CELPIP Reading Part 2: Reading to Apply a Diagram
Can you cross-reference a visual — a schedule, flyer, map or form — against a message that depends on it?
How this part works
You see a visual (a schedule, price list, flyer, floor plan…) alongside an email from someone making decisions based on it. The questions — mostly completing that email — force you to combine what the diagram says with what the writer needs. This is the part almost nobody has rehearsed before test day.
The one thing that scores 9+
Read the EMAIL first, not the diagram. The email tells you which constraints matter — budget, dates, group size — so when you turn to the diagram you're extracting, not wandering. Then treat every question as an intersection: the writer's constraint × the diagram's data. And read the fine print: the asterisks, the "weekdays only", the "per person" — CELPIP hides the deciding detail in the smallest text on the visual almost every time.
A worked example
Original — written to show the trap, not taken from any real test.
A community-pool schedule shows lane swim times, with a footnote. The email says the writer can only swim after work, around 6 p.m., and hates crowded lanes. The schedule reads:
Lane swim: Mon–Fri 6–8 a.m., 12–1 p.m., 5:30–7 p.m.; Sat–Sun 10 a.m.–noon. *Evening lane swim shares the pool with swim-team practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Which evenings best match what the writer wants?
- Any weekday evening
- Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
- Tuesdays and Thursdays
- Weekend mornings
Answer: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
Why: The 5:30–7 p.m. slot fits "after work" on all five weekdays — but the footnote quietly rules out Tuesdays and Thursdays for someone who hates crowded lanes. The main table gets you to "any weekday evening"; only the asterisk gets you to the right answer. That is Part 2 in one question.
What caps people at Level 7
- Studying the diagram in detail before knowing what the email actually needs from it.
- Ignoring footnotes, asterisks and small print — the deciding detail lives there.
- Answering from the diagram alone or the email alone; every question is the overlap of both.
Practise this part under real conditions
Knowing the trap and beating it under the clock are different skills. Drill the real question formats in free CELPIP Reading practice, sit the full section in the free CELPIP mock, and see what your score means in the CELPIP score decoder. The whole test's structure is in the CELPIP format guide.