CAEL Practice Tests

Part 1 — Independent Speaking, Type A

Your professor asks you a question. You have 30 seconds to prepare and 60 seconds to answer. Give details and examples to support your response. You will be evaluated on the content of your response and the accuracy of your language.

1. What is your favourite way to study, and why does it work well for you? Example: My most effective study method is what's sometimes called learning by teaching — I explain the material out loud, either to a classmate or even to an empty room, as if I were giving a lecture. It works for me mainly because it exposes gaps in my understanding very quickly. When I simply reread my notes, everything feels familiar, so I assume I've mastered it; but the moment I have to explain a process step by step, I realize which links I can't actually make. It also keeps me mentally engaged, whereas passive reading tends to make my attention drift. Before my biology final last spring, for instance, I 'taught' the stages of cell division to a friend, and she kept asking why each stage happened. Those questions forced me to go beyond memorizing, and I ended up with one of my highest marks. It's slower than reviewing notes, admittedly, but far more reliable.

Part 2 — Independent Speaking, Type B

Your professor asks you a question. You have 60 seconds to prepare and 90 seconds to answer. Give details and examples to support your response. You will be evaluated on the content of your response and the accuracy of your language.

1. Should first-year university students be required to live in on-campus residence? Why or why not? Example: I don't believe residence should be compulsory, although I'd argue that universities have good reason to make it the default option. The case for living on campus is strong: first-year students who live in residence are surrounded by peers facing the same transition, they're steps away from libraries and support services, and they tend to develop a sense of belonging, which is closely linked to whether students stay in their programs. That said, a blanket requirement ignores how varied students' circumstances are. For a student whose family lives twenty minutes from campus, residence fees of several thousand dollars could mean taking on unnecessary debt. Mature students, commuters with part-time jobs, or those with caregiving responsibilities may find that residence simply doesn't fit their lives. A more effective approach, in my view, would be to guarantee a place for every first-year student, offer bursaries to make it affordable, and design programs that give commuter students similar opportunities to connect — so the benefits of residence are available without forcing a one-size-fits-all rule.

Part 3 — Speaking on a Visual

Your professor shows you an image. Describe and explain what you see. You have 1 minute to prepare and 2 minutes to respond. You will be evaluated on the content of your response, the accuracy of your language, and your ability to reference details in the image.

1. This graph shows the average number of hours per week that full-time university students spend studying outside class, doing paid work, and volunteering, in each year of their program. Describe and explain the information you see depicted in the graph. What conclusions can you draw? Example: What this chart shows, essentially, is how students' time is squeezed as they move through a four-year degree. It tracks average weekly hours spent studying outside class, working for pay, and volunteering. Independent study is consistently the largest commitment, climbing gradually from fourteen hours in first year to nineteen by fourth year — likely a reflection of heavier upper-level workloads, such as research projects and theses. The steepest change, though, is in paid work, which doubles from six to twelve hours a week. That's a striking increase, and it may suggest that financial pressures grow over time: students often leave residence, take on rent, or lose first-year scholarships. Volunteering tells the opposite story. It starts low, at three hours, and falls to two in the final two years, so it's the only activity that shrinks rather than grows. It's worth noting, too, that the gap between studying and paid work narrows slightly: in first year students study more than twice as many hours as they work, but by fourth year the ratio is closer to three to two. Taken together, the three activities rise from about twenty-three hours a week in first year to roughly thirty-three in fourth. So the conclusion I'd draw is that senior students face a genuine time crunch, and optional activities like volunteering are the ones that get sacrificed. That could matter for universities that want students to graduate with community experience. It might even be an argument for building volunteer or service-learning credit into the curriculum itself.

Part 1 — Short Reading — Questions 1-3

Read the following passage and answer 3 questions. You have 5 minutes and 30 seconds to complete this task.

The Writing Centre: Booking and Appointment Policy

1. What is true about the Writing Centre tutors?
2. A student who misses two booked appointments in one term can still attend ___ .
3. Click and drag to match each type of session with the situation it best suits.

Part 2 — Long Reading — Questions 1-11

Read the following passage and answer 11 questions. You have 20 minutes to complete this task.

Urban Heat Islands: Why Cities Run Hot

1. What was Luke Howard’s contribution to the study of urban heat?
2. In paragraph 1, the statement that the heat island was once “a scientific curiosity” suggests that it was seen as ___ .
3. Why do natural surfaces generally stay cooler than paved surfaces?
4. Fill in the blank with one number from the passage. Dark asphalt may reflect only about ___ percent of the sunlight that reaches it.
5. Why is the heat island effect usually strongest at night?
6. According to the passage, which of the following help to make cities warmer? Choose 3.
7. Why does the passage mention the 2021 heat dome?
8. According to paragraph 5, where electricity comes from fossil fuels, heavier use of air conditioning can end up ___ .
9. What do studies of atmospheric heat islands measure?
10. Match each cooling strategy with the description that fits it.
11. Which statement would the author most likely agree with?

Part 3 — Speaking on the Long Reading

Your professor asks you a question about the reading. You have 1 minute to prepare and 2 minutes to answer. You may refer to the reading passage. Use the source information but do not copy directly. You will be evaluated on the content of your response, the accuracy of your language, and your use of the source material.

1. What causes urban heat islands, and what can cities do to reduce them? Example: So, the reading traces urban heat islands to three causes that work together. The most basic one is what cities are made of. When you replace vegetation and moist soil with asphalt and concrete, the city loses its natural cooling system. Plants and soil shed heat as water evaporates from them, but dry pavement soaks up most of the sunlight — dark asphalt reflects only about five percent — and then gives that energy back slowly overnight. That's why the gap between the city and the countryside actually widens after dark. The second cause is the shape of the city. In so-called urban canyons, heat bounces between facing walls instead of escaping, and tall buildings slow the wind as well. And on top of that, cities produce their own waste heat from traffic, industry and air conditioning. As for solutions, the author really describes two strategies. One is cooling through vegetation, so street trees and green roofs, which shade surfaces and cool the air. The other is cooling through reflection, with light-coloured roofs and pavements that absorb less energy in the first place. Each one has a cost — trees take many years to mature, and reflective surfaces create glare — so the reading's conclusion is that cities should combine approaches and focus on the neighbourhoods that are hottest and most vulnerable, which, as the author points out, are often the lower-income areas with fewer trees.

Part 1 — Short Listening — Questions 1-3

Listen to the following presentation and answer 3 questions. You have 30 seconds to preview the questions, and then the presentation will begin automatically. You may answer the questions as you listen. At the end of the presentation, you will be given 60 seconds to complete the questions.

1. Why does the professor advise students to attend the lectures?
2. Fill in the blank with one number from the presentation. Tutorial attendance is worth ___ percent of the final grade.
3. What can students do if they prefer not to take part in research studies?

Part 2 — Long Listening — Questions 1-11

Listen to the following lecture and answer 11 questions. You have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to preview the questions, and then the lecture will begin automatically. You may answer the questions as you listen. At the end of the lecture, you will be given 3 minutes to complete the questions.

1. The professor reviews last week’s model of decision making mainly in order to ___ .
2. According to the lecture, why does a tax on sugary drinks fall outside the definition of a nudge?
3. Which of the following mental shortcuts does the professor mention? Choose 2.
4. Fill in the blank with one number from the lecture. With automatic enrolment, pension participation rose to over ___ percent in some studies.
5. What does the pension example illustrate?
6. Why did some energy-use letters include a smiley face?
7. According to the professor, reminder text messages work mainly because they make the desired action easier to ___ .
8. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a reason why governments find nudges attractive?
9. How do supporters of nudges respond to the claim that nudges are manipulative?
10. What does more recent research suggest about nudges?
11. Which problem would the professor most likely consider suitable for a nudge?

Part 3 — Speaking on the Long Listening

Your professor asks you a question about the lecture. You have 1 minute to prepare and 2 minutes to answer. You may refer to the lecture notes. Use the source information but do not copy directly. You will be evaluated on the content of your response, the accuracy of your language, and your use of the source material.

1. What is a nudge, and what are the main criticisms of using nudges in public policy? Example: The lecture defines a nudge as any change in the way a choice is presented that pushes behaviour in a predictable direction, but without removing any options or really changing the incentives. That's the key distinction. A sugar tax changes the price, and a smoking ban takes an option away, so neither one counts. Now, why do nudges work at all? Because, unlike the rational agents in the traditional model, we rely on mental shortcuts. We stick with defaults, we copy other people, and we notice information that's vivid. Automatic pension enrolment is the classic case: just switching the default raised participation from under half to over ninety percent in some studies, and nobody was forced to do anything. The criticisms fall into two groups. The first is ethical. Critics say nudging is a kind of manipulation, because it exploits weaknesses in how we think instead of persuading us with reasons, and that raises real questions about autonomy. Supporters reply that there's no neutral way to present a choice — something has to be the default — so it may as well be chosen deliberately. The second criticism is practical. Effects that look dramatic in controlled trials often shrink when a policy is scaled up, since a reminder becomes just one more message among dozens, and some effects fade as people get used to them. So the professor's position is that nudges are a useful complement to stronger policies, but not a substitute for them.

Part 1 — Long Reading — Questions 1-11

Read the following passage and answer 11 questions. You have 20 minutes to complete this task.

Streetcars, Suburbs, and the Shape of the Modern City

1. According to the passage, the high density of the “walking city” was mainly the result of ___ .
2. What advantage did horse-drawn streetcars have over earlier omnibuses?
3. Fill in the blank with one word from the passage. Early streetcar companies found that the most profitable part of their business was the ___ rather than the fares.
4. What was typical of streetcar suburbs?
5. According to the passage, which of the following contributed to the decline of streetcars? Choose 3.
6. Why is car-oriented suburban development difficult to serve with public transit?
7. In paragraph 6, the word “apparent” in “the costs of car-oriented growth were becoming apparent” is closest in meaning to
8. The term “induced demand” refers to the way new highways can ___ traffic.
9. How is transit-oriented development similar to the streetcar suburb?
10. Match each period with the type of urban form the passage associates with it.
11. What is the main idea of the passage?

Part 2 — Long Listening — Questions 1-11

Listen to the following lecture and answer 11 questions. You have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to preview the questions, and then the lecture will begin automatically. You may answer the questions as you listen. At the end of the lecture, you will be given 3 minutes to complete the questions.

1. How does the professor describe congestion pricing?
2. Economists describe the delay that one driver causes for other road users as a negative ___ .
3. Match each city with the fact the professor mentions about it.
4. Fill in the blank with one number from the lecture. Stockholm’s trial of the congestion charge lasted ___ months.
5. What happened when the Stockholm trial ended?
6. Why does the professor find the Stockholm case especially interesting?
7. Which points does the professor make about fairness? Choose 2.
8. According to the professor, what largely determines whether congestion pricing benefits lower-income residents?
9. The professor suggests that the losses reported by some small retailers in London are hard to interpret because ___ .
10. Why do cities usually invest in transit when they introduce a congestion charge?
11. What does the professor want students to consider for their assignment?

Part 3 — Long Writing

Your professor asks you a question. Use the information from the reading and lecture. Answer the question in your own words. Write at least 250 words. You have 35 minutes to complete this task. You will be evaluated on the content and structure of your response, the accuracy of your language, and your use of the source material.

Part 1 — Long Reading — Questions 1-11

Read the following passage and answer 11 questions. You have 20 minutes to complete this task.

How Plants Defend Themselves

1. What is the main purpose of the first paragraph?
2. Match each structure with its origin as described in the passage.
3. According to the passage, how do some glandular trichomes protect plants?
4. Fill in the blank with one word from the passage. Grasses make their leaves harder to chew by accumulating ___ .
5. The passage suggests that the unusually tall, ever-emerging teeth of many grazing mammals may be an adaptation to ___ .
6. How do tannins protect plants?
7. Why do many plants rely on induced defences?
8. In the tomato example, defensive proteins are produced by leaves ___ .
9. Which of the following are examples of indirect defences in the passage? Choose 2.
10. According to the passage, why are many crops more vulnerable to pests than their wild relatives?
11. Why does the passage mention aspirin and paclitaxel?

Part 2 — Long Listening — Questions 1-11

Listen to the following lecture and answer 11 questions. You have 2 minutes and 30 seconds to preview the questions, and then the lecture will begin automatically. You may answer the questions as you listen. At the end of the lecture, you will be given 3 minutes to complete the questions.

1. How does this lecture relate to the previous class?
2. According to the professor, around ___ of the world’s major types of food crops benefit from animal pollination.
3. Why does the professor say that honeybees are like livestock?
4. Fill in the blank with one word from the lecture. Bumblebees can shake pollen loose from tomato flowers using a technique called ___ pollination.
5. Why does the professor say that we need to ask “which pollinators we mean”?
6. How do researchers study the decline of wild bee species?
7. Why does a field of a single crop provide poor habitat for pollinators?
8. According to the lecture, what are the effects of neonicotinoids on bees? Choose 2.
9. The varroa mite harms honeybee colonies by feeding on bees and spreading ___ .
10. According to the professor, how can climate change cause problems for pollinators?
11. What is the professor’s attitude toward solving the problem of pollinator decline?

Part 3 — Short Writing

Your professor asks you to answer a question during an in-class quiz. Use information from the reading or lecture to write your answer. Answer the question in your own words. Write at least 100 words. You have 10 minutes to complete this task. You will be evaluated on the content and structure of your response, the accuracy of your language, and your use of the source material.