Updated 2021

Dear Kim,

I would like to take celbanprep but do not understand. Why are there two levels for writing with celbanprep?

N

Dear N,

What a great question! I give people the answer all the time, but have not written about it specifically.

When I first started teaching CELBANPrep I saw that many people did not know where to start or how to create an organized report. So I focused on teaching the test taking strategy of time management.  That became CELBANPrep Lessons 1-4.

Then I created four more lessons, each addressing the different types of questions IENs were asked on the exam. Lessons 5-8 of CELBANPrep focused on writing in a nursing context. (Back in 2009 both of the CELBAN Writing Tasks were various medical reports.)

Over time, I began to see differences in how fast people progressed through the lessons. People with a 7 in IELTS did very well, progressing at a quick speed. But people coming to CELBANPrep with a 5 or 6 struggled. There were many common errors they made with their writing:

1. articles,
2. verb tense consistency,
3. agreement errors,
4. punctuation errors,
5. sentence structure, and
6. medical collocations (vocabulary).

That is what inspired me to create the CELBAN Grammar Intensives.

Another factor I saw was that some people had lots of time to practice, and posted assignments weekly, others took much longer to do so.  

The Birth of 2 Levels for CELBANPrep Writing

In witnessing all of this, the next intuitive step was to separate each of the sections into parts. That gave birth to the two levels:

1. CELBANPrep Level One (lessons 1-4), and
2. CELBANPrep Level Two (lessons 5-8).

In this way if people came to CELBANPrep with a high score (7 in IELTS) and lots of time, they could complete CELBANPrep Writing Level One within 1-3 months.

If people came to CELBANPrep with a lower score (5 or 6 in IELTS), or had less time, they could take their time and complete CELBANPrep Writing Level One over 3-6 months. This plan allowed IENs with this score to take time with the Grammar Intensives.

In this way the individual needs of all IENs are filled. Someone who works at a fast pace can complete the course within a few months. Someone who needs more time had support for up to 6 months, and monthly extensions are available for after that should he/she need support for a longer period of time.

And that is why CELBANPrep Writing has two levels, to adapt to to the individual needs of IENs across Canada.

2021 Update

Changes to the CELBAN Writing task has changed. 

• Prior to 2019 both task were writing a medical report. 
• Now, CELBAN Writing has two different task.
  1. Task One is a persuasive writing piece about a medical controversial topic.
  2. Tast Two remains the same, writing a medical report. 

The symmetry with CELBANPrep Writing Levels 1 and 2 is in perfect alignment. Now:

• CELBANPrep Writing Level 1 prepares you for CELBAN Writing Task 1, while
• CELBANPrep Writing Level 2 prepared you for CELBAN Writing Task 2.

What that means is that even with the changes in format to the CELBAN exam: CELBANPrep prepares you for CELBAN Writing because what you learn is transferable skills that can eb applied anytime you write anything: even the IELTS! 

Sincerely,

Kim