Why there’s a real person behind this.
Because a test that changes your life deserves more than a question bank and a chatbot with no last name.
I’m Paul Cook. I built AscendPrep after watching my partner Josh struggle through CELPIP prep that wasn’t telling him anything useful.
He’s applying for Canadian PR through Express Entry — needed a 10 across all four sections. He bought the official Practice Test sets, put in the hours, did everything he was supposed to do. And he kept hitting the same wall. The scoring would tell him 7 or8. It wouldn’t tell him why. So he’d grind through another session, run face-first into the same gaps, and have to relearn the same patterns again. No targeted study. No laser focus, because nobody was telling him where the laser should point.
That’s not coaching. That’s busywork dressed up as preparation.
So I built Maple to do the thing his prep was missing. Find the specific skill that’s costing you a band. Coach the test-day tricks the official material doesn’t explain. Score Speaking and Writing against the actual four-category rubric examiners use, so you know which dimension is holding you back — not just a number. And quietly stop wasting your time on the things you’re already strong at.
Maple speaks Tagalog because the people who first let me into what CELPIP prep actually feels like were Filipino — nurses, healthcare workers, family members helping someone navigate an application. I’m not Filipino. I don’t speak Tagalog. But I listened, and what I heard was: the moment you can ask a question in your own language before you practice in English, something unlocks. So Maple does that.
Every welcome email that goes out from AscendPrep lands in my inbox. Every reply comes from me, not a support queue. If something breaks, or works better than expected, or you just want to know whether this is worth your time — write me.
— Paul Cook, Victoria, BC
The basics