CELPIP Reading practice test PDF: a free full-length section with answer key

This is a complete CELPIP-General Reading section as a printable PDF: four parts, 38 questions, the official part timings, and an answer key that explains every answer. It is built from four of the free practice sets on CelpipRise, so the same test can also be taken online with the real timer and instant marking. No sign-up, no email address — the link is below.

What is in the PDF

Every question type of the real test is in it: multiple choice on an email, a reply completed from drop-down options (rendered as numbered blanks with lettered options), an email that refers to a set of options, statements matched to paragraphs A–D or “E — not given”, and a reader’s comment completed from options. The answer key gives the letter, the text of the correct option and one line on where in the passage it comes from.

How to use it

1. Print it, or open it on a tablet, and set a single timer for 55 minutes. Do not pause between parts — the real test does not.
2. Answer on paper. Circle the letter for each question; write the letter for each blank.
3. Mark against the key on the last pages. For every wrong answer, read the explanation and then find the line in the passage yourself — that step is where the improvement happens.
4. Count your score out of 38. On CelpipRise’s estimate, 29–30 is roughly level 9 and 22–25 roughly level 7; the full table is in the score chart. Official forms are equated, so treat this as your zone, not a prediction.
5. Then take the same four sets online with the part-by-part timer, and compare: most people lose two or three questions to the clock that they get right on paper.

Why a PDF, when the real test is on a computer

Paper is useful for a first sitting: you can annotate the passage, and a printed test is easy to do somewhere without a screen. But the CELPIP Reading test is answered on a computer, with the passage on the left and the questions on the right, and the drop-down blanks behave differently from lettered options on paper. Do the paper test once for the content, then do the same sets online for the format. Both are free.

The same test online, with the timer

• Part 1 — Office Relocation Notice11 questions · 11 min
• Part 2 — Choosing a short-term rental (Halifax)8 questions · 9 min
• Part 3 — The Axolotl9 questions · 10 min
• Part 4 — The Four-Day Work Week10 questions · 13 min

What the PDF cannot give you

Two things. First, the timer per part and the two-panel screen, which is where most lost marks happen. Second, the other 156 Reading sets: each part on the real test has its own traps, and one set of each is enough to learn the format but not to drill it. The four skill guides linked below explain the strategy for each part; the practice pages have 40 sets per part.