It has been a very common question asked by every International nurse seeking upgrading as an LPN or RN. CELBAN* is a four module English assessment test that is required for International nurses in Canada. It is accepted by all licensing bodies all over Canada. It is specially designed in Canada.
In this four module test in which reading, writing, listening and speaking abilities of a student are accessed individually.
The CELBAN test is designed in Canada, especially for nurses by Canadian Language Benchmark an is entirely from the medical background. The Nurses feel comfortable to take the test as it requires the test of English proficiency for medical report writing, medical vocabulary and interaction with patients for treatment. Reading section may include reading topics as Diabetes, Rabies etc. Similarly Listening section has video and audio scenes like bed shift report, communication between nurse and doctor, patient and nurse, etc. Speaking section has role plays for history taking and giving discharge instructions to the patient. The writing section is the easiest one where you have to write an incident report and filling an entry form of a patient. All questions in reading and listening modules have only one type; multiple choice questions. The students have to score in Listening-10 bands (92% Out of 84 questions, they have a chance of making 5-6 mistakes.) Reading- 8 bands, Writing 7 bands and Speaking 8 bands. Listening is a bit challenging, still most students are able to pass the test in the first chance.
The nursing students have already done the medical topics very well in their nursing school. So, most of the modules of the test are based on medical topics; therefore it is easier for the nurses to pass the test. Chances of passing CELBAN test by the nurses are quite higher than IELTS.
However, IELTS (the International English Language Testing System) is an internationally recognized language test designed to assess the language ability of candidates in all four modules as Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking from the topics based to meet an academic standard.
Nurses are required to take an Academic module, in which all topics are taken from English Journals, Magazines, Research books and Newspapers. Nurses study English as a subject up to Grade 12. So, their basic English is not of very high standard. In writing section they have to write a 250 word essay on any current, debatable issue or a philosophical topic. There is a graph writing also which is totally new for the student. Similarly, reading section is again highly challenging. The vocabulary is very tough in the academic module. Moreover, the topics are very confusing and all question types are different. They need grammatical accuracy. The band Score requirement is; Listening-7.5 bands, Reading- 7 bands, Writing- 7 bands and Speaking -7 bands. The Reading and Writing sections are the most challenging for the nurses.
In the nutshell, I must say that CELBAN test is easier for nurses than IELTS. I have been teaching both for almost 9 years in Canada for CELBAN and 21 years for IELTS. On the basis of results, I have seen more pass rate in CELBAN test for the nurses.
Parvinder Kaur Kalra
Guru Learning Institute
604-953-0003
In this four module test in which reading, writing, listening and speaking abilities of a student are accessed individually.
The CELBAN test is designed in Canada, especially for nurses by Canadian Language Benchmark an is entirely from the medical background. The Nurses feel comfortable to take the test as it requires the test of English proficiency for medical report writing, medical vocabulary and interaction with patients for treatment. Reading section may include reading topics as Diabetes, Rabies etc. Similarly Listening section has video and audio scenes like bed shift report, communication between nurse and doctor, patient and nurse, etc. Speaking section has role plays for history taking and giving discharge instructions to the patient. The writing section is the easiest one where you have to write an incident report and filling an entry form of a patient. All questions in reading and listening modules have only one type; multiple choice questions. The students have to score in Listening-10 bands (92% Out of 84 questions, they have a chance of making 5-6 mistakes.) Reading- 8 bands, Writing 7 bands and Speaking 8 bands. Listening is a bit challenging, still most students are able to pass the test in the first chance.
The nursing students have already done the medical topics very well in their nursing school. So, most of the modules of the test are based on medical topics; therefore it is easier for the nurses to pass the test. Chances of passing CELBAN test by the nurses are quite higher than IELTS.
However, IELTS (the International English Language Testing System) is an internationally recognized language test designed to assess the language ability of candidates in all four modules as Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking from the topics based to meet an academic standard.
Nurses are required to take an Academic module, in which all topics are taken from English Journals, Magazines, Research books and Newspapers. Nurses study English as a subject up to Grade 12. So, their basic English is not of very high standard. In writing section they have to write a 250 word essay on any current, debatable issue or a philosophical topic. There is a graph writing also which is totally new for the student. Similarly, reading section is again highly challenging. The vocabulary is very tough in the academic module. Moreover, the topics are very confusing and all question types are different. They need grammatical accuracy. The band Score requirement is; Listening-7.5 bands, Reading- 7 bands, Writing- 7 bands and Speaking -7 bands. The Reading and Writing sections are the most challenging for the nurses.
In the nutshell, I must say that CELBAN test is easier for nurses than IELTS. I have been teaching both for almost 9 years in Canada for CELBAN and 21 years for IELTS. On the basis of results, I have seen more pass rate in CELBAN test for the nurses.
Parvinder Kaur Kalra
Guru Learning Institute
604-953-0003
