Study & Education — Part 1
The Celpip Plus team
Written and reviewed against the official CELPIP scoring criteria
What you'll learn: the verb + noun collocations that describe the everyday actions of studying and being a student, from enrolling in a program to graduating from it.
Why education vocabulary needs precision
Study and education prompts appear constantly across CELPIP tasks — describing a school experience, giving advice about choosing a program, or discussing an educational policy. Generic verbs like "do a course" or "make a degree" are understandable but not how fluent speakers describe academic life. The verb + noun pairs below are the ones that actually appear in transcripts, emails, and conversations about school.
The academic timeline
Like the work collocations in Part 1, these follow a rough sequence: you enroll in a program, take courses, submit assignments, study for exams, and eventually earn a degree or drop out. Anchoring vocabulary to this timeline makes it far easier to retrieve mid-response, because you can narrate a school story chronologically.
Word bank: core study collocations
| Collocation | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| enroll in a program | officially register for a course of study | She enrolled in a nursing program at the local college. |
| take a course | study a specific subject over a term | I'm taking a course in statistics this semester. |
| submit an assignment | hand in required academic work | Students must submit assignments before midnight on Fridays. |
| study for an exam | prepare specifically for a test | He stayed up late studying for his chemistry exam. |
| pass an exam | successfully meet the required standard on a test | Most students pass the exam on their first attempt. |
| earn a degree | successfully complete a program and receive its qualification | She earned a degree in engineering after four years. |
| drop out (of school) | leave a program before completing it | He nearly dropped out during his second year. |
| apply for a scholarship | submit a request for financial academic support | Many students apply for scholarships to cover tuition. |
| attend a lecture | be present at a class taught by an instructor | We attended a lecture on climate policy yesterday. |
| meet a requirement | satisfy a rule needed for admission or graduation | This course meets a requirement for the science major. |
| conduct research | carry out a systematic academic investigation | Graduate students conduct research under a faculty advisor. |
| graduate from (a school) | complete and leave an educational program successfully | She graduated from university with honors. |
Worked example — Writing Task 2 (survey response)
Prompt: What advice would you give a new university student?
"My biggest piece of advice is to plan carefully before you enroll in a program. Once classes start, make sure you attend lectures consistently rather than relying only on notes, and always submit assignments on time, since late penalties add up quickly. It's also worth learning early how to study for exams efficiently rather than cramming the night before — that habit alone can determine whether you pass an exam comfortably or barely scrape by. If cost is a concern, apply for a scholarship as early as possible, since many have early deadlines. Following this advice should help any new student earn a degree without unnecessary stress."
Common mistakes
- "Make a course" instead of take a course — a common literal-translation error; courses are "taken," not "made."
- "Give an exam" used by students to mean sitting one — give an exam actually means the instructor administers it; students take or write an exam.
- "Win a scholarship" used loosely instead of apply for a scholarship — "win" is only correct once you've actually received it after applying.
- "Finish school" as a vague substitute for graduate from — acceptable informally, but graduate from is more precise and sounds more academic in writing.
Recap
Verb + noun collocations for study cover the full academic journey from enrollment to graduation, and learning them along that timeline makes retrieval automatic during a response. Choose three collocations from the table and narrate your own (or a hypothetical) academic path in three connected sentences, following the enroll-study-graduate sequence.