Aptis reading Test: General Tips and Strategies

General TIPs and strategies to prepare for APTIS reading test
There are some things that you can do in order to improve your reading. Improving your reading 
will raise the level of your English in general.
 
Be Aware Of Timing:
Don’t spend too long on one part. Learn to ‘pace yourself’ by 
practising the test at home using a timer. Learn the reading skills demonstrated and don’t spend large 
amounts of time trying to understand the complete text.
Flag the question for later review if not sure: 
Remember you can always go back to a 
question and often something will become clearer if you stop concentrating on it for a moment.
Don't leave any blank answers: 
Check the summary page to see if you have missed any 
questions. You do not lose marks for incorrect questions and so make sure that you answer 
everything.
Go back to flagged questions (if you have time): 
If you have moved on to another 
question, don’t forget to go back and complete the ones you left. If you still don’t know the answer, 
guess and move on.
Don’t expect to understand every word: 
Many of my students have been taught to look 
up every word they don’t understand in a dictionary. The theory behind this is good, a wide 
vocabulary is vital to getting a good score in the IELTS test, but worrying about words you don’t 
understand in the reading exam is one of the worst things you can do. It will slow you down and 
unknown words rarely prevent you from getting the answer right.
Skimming and scanning:
You should be able to skim and scan passages to do well in 
APTIS. Skimming is reading a text quickly to get a general idea. To look at the topics of each 
paragraph and decide briefly what the paragraph is about. Scanning is looking for specific 
information. When you have read the questions you may find that there is a name or number in the 
text that will lead you to the answer. You would then skim the text looking for that word before 
reading the information around it in detail.

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