What do I have to write in the CIPLE writing test?
Two short everyday tasks. One is a reply to a message, such as answering a friend's invitation. The other is a short email or note for a practical situation: booking something, apologising, asking for information. No essays. You are marked on covering every point in the prompt, hitting the word count, and using the right register.
What examiners actually reward
Writing is where candidates lose the most avoidable marks, and usually not because their Portuguese is weak. They lose marks by not answering the task, or by running out of words.
Five things score well:
- Answer every part of the task. If the prompt asks you to apologise and suggest a new time, do both. A missing required point is the most common reason for lost marks.
- Hit the word count. Each task gives a target range. Too short looks incomplete. Padding adds errors. Aim for the middle.
- Use the right register. Tu with a friend, the formal form with a stranger or an institution. Getting this backwards is noticed.
- Keep the grammar simple and correct. Short correct sentences beat ambitious broken ones.
- Organise it. A greeting, the message, a sign-off. That is enough structure.
A skeleton that works for almost any A2 task
- Greeting: Olá, [name]! or Bom dia,
- One sentence saying why you are writing
- One short sentence for each thing the prompt asks for
- A closing line: Até já, Cumprimentos, Obrigado or Obrigada
- Your name
Fill that in, tick each bullet in the prompt, then count your words. That alone puts you ahead of most candidates.
The mistakes to drill out
Forgetting a required point. Wrong register. No greeting or sign-off, which are free marks. Translating from English word for word. Going far over or under the range.
Where this sits in the grade
Writing is marked together with reading as a single component worth 45% of your total, the heaviest of the three. It is also the component you can move the most with practice.
Our tool focuses on the reading half of that component. Pair the template above with steady reading practice and you are working on the part of the exam that decides most results.