The scale
What is a CLB score?
CLB stands for Canadian Language Benchmarks — the scale Canada uses to describe English ability, running from 1 to 12. The four skills are scored separately: you get one CLB level for listening, one for reading, one for writing and one for speaking, not a single overall number. A profile like “CLB 9 in listening, 7 in writing” is normal.
The full scale. Most economic immigration programs ask for levels in the intermediate-to-advanced range — your program sets the exact number.
CLB is the number IRCC uses — not your test score
When Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada sets a language requirement, it states a CLB level, not a test score. You sit an approved test, and your result converts to CLB. For English that's CELPIP-General, IELTS General Training or PTE Core; French tests (TEF Canada and TCF Canada) convert to the NCLC, the scale's French counterpart.
That's why two people with different test certificates can hold exactly the same language standing in an application — the CLB level is what actually gets compared.
How the tests map to CLB
CELPIP maps directly: it's scored 1–12 on the CLB scale itself, so a CELPIP 9 is a CLB 9 — nothing to convert.
IELTS General is scored in bands of 0–9, which don't line up one-to-one, so your band in each skill converts through IRCC's official equivalency charts. I don't reproduce the table here — always read your conversion from the official chart, because it's the one IRCC will use. If your target is CLB 9 specifically, what IELTS score equals CLB 9? covers that conversion — and its trap — in detail.
Which test to sit is its own decision — CELPIP or IELTS General? walks through it.
Your program sets the number you need
There is no single “pass mark.” Each immigration program sets its own required CLB level, and in points-based systems a higher level keeps earning you more. I deliberately don't list the thresholds here — they change, and a stale number on a coaching site is worse than none. Check yours on IRCC's language requirements page.
Where I fit in
My job is the gap between the CLB level you're at and the one your program asks for — finding what's costing you marks and fixing it before test day.