The document provides information about the Aptis listening and speaking tests. It describes the four parts of the listening test, which include identifying information, matching information, opinion matching, and monologue comprehension. It also outlines the four parts of the speaking test, which involve answering personal questions, describing photos and providing opinions/reasons, comparing photos and speculating, and discussing a topic. Sample questions and scoring criteria are presented to help candidates prepare for the tests.
The document provides information about the Aptis listening and speaking tests. It describes the four parts of the listening test, which include identifying information, matching information, opinion matching, and monologue comprehension. It also outlines the four parts of the speaking test, which involve answering personal questions, describing photos and providing opinions/reasons, comparing photos and speculating, and discussing a topic. Sample questions and scoring criteria are presented to help candidates prepare for the tests.
The document provides information about the Aptis listening and speaking tests. It describes the four parts of the listening test, which include identifying information, matching information, opinion matching, and monologue comprehension. It also outlines the four parts of the speaking test, which involve answering personal questions, describing photos and providing opinions/reasons, comparing photos and speculating, and discussing a topic. Sample questions and scoring criteria are presented to help candidates prepare for the tests.
The document provides information about the Aptis listening and speaking tests. It describes the four parts of the listening test, which include identifying information, matching information, opinion matching, and monologue comprehension. It also outlines the four parts of the speaking test, which involve answering personal questions, describing photos and providing opinions/reasons, comparing photos and speculating, and discussing a topic. Sample questions and scoring criteria are presented to help candidates prepare for the tests.
The Listening test has four task types. You can choose to listen to the text once or twice.
Part Description Preparation
Information In this part, you will listen to a short Visit the British Council's LearnEnglish recognition phone message or a short monologue website for lots of very useful activities, Part 1 or dialogue, and you need to identify tips, apps and podcasts: specific information such as a phone http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/ number, a time or a place. The elementary podcasts are useful preparation for these questions.
Information In this part, you will listen to four There are quite a few useful practice matching people’s monologues and match the videos and podcasts on the LearnEnglish Part 2 person to information. There are six website, so that's a very good starting pieces of information to match to the point. In addition, try to listen to as much monologues. English as possible (e.g. films, television or radio).
Opinion In this task, you listen to a dialogue Listening to authentic speech, such as matching between a man and a woman and then television drama programs or films, is a Part 3 decide who expresses an opinion. good way to prepare for this task.
There are four questions. Your task is to
decide if the man, woman or both the man and woman have expressed the opinion.
Monologue In these tasks, you listen to a monologue There are a number of higher-level compre- and answer two questions. podcasts on the LearnEnglish website. hension Also try the BBC World Service radio Part 4 The focus here is not on understanding station. the meaning of what the speaker is saying, but on identifying clues in their language or tone to help identify the attitude of the speaker, their intention or opinion. 19 Aptis Candidate Guide
Sample listening questions
Remember that if you'd like to hear a question for a second time, just click on the Play button ( ). The system will not allow you to listen more than twice.
Listening part 1: Information recognition
You listen to a short monologue or dialogue and identify specific information such as a phone number, a time, or a place. 20 Aptis Candidate Guide
Listening part 2: Information matching
You listen to four different people and match the person to the information. 21 Aptis Candidate Guide
Listening part 3: Opinion matching
You listen to short conversations with two speakers to identify the attitude of the speaker, their intention or opinion.
Listening part 4: Monologue comprehension
You listen to a monologue to identify the attitude of the speaker, their intention or opinion. 33 Aptis Candidate Guide
Aptis speaking test
For each question, you are given a maximum amount of time to speak, but you can end the recording early by clicking on a stop button. Please make sure you fully respond to the question before you stop the recording.
The most common reasons people receive lower scores than they expect include: O not doing a proper sound check (details on how to do this are shown below) O not speaking clearly O not answering the questions O giving under-length answers – not using the full amount of time to speak O overusing words such as 'and' and 'so' O speaking in simple sentence lists O not using a variety of sentence structures.
Before the Speaking test begins, you’ll be asked to check your microphone. 34 Aptis Candidate Guide
Part Description Preparation
Personal In this part, you are asked to answer It’s a good idea to practice introducing information three questions on personal topics. You yourself and talking about your personal Part 1 are expected to talk for 30 seconds per experiences. Think about how you can question. talk about familiar topics (e.g. holidays, weekend activities, sports) and practise giving general information about those topics.
Describe, In this part you are asked to describe a You should try to be fluent and express photograph and then answer two questions spontaneous, showing little sign of opinion and related to the topic illustrated in the photo. effort. Make sure you answer all three provide The three questions increase in complexity questions. reasons (from description to opinion). You are and expla- expected to talk for 45 seconds per nations question. Part 2
Describe, In this part you are asked to compare two To prepare for this task, practise compare pictures and then answer two questions comparing two different things (e.g. and provide related to the topic. The three questions two cities or two houses). Focus on reasons increase in complexity (from description to describing their advantages and and expla- speculation). You are expected to talk for disadvantages. nations 45 seconds for each question. Part 3 To achieve a very high score in this part, it’s important to make sure you are using correct grammatical structures when you speculate. 35 Aptis Candidate Guide
Part Description Preparation
Discuss In the final part, you will see a picture and A common error is to describe the personal be asked three questions about an abstract photo. You will not receive a high score experience topic. if you describe the photo. The questions and opinion are more abstract (e.g. how you feel on an You are given one (1) minute to prepare an about something). abstract answer and in this time, you can take notes. topic You are expected to talk for two (2) Another common error is to go off-topic. Part 4 minutes. Focus on answering each question in clear, smoothly flowing, well-structured speech.
To prepare for this part, it is a good idea
to practise speaking for two minutes on an abstract topic (e.g. How do you feel about________?).
Make sure you practise using your
planning time to structure what you are going to say. 36 Aptis Candidate Guide
Speaking part 1: Personal information
In this part, you answer some questions about yourself. Listen to the instructions and speak clearly into your microphone when you hear the signal.
Each part of the test will appear automatically. You can stop recording your response before the timer runs out by tapping on the stop button, but we recommend that you try to speak for the full time available to maximise your score.
When the time to record comes, the timer begins. This tells you the amount of time you have been recording for (in the screen shot below, the timer shows that it has been recording for 25 seconds). 37 Aptis Candidate Guide
As each new question appears, the same procedure is followed.
38 Aptis Candidate Guide
The areas assessed in this part of the Speaking test are how completely and relevantly you have answered the question, grammatical range and accuracy, vocabulary range and accuracy, pronunciation and fluency.
Here is the marking scale:
Areas assessed: task fulfilment / topic relevance, grammatical range and accuracy, vocabulary range and accuracy, pronunciation, fluency.
5. B1 (or above) Likely to be above A2 level.
4. A2.2 Responses to all three questions are on topic and show the following features: • Some simple grammatical structures used correctly but basic mistakes systematically occur. • Vocabulary is sufficient to respond to the questions, although inappropriate lexical choices are noticeable. • Mispronunciations are noticeable and frequently place a strain on the listener. • Frequent pausing, false starts and reformulations but meaning is still clear.
3. A2.1 Responses to two questions are on topic and show the following features: • Some simple grammatical structures used correctly but basic mistakes systematically occur. • Vocabulary is sufficient to respond to the questions, although inappropriate lexical choices are noticeable. • Mispronunciations are noticeable and frequently place a strain on the listener. • Frequent pausing, false starts and reformulations but meaning is still clear.
2. A1.2 Responses to at least two questions are on topic and show the following features: • Grammatical structure is limited to words and phrases. Errors in basic patterns and simple grammar structures impede understanding. • Vocabulary is limited to very basic words related to personal information. • Pronunciation is mostly unintelligible except for isolated words. • Frequent pausing, false starts and reformulations impede understanding. 39 Aptis Candidate Guide
1. A1.1 Response to one question is on topic and shows the following features: • Grammatical structure is limited to words and phrases. Errors in basic patterns and simple grammar structures impede understanding. • Vocabulary is limited to very basic words related to personal information. • Pronunciation is mostly unintelligible except for isolated words. • Frequent pausing, false starts and reformulations impede understanding.
0. A0 No meaningful language or all responses are completely off-topic
Speaking part 2: Describe, express opinion and provide reasons and explanation In this part, you will see a photo and answer three questions. You have 45 seconds to respond to each question. 41 Aptis Candidate Guide
Speaking part 3: Describe, compare and provide reasons and explanations
In this part, you will see two photos and answer three questions. 42 Aptis Candidate Guide
The areas assessed in parts 2 and 3 of the Speaking test are how completely and relevantly you responded to the question, grammatical range and accuracy, vocabulary range and accuracy, pronunciation, fluency and cohesion.
The marking scale is the same for parts 2 and 3.
Areas assessed: task fulfilment / topic relevance, grammatical range and accuracy, vocabulary range and accuracy, pronunciation, fluency and cohesion.
5. B2 (or above) Likely to be above the B1 level.
4. B1.2 Responses to all three questions are on topic and show the following features: • Control of simple grammatical structures. Errors occur when attempting complex structures. • Sufficient range and control of vocabulary for the task. Errors occur when expressing complex thoughts. • Pronunciation is intelligible but inappropriate mispronunciations put an occasional strain on the listener. • Some pausing, false starts and reformulations. • Uses only simple cohesive devices. Links between ideas are not always clearly indicated.
3. B1.1 Responses to two questions are on topic and show the following features: • Control of simple grammatical structures. Errors occur when attempting complex structures. • Sufficient range and control of vocabulary for the task. Errors occur when expressing complex thoughts. • Pronunciation is intelligible but inappropriate mispronunciations put an occasional strain on the listener. • Some pausing, false starts and reformulations. • Uses only simple cohesive devices. Links between ideas are not always clearly indicated.
2. A1.2 Responses to at least two questions are on topic and show the following features: • Uses some simple grammatical structures correctly but systematically makes basic mistakes. • Vocabulary will be limited to concrete topics and descriptions. Inappropriate lexical choices for the task are noticeable. • Mispronunciations are noticeable and put a strain on the listener. • Noticeable pausing, false starts and reformulations. • Cohesion between ideas is limited. Responses tend to be a list of points. 43 Aptis Candidate Guide
1. A2.1 Response to one question is on topic and shows the following features: • Uses some simple grammatical structures correctly but systematically makes basic mistakes. • Vocabulary will be limited to concrete topics and descriptions. Inappropriate lexical choices for the task are noticeable. • Mispronunciations are noticeable and put a strain on the listener. • Noticeable pausing, false starts and reformulations. • Cohesion between ideas is limited. Responses tend to be a list of points.
0 Performance below A2, or no meaningful language or the responses are
Speaking part 4: Discuss personal experience and opinion on an abstract topic
In this part, you again need to answer three questions but this time you answer them all in one response.
You have one minute to prepare a structured response. A timer on the screen will show how long you have left. When preparation time is over, the message appears at the bottom 'You now have two minutes to talk'. You should speak until the recording automatically stops after two minutes.
