Aptis reading Test: General Tips and Strategies

Vocabulary
This means you have to choose words that are appropriate for the level of formality. You should ask 
yourself: Who am I writing to and what do I want to achieve? In the question above you are writing 
to club members or committee. You need to be friendly, not too informal. You want them to like you 
and you want them to think you are an intelligent person. 
Paraphrasing
will help you answer the question but not if you use the same words and sentence 
structure because you will lose marks. Learn how to use the question to build your answer. 
For example: Please tell us why you are interested in travelling. 
Paraphrase: Travelling has always been a great love of mine because… 
Not 
I am interested in travelling because… 
Grammar
Your grammar should be correct and appropriate to the question. In the question above you are not 
expected to talk about the places you visited. Furthermore, you don’t have sufficient words to write 
about your experiences travelling. This question marks you no higher than an A2 level and is 
looking for: ‘simple grammatical structures to produce writing at the sentence level.’ 
Cohesion
The answer in this section should be 20 to 30 words. Therefore, your response to the question will be 
around two or three sentences long. For your answer to be cohesive you will only have to use one or 
two linking words and maybe a pronoun to refer back to the things in your answer. 
The sample question: Please tell us why you are interested in travel. 
This question only requires the present simple because it is about something that is generally true. 
The keyword is ‘interested in’ and so if you use this expression you will need to remember that we 
use: interested in + noun/verb + ing. The question word is ‘why’, therefore you will have to give 
reasons and will need words that express reason. Also, there is no right or wrong answer. The 
question invites you to express your opinion about the topic of travel.