Aptis reading Test: General Tips and Strategies

How To Tackle Opinion Matching Questions?
Analyse the questions and options
Read the Question
. We have to keep emphasising this, but you will only give the right answer if 
you understand what you must do. 
 Take note of the keywords. 
In part 3 of the listening test, the question options are a little more 
complicated and so you need to think even more about the keywords. 
Because they are longer sentences, the keyword(s) is very important. Look at the first statement 
18) The school should provide better WIFI.
The keyword is ‘better’ although ‘provide’ is also significant because this word or a synonym will 
introduce the sentence with the answer. 
In the next statement. 
19)
Teachers need access to more classroom technology.
 
The phrase ‘classroom technology’ is important ‘access to more’ will be the phrase that gives you 
the answer. 
Adverbs, determiners and adjectives are more important in these types of questions. These 
questions are designed to see what you infer, in other words, what you conclude from statements that 
are not obvious. 
For example, we have the adjective ‘exciting’. The woman states that online classes would be ‘a 
great experience’ and ‘a lot of fun’, we can infer that only the woman finds it ‘exciting’. The man 
says that is in ‘not eager about them in the slightest’. So, not excited. Therefore, the answer is B, the 
woman only. 
However, as in listening part 2, the verb and (this time) the adverb in the statement, may not 
always be repeated in the dialogue. You should be prepared to listen for synonyms and parallel 
expressions. These will be discussed later in the Tips and Strategies. 
Be careful of ‘distractors’.
As discussed in parts 1 & 2, distractors are words and phrases that are 
included in the text which sound like they might be the answer but aren’t. 
In part 3 distractors may be different because you are not listening for specific information or the 
word may be used by one of the speakers to talk about another topic. 
We see this in the conversation when the man says he is ‘excited’ about the field trips. The word 
‘excited’ as we discussed, is a keyword in above question but isn’t the correct answer because the 
question is about new technology, not field trips.