CELPIP Speaking Part 2: Talking About a Personal Experience
In Task 2, you talk about a personal experience related to a given topic. You describe what happened, how you felt, and what you learned. You have 30 seconds to prepare and 60 seconds to speak.
Practice Talking About a Personal Experience NowWhat to Expect
You will see a prompt asking you to describe a personal experience — for example, "Talk about a time you helped someone" or "Describe a memorable trip you took."
You have 30 seconds of preparation time and 60 seconds to respond. You should describe what happened, when and where it took place, how you felt, and what the outcome was.
Raters evaluate your ability to narrate coherently, use past tenses correctly, demonstrate vocabulary range, and complete the task with relevant details.
Tips for Scoring High
- Use past tenses consistently: "I went", "I was feeling", "I had never experienced". Mixing tenses is a common mistake.
- Structure your response: set the scene (when/where), describe what happened, explain how you felt, share the outcome or lesson.
- It's fine to make up a story if you can't think of a real experience. The raters assess your English, not whether the story is true.
- Add emotional language: "I was thrilled", "It was nerve-wracking", "I felt proud" — this shows vocabulary range.
- Practice the 60-second time limit. Most people either finish too early (30 seconds) or run out of time mid-sentence.
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