Grammar's Impact on Your Score
CELPIP writing is scored on grammatical range and accuracy. You don't need perfect grammar - but frequent basic errors cap your score at CLB 6–7 regardless of how good your ideas are.
The frustrating part: most candidates make the same 10 errors repeatedly. Fix these 10, and you eliminate 80–90% of your grammar deductions.
Errors 1–5: The Foundation Mistakes
1. Subject-verb agreement:
✗ "The list of options are available." ✓ "The list of options is available."
The subject is "list" (singular), not "options." Find the real subject.
2. Article misuse (a/an/the/ - ):
✗ "I went to the school yesterday." (if you mean generally)
✓ "I went to school yesterday."
✗ "She is a best candidate." ✓ "She is the best candidate."
Use "the" for specific/known things. Use "a/an" for general/first mentions. Skip articles for institutions used in their general sense ("school," "work," "church").
3. Tense shifting:
✗ "Yesterday I go to the store and bought milk."
✓ "Yesterday I went to the store and bought milk."
Pick one tense per paragraph and stick to it unless the timeline genuinely shifts.
4. Run-on sentences:
✗ "The park is beautiful it has many trees and flowers."
✓ "The park is beautiful. It has many trees and flowers." OR "The park is beautiful; it has many trees and flowers."
5. Comma splices:
✗ "I enjoy hiking, it relaxes me."
✓ "I enjoy hiking because it relaxes me." OR "I enjoy hiking. It relaxes me."
Errors 6–10: The Subtle Score Killers
6. Wrong prepositions:
✗ "interested for" ✓ "interested in"
✗ "depend of" ✓ "depend on"
✗ "different of" ✓ "different from"
7. Pronoun reference errors:
✗ "When the manager talked to the employee, he was upset." (Who was upset?)
✓ "When the manager talked to the employee, the manager was upset."
8. Missing plural -s:
✗ "There are many advantage to this plan."
✓ "There are many advantages to this plan."
9. Double negatives:
✗ "I don't have no time."
✓ "I don't have any time." OR "I have no time."
10. Fragmented sentences:
✗ "Because it was raining." (incomplete - what happened?)
✓ "We stayed inside because it was raining."
The Proofreading Check
In the last 2 minutes of each writing task, scan specifically for these 10 errors:
- Read each sentence and check: does the verb match the subject?
- Check every "a," "an," "the" - is it the right one?
- Verify tense consistency across each paragraph
- Look for sentences without periods
- Check every preposition
You won't catch everything, but even fixing 2–3 errors during proofreading can bump you up a CLB level. Those 2 minutes are the highest-value time in the entire writing test.