Aptis reading Test: General Tips and Strategies

Grammatical range and accuracy
Your grammar should be correct and use tenses and structures relevant to the question. Verbs and 
nouns should agree, e.g. He has two brothers. Good use of countable and uncountable nouns, 
articles, and determiners also improves accuracy. 
Vocabulary range and accuracy
Using the appropriate vocabulary to explain what you want to explain. With the right level of 
formality to get the result you want (task fulfillment). 

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Cohesion
The answer in this section should be 30 to 40 words. Therefore, your response to the question will be 
around three or four sentences. For your answer to be cohesive you will only have to use linking 
words, pronouns, and other referencing words like these/those/that/this. 
For further details please visit the British Council website here.
APTIS Writing Part 3: Sample Question #1 
Part 3: You are a member of a travel club. You are talking to other members in a chat room. 
Talk to them using sentences. You have 10 minutes in total. Answer all three questions.
Sam: Hi, welcome to the club. Can you remember the first time you went on a journey by yourself? 
What was it like??
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Jose: What are the most interesting places to visit in your country? 
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Fernanda: What is the most exciting journey you have been on? 
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
If you would like to access more simulated APTIS writing tests then please visit our exam 
library here.
How to answer the question? 
The thing about the 
first question
is that it is difficult to answer it successfully with ‘No’. Therefore, 
you will need to talk about the journey. The way to help do this is to ask yourself ‘What 
happened?’ and to explain what it was like- you can ask yourself ‘How did I feel?’ 
The question is about the past and so you need past tenses. It is a story and so you should try to use a 
least one of the following- past continuous, past perfect and past perfect continuous with the past 
simple. 
With a story you should use sequencing words- first/second/then/finally. You may want to give 
explanations or results- because/so/so that/as a result. To talk about how you felt you could use 
adjectives that describe feelings or adverbs like- unfortunately, luckily, thankfully. 
The 
second question
is easier. You only need the present simple unless you explain the history of 
these places. With a question like this, students often give a list of places. This won’t get you any 
marks. 
You should say where and to achieve task fulfillment you need to say why unless you’re over your 
word-limit. The example of question 2 below asks for your opinion and so you need to use 
expressions for opinions. 

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The 
third question
is similar to the first. You need to explain what the journey was and why it was 
exciting. Again, it is a story in the past and you could use one of the following- past continuous, past 
perfect and past perfect continuous with the past simple.