CELPIP Writing Scoring: The Four Criteria
Four criteria, fixed weights, both tasks scored the same way. Here is what each criterion actually measures and what moves it, followed by a hard-rated free writing test to be measured on.
CELPIP writing is judged rather than marked, but it is not judged loosely. Both tasks are assessed against the same four criteria with the same weights, and each is banded 1 to 12 before being combined. Knowing which criterion your marks are leaking from is worth more than any amount of general practice.
Content and Coherence: 30 per cent
The largest single weight. It asks how many ideas you produced, how good they are, how they are organised and how well each is supported. The commonest failure is not weak English, it is three undeveloped points where two developed ones were wanted. A supported idea has a reason, a consequence and somebody it affects.
Readability: 25 per cent
Rhythm, sentence variety, paragraphing, punctuation and grammar taken together, judged by how much work the reader has to do. Long sentences are not penalised; long sentences that all have the same shape are. A paragraph break in the right place moves this criterion more than any vocabulary substitution.
Task Fulfilment: 25 per cent
Relevance, completeness, tone and length. This is the most mechanical criterion and therefore the cheapest to protect: cover every bullet, hit the register the prompt set, stay inside 150 to 200 words, and in Task 2 do not change sides. Missing a bullet costs more here than any error you could make in a sentence.
Vocabulary: 20 per cent
Choice, suitability, range and precision, in that order of importance. Precision beats rarity. A common word used exactly is scored above a rare word used approximately, and a rare word used wrongly costs twice, once here and once in Readability.
The test you are scored on
Task 1 is a formal email to the claims adjuster at your insurance company. A pipe burst in the basement ceiling of your house at 47 Larkspur Way in Regina during the February cold snap. The adjuster valued the damage at $2,400; your two written flooring quotes come to $6,150. He has not answered your last two emails and the 30-day appeal window closes at the end of the month. The bullets ask for your policy number, the date and both dollar figures; an ordered account of what was damaged and what you did on the day, from shutting off the water to photographing the room to obtaining the quotes; and a request for re-inspection that acknowledges the first assessment was made in a week of heavy flood claims and makes clear what you will do if nobody replies.
Task 2 is the Hospital Fundraising Survey. A foundation has raised $1.5 million and must spend all of it on one project. Option A is a second MRI machine, cutting the scan wait from 14 weeks to about 5 for roughly 3,000 patients a year, costing $210,000 a year to run and doing nothing for patients waiting for a bed. Option B is sixteen more overnight beds in a reopened wing, taking 16 patients a night off hallway stretchers, costing $480,000 a year in nursing salaries and leaving the 14-week scan wait untouched.
That Task 1 is rated Hard for a reason that is entirely about scoring: the third bullet asks you to press hard, concede something, and threaten escalation, all in a formal register and inside 200 words. Tone control under that much competing instruction is where Task Fulfilment and Readability are both won or lost.
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 |
What your report contains
An overall band on the CLB 1 to 12 scale, a band for each of the four criteria, a feedback summary, error highlights with corrections, and a high-band rewrite of your own content. If you want the whole-test picture, the CELPIP score chart shows how a writing band sits alongside the other three skills.
Free, both tasks on the exam clock, with a band and feedback per criterion.
FAQs
How is CELPIP writing scored?
Against four criteria with fixed weights: Content and Coherence at 30 per cent, Readability at 25, Task Fulfilment at 25 and Vocabulary at 20. Each is banded 1 to 12 and the four are combined into a weighted overall band for the section.
Which criterion is worth the most?
Content and Coherence, at 30 per cent. It covers how many ideas you produced, how good they are, how they are organised and how well each is supported, and it is where undeveloped points cost the most.
What is the easiest way to raise a CELPIP writing score?
Protect Task Fulfilment. Cover every bullet, match the register the prompt sets, stay inside 150 to 200 words, and never switch sides in Task 2. That is 25 per cent of the band and almost none of it depends on your level of English.
Does using rare vocabulary raise the Vocabulary band?
Not on its own. Vocabulary is judged on choice, suitability, range and precision, and precision matters most. A rare word used approximately can cost you marks twice, once in Vocabulary and once in Readability.
What is on writing test 9?
Task 1 is a formal email to an insurance claims adjuster appealing a $2,400 assessment against $6,150 of written quotes after a burst pipe in Regina. Task 2 is a survey choosing whether a hospital foundation should spend $1.5 million on a second MRI machine or on sixteen more overnight beds.