about, set out in an order somebody could actually follow. The third bullet is where bands separate. A week of dog care is a real debt, and a thank you does not cover the bullet. Name what you will do back, and make it proportionate to a week rather than to an afternoon.
Task 2 practice: the Employee Wellness Survey
Your company has budgeted the same amount per employee for a new wellness benefit starting in January, and every member of staff has to choose before the end of the month. Option A is a fitness allowance: $600 a year towards a gym membership, sports equipment or fitness classes, claimed against receipts, with anything unspent returned to the company at the end of the year. Option B is four extra paid days off a year, usable for any purpose, not carried into the following year, and approved two weeks in advance.
Each option has its catch printed inside it, and the catch is the argument. The allowance only exists if you spend it on the listed things and keep the paperwork; the days only exist if you can plan them a fortnight ahead. Naming your option in the first sentence and then using its own condition as evidence is worth more than any amount of general praise for staff wellbeing.
What the two tasks ask for that is different
- Task 1 has a reader and Task 2 does not. The email needs a greeting, a purpose in the opening line and a sign-off. The survey response needs none of them and loses nothing by starting with the choice.
- Task 1 supplies a relationship, Task 2 supplies numbers. Your neighbour sets the register; the two wellness options set the evidence.
- Task 1 wants invented detail, Task 2 wants selected detail. You choose the dates and the routine yourself; in the survey you choose which of the given facts carries the argument.
- They finish differently. Task 1 is complete when all three bullets are covered. Task 2 is complete when one option has been argued for and never abandoned.
- The same 150 to 200 words buy different things. Roughly 55 words a bullet in the email, two developed reasons in the survey, which is why a slow wind-up is more expensive here than anywhere else in the exam.
The clock on each task
The email gets 27 minutes and the survey response 26. The time does not pool: minutes saved on Task 1 are not added to Task 2, and when the first timer ends the test moves you on by itself. On an Easy test that costs little, which is exactly why the routine is worth rehearsing here rather than on a hard one.
One email and one survey response, each timed and each banded separately.
FAQs
What do I get with CELPIP Writing Practice Test 2?
Both tasks on the exam timing, and an evaluation carrying a CLB band, a band on each criterion and a high-band rewrite of your own answers.
What type of email is Task 1 in this test?
An informal email to a neighbour, asking her to look after Biscuit while you spend a week in Halifax with your elderly parents. Warm and natural is the target register, and a stiff business email to a neighbour is marked down under Task Fulfilment.
What is Task 2 in this test?
The Employee Wellness Survey. Your company will fund one new benefit and you choose between a $600 a year fitness allowance claimed against receipts and four extra paid days off that cannot be carried into the next year.
How long is each writing task?
Twenty-seven minutes for the email and twenty-six for the survey response, 53 in total. The minutes do not pool, and the test advances to Task 2 on its own when the first timer ends.
How do I get my results?
The report reaches you by email and stays on a private link. It bands each task separately, so you can see whether the email or the survey response is the one holding your writing score down.