CELPIP Tips: Taking Notes

Taking notes is an essential part of the CELPIP Listening test, that will help you remember what was said and get your best possible score. Check out the exceprt from a CELPIP study guide below, for a summary of notetaking strategies

It will be very helpful to take notes both during audio passages and, in Parts 1-3, when questions are read. Practice taking notes for all 6 Listening Parts before test day so that you know which strategies work best for you.

Identifying opinions

Not only in Part 6 (Listening for Viewpoints) but in many parts of the Listening Test, it will be helpful to identify each of the main opinions presented in the audio. How does each speaker feel about the situation and why? How are the speakers’ opinions similar to and different from one another?

Determining meaning from context

As you work through the Listening Test, you will likely encounter words you haven’t seen or heard before. Building your vocabulary is a very important part of improving your English abilities, and something to work on actively as you prepare for CELPIP. If you encounter a new word on the test, you won’t be able to look it up, so the ability to figure out what it might mean by considering its context is a useful skill. Even if you aren’t sure of the exact meaning, identifying its part of speech (noun, verb, etc.) and whether it has a positive or negative meaning can help you to draw conclusions when listening to the audio and considering answer choices.

Identifying tone

Tone is the attitude or emotional feeling a speaker communicates. For example, is s/he excited, nervous, frustrated, relieved about the situation under discussion? Does s/he agree, partially agree, or disagree with the other speaker(s)? Speakers in the Listening Test often won’t express their feelings directly (for example, “I’m so frustrated right now!”). Most of the time, they’ll express themselves indirectly (for example, “I can’t believe my bus is late again!” or “There’s no way I’ll be able to finish all this homework by 5:00!”). The speakers’ intonation and word stress will help to indicate tone, and in Part 5, body language will provide additional clues. Being able to hear emotion in speakers’ voices will help you to understand the parts of the Listening Test where multiple speakers have a conversation.

Identifying and anticipating paraphrase

You should never expect the correct answer choice, or any answer choice, to be stated in the exact same words that were said in the audio clip. In all parts of the Listening Test, you will encounter words and phrases in the question and answer choices that paraphrase something stated in the text. Paraphrase is expressing the same idea in different words. For example, a speaker named Abby might say to her friend: “I was so tired from my night shift that I had a hard time staying awake while my math professor was lecturing.” The correct answer choice might read: Abby almost fell asleep during her class. Both sentences communicate the same idea, even though the words are very different and the first version includes more detail

Zach J