CELPIP Speaking Task 7 is Expressing Opinions: 30 seconds of preparation and 90 seconds of recording. The prompt normally opens with Do you think… and asks you to agree or disagree.
The official score report gives no separate Task 7 score, and there is no official material indicating that one side of the argument earns a higher level than the other.
Content / Coherence
This dimension covers whether your position is clear, how many reasons you give and how good they are, how they are organised, and what supporting detail they carry. CELPIP official preparation material suggests roughly three reasons supported with specific detail.
Three near-synonymous sentences are not three reasons. Supporting bike lanes, you might separate traffic, health, and environmental impact — rather than repeating that cycling is good in three different ways.
State the position, then build
Say yes or no as early as possible, then develop in a logical order. Each reason can contain a claim, an explanation, and an example, with the position restated at the end.
Acknowledging the opposing view can show balance, but do not argue yourself into a place where the listener cannot tell which side you are on. Whether your opinion is popular is not a criterion — clear, consistent reasoning is.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is judged on accuracy and range when expressing opinion, cause, result, and comparison: I strongly believe, One important reason, As a result, For instance, Although some people argue.
Use them where the logic calls for them rather than applying the identical template every time. Topic-relevant vocabulary and natural collocation improve precision far more than rare words.
Listenability
Ninety seconds is the longest recording alongside Task 1, and it is long enough to expose thin content. When candidates run short of ideas, they produce long pauses, repetition, or a conspicuously slowed pace.
The fix is not memorising vague filler sentences. It is preparing one realistic example or consequence per reason. Clear stress and intonation also help a listener identify your main position and your contrasts.
Task Fulfillment
This dimension checks whether you answered the question directly, whether the position is complete, whether the content is relevant, whether the tone is appropriately persuasive, and whether the length is sufficient.
Stopping after two or three sentences usually cannot demonstrate enough speaking ability — and adding an unrelated story just to fill the time does not help either. The aim is to finish a natural summary before the recording ends.
How to practise
Record both a yes version and a no version of the same prompt and see which side gives you more genuinely different reasons.
On replay, mark each reason as supported or unsupported, and check for drift off topic. There is no published per-task formula for Task 7 — the useful self-assessment is asking how much stable evidence your 90 seconds provided under the four official dimensions.
FAQs
Is one side safer? No. Choose the side you can develop.
How many reasons? About three, and they must be genuinely different.
Why do I run out of time? Because reasons lack examples and consequences.
Next, read how Task 8 is scored and how Speaking Overall is scored.