CELPIP Speaking Task 2: Talking about a Personal Experience
Describe a personal experience.
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Practice sets
1 Trying Something for the First Time FREE 2 When Things Did Not Go as Expected 3 An Interaction With an Animal 4 Helping Someone in a Difficult Spot 5 A Teacher or Coach Who Influenced You 6 Teaching Yourself a New Skill 7 Learning Something From an Older Person 8 Waiting a Long Time for Something 9 Learning to Use New Technology 10 Helping Organize a Community Event 11 Volunteering at a Community Event 12 Moving to a New Home 13 Helping Someone in Your Community 14 Asking Someone for Help 15 Cooking a Meal for Others 16 Learning a New Skill 17 Helping Someone Who Needed It 18 A Time Something Surprised You 19 Attending a Festival or Celebration 20 Taking Part in a Class or Course 21 Volunteering to Help Your Community 22 A Time You Helped Someone 23 Helping a Lost Stranger or Neighbour 24 Helping Someone in Your Neighbourhood 25 A Time You Felt Very Proud 26 Lending a Hand to a Stranger 27 Helping a Neighbour Settle In 28 A Time You Gave or Received Help
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Up next in Speaking Task 3 · Describing a Scene PreviewCELPIP Speaking Task 2: frequently asked questions
How long is CELPIP Speaking Task 2?
30 seconds to prepare, 60 seconds to speak.
Do I have to tell a true story in CELPIP Speaking Task 2?
No. Paragon's own strategy sheet says: "If you can't think of a real experience from your life, make one up." Nothing is fact-checked. Raters are assessing your English, not verifying your past.
What tense should I use?
Past tenses, and this is an explicit official strategy. Simple past for the events, past continuous for background, and past perfect for anything that happened before the main story.
What if I cannot think of a story in 30 seconds?
Grab any workable story and start talking. Because invented stories are permitted, the cost of hesitating is far higher than the cost of an ordinary story told well.
Do I need an introduction and a conclusion?
A single line of setup is plenty ("This happened a few years ago..."). With only 60 seconds, spend your time on the events and on why the moment mattered, and finish deliberately rather than trailing off.
How much detail should I include?
Enough to make it vivid: a name, an age, a place, and how you felt. The official strategies ask for descriptive details and for getting the listener to feel what you felt.
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