Category: celpip

CELPIP for Universities?

Posted on by TOEFL Resources

I wrote about Prometric’s CAEL test yesterday morning.  A few hours later it was pointed out that Prometric is currently seeking to hire an academic relations manager for the CELPIP test.  The successful applicant will “develop and deliver a test recognition program for the CELPIP across higher education institutions in Canada and internationally and work to increase CELPIP volumes for admissions purposes.”

Traditionally, CAEL and CELPIP have served distinct purposes – CAEL has been for admission to higher ed, and CELPIP has been for migration.

Obviously, though, Prometric is hoping that CELPIP will someday be used for both purposes.  Indeed, a few weeks ago it was announced that Lambton College had begun accepting the test.

CELPIP is, of course, a test of general English without much “academic” content. But perhaps that doesn’t matter as much as it did in the past.

Will CAEL have much of a future if CELPIP gains widespread acceptance at Canadian universities?  Maybe. But…

I’ll share a link to the job posting in the comments below.

(Elderly readers might recall that for many years there actually was an academic version of the CELPIP test that was used for admissions.  It was discontinued after Paragon purchased the CAEL in 2015.) 

CAEL Deep Dive!

Posted on by TOEFL Resources

Our friends at Prometric have uploaded a long walkthrough of the CAEL test to YouTube.  That’s really great, as we don’t hear a ton about the CAEL test nowadays. I’ll include an embed at the end of this item.

I haven’t actually taken the CAEL under real conditions (but let me know if you’ve got a voucher), though I did complete a couple modules of teacher training back in 2021.  It’s an interesting test, and I don’t think there is anything else quite like it on the market.

This could be called a fairly traditional test – it contains a number of very long reading and listening passages (similar to the old TOEFL iBT) and takes a whopping 3.5 hours to complete.  I suppose that makes it one of the last of the marathon tests.

It is also traditional in the sense that it heavily (really heavily) emphasizes integrated skills – each of those long reading and listening passages is accompanied by questions that are answered via extended written and spoken responses.  It feels silly calling integrated questions an aspect of “traditional” tests… but you know what I mean.

I believe test taker responses are scored wholly by human raters.

Pricing is somewhat traditional as well.  The CAEL is cheaper than the TOEFL and IELTS, but only slightly.  And test takers can only send five score reports for free.

On the other hand, the test is modern in that it is mostly taken remotely.  An annual report from 2024 notes that 80% of administrations were taken online that year. I suspect that the 2025 report (check for it next month) will include a higher number, as in-person test dates seem to be in short supply, at least according to the registration system on the CAEL website.

So there ya go.  Some CAEL content in 2026. The test is widely accepted by schools across Canada.

(A history lesson:  CAEL was developed at Carleton University in the 1980s by Janna Fox and others, was sold to Paragon – a subsidiary of the University of British Columbia – in 2015, and Paragon was purchased by Prometric in 2021)

Scotibank and Pearson Team Up!

Posted on by TOEFL Resources

I saw that Scotiabank is handing out PTE discount codes (for the Academic and Core tests) to anyone who fills in a survey.

As a general rule I always try to avoid Toronto, but whenever I fly into Pearson Airport I spot bank advertisements targeting newcomers right inside the jetway. I imagine that one can open an account even before leaving the terminal.

This seems like a smart way to snag even more new arrivals. Pearson might even get a handful of additional test takers.

FYI: Pearson operates 32 test centers in Canada. That’s not a particularly large amount, as the IELTS  social media team suggests they have 150+ centers in the country (the IELTS website lists a whopping 264 Canadian centers, but that probably includes duplicates and closed centers). CELPIP claims to have 60+ centers in Canada.

CELPIP vs IELTS in Canada

Posted on by TOEFL Resources

I’ve attached here a Google Trends chart showing search interest in Canada over the past four years for the terms “IELTS” and “CELPIP.”  I share this because it demonstrates how CELPIP seems to be steadily closing the interest gap.

(The chart begins in November 2021 as including the giant one-day spike from earlier that year makes it unviewable, but obviously the gap was even wider in the past)

I haven’t actually taken CELPIP, but it appears to be a fairly attractive product for some test takers.  Indeed, as CELPIP is not used for university admissions, interest in it might have already surpassed interest in IELTS within its category (immigration).

This is something that people who follow the business of English testing will want to keep an eye on.  We talk a lot about how IELTS faces challenges from Duolingo or Pearson but there are many other products which might grab some of their market share in the years ahead.

As regular readers know, CELPIP was recently approved for immigration to Australia.  It may become popular there as test takers notice some of the same features that are currently attractive to would-be Canadians.

Anyway, below the chart I will share a couple of images showing the long wait times for CELPIP books from some favorite public libraries in Canadaland (the first is in Halifax, the second is Toronto).

 

 

New Australian Visa Requirements!

Posted on by TOEFL Resources

The Australian Department of Home Affairs has finally released new English test score requirements for visa applicants.  As most readers know already, CELPIP General, MET and LanguageCert have been added to the list of acceptable tests.

Additionally, many of the section score requirements have been adjusted.  I won’t list them all here, but a few examples might be useful.

For instance, “proficient English” was formerly achieved by earning 65 points in each of the four sections of the PTE test.  Now, that requires the following scores:  listening 58, reading 59, writing 69, speaking 76.

Indeed, applicants submitting PTE scores will need higher speaking results across the board (with one exception, see below).  Some have speculated that this might make the test less attractive moving forward.  As has been discussed in this space many times, perceived easiness is always at top of mind when students pick a test.

Applicants submitting TOEFL scores will also need better speaking results than before, though the increase isn’t as dramatic as for Pearson’s test.

Interestingly, requirements for subclass 485 visas (Temporary Graduate Visa) have been lowered slightly (but not for IELTS).  Also, TOEFl and PTE requirements for “functional” English have been lowered slightly.

Changes apply to tests taken on or after August 7.  I’m not sure how long old test results can be used.

I can’t find any word about what will become of TOEFL iBT when that test changes in January of next year.

Australia DHA Test Changes Soon?

Posted on by TOEFL Resources

It dawns on me that new requirements from the Australian Department of Home Affairs will probably kick off around August 7.  That’s the date that the big PTE changes will take effect… changes which were partially (largely?) mandated by the DHA.  It will be nice to finally stop checking the DHA website for updates after making my morning coffee.

A few things come to mind:

  1. LANGUAGECERT, CELPIP and MET have all been through the arduous DHA acceptance process. As part of that process, they have all published concordance studies linking their tests to IELTS.  I don’t see any reason why these three products won’t be added to the list of acceptable tests.  These tests currently have fairly small volumes, but they are backed by organizations with very deep pockets (PeopleCert, Prometric and Cambridge University Press & Assessment) and will grow over time.  They will draw customers away from PTE and IELTS.
  2. As I wrote yesterday, the DHA now has access to concordance tables for speaking, writing, reading and listening.  Accordingly, we might see adjustments to the required section scores for Australian visa applications.  Notably, we might see higher PTE speaking requirements, which could slow the use of the PTE for Australian visas.  As regular readers know, in recent years that test has become somewhat dominant among individuals going to Australia. That’s partly because the required PTE scores are perceived to be easier to meet than the required IELTS scores.
  3. Obviously the enhanced TOEFL (launching January 2026) has not been approved by the DHA.  Given the scope of the changes to that test it probably never will be.  One imagines that ETS will maintain a version of the classic TOEFL iBT solely for Australia-bound students (and for the handful of other use cases that will be unlikely to accept the new test) but it is sometimes hard to gauge what the folks in New Jersey are thinking these days.

That’s all I can think of now.  Lemme know your thoughts.

CELPIP/IELTS Concordance

Posted on by TOEFL Resources

Prometric and the IELTS partners have just published a concordance study comparing the CELPIP and IELTS-General tests.

It is a very nice study.  I just want to mention that of the 1089 participants, seemingly not a single one earned an IELTS writing score of 9.0.  Two participants earned a score of 8.5.  This is the fourth concordance study in a row involving IELTS in which not a single person reported a perfect writing score.  I don’t know if that’s meaningful,  but it amuses me.