Aptis reading Test: General Tips and Strategies

Use your English grammar
. You can reject any information you hear related to the past, i.e. 
We 
had tuna yesterday
or 
Why don’t we have chicken tomorrow
? Because you are listening for 
something which is generally true or a routine (present simple). 
Listen carefully for negative auxiliaries used as distractors- isn’t/doesn’t/haven’t etc. You should 
hear these clearly because they are words which are stressed in sentences. 
Listen for the ‘introduction words/keywords’. 
These are the important words that come before 
and in the information you need to answer the question. 
In the case of the example, you are listening for a type of food and you a ready to reject 
distractors. 
Now you need to prepare yourself the answer. 
The child may not say something like: ‘I want pizza’. They may use a synonym ‘How about 
ordering pizza?’. 
Reject incorrect options.
We may have discussed that the child is probably going to provide us 
with the answer and that he may say what he wants or give other options. 
To be sure that we find the right answer, we should reject the other options ‘I don’t like tuna’, or 
reject the option ‘you won’t have to defrost anything, like chicken’.
 
Flagging
In the APTIS listening test, you have the opportunity to flag questions. This means that you can 
highlight them and go back to them later. Maybe you want to re-read or review them. Or you could 
want to listen to them a second time. 
You can listen to all of the questions in the APTIS Listening twice. However, you have 40 
minutes to complete the test and you will need to give yourself time to listen to all of it. 
Flagging questions means that you can move on and make sure that you answer all the other 
questions before returning to the questions you weren’t sure about. 
Part 1 of the APTIS listening test is the easiest because the listenings are short and the questions 
straightforward. This means that although you want to get as many part 1 questions as possible right, 
you should also try to spend the minimum amount of time completing it. 

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Listening again
. It is tempting to listen to everything in part 1 twice and as a consequence, spend 
too long on it. You must try to balance being sure you know the answer, with making sure you 
answer all the questions. 
Different candidates have different techniques but in general: 
Try to do all the part 1 questions with just one listen. 
If you need to ‘warm-up’ listen to the first five questions twice. 
Flag any questions that you weren’t sure of and return to them at the end. 
Listen to all the part 1 question you have flagged. They are easier and you should get them 
right. 
If you have time, try replaying the part 1 dialogues, monologues, etc in your head. This will 
often make the correct answer much clearer to you. 
Make sure that you answer all the questions because guesses often work and you don’t lose 
makes for incorrect answers.