Aptis reading Test: General Tips and Strategies

 
APTIS For Teaches: Model Answer to Sample Speaking Question #5 
Part 1: In this part of the test, you are going to answer three personal questions about 
yourself and your interests. You will have 30 seconds to answer each question. Begin speaking 
when you hear the beep.
1.1 How do you prefer to travel 
I definitely think that the best way to go from A to B is by train. Firstly, it is more relaxing, you 
can just sit in your seat and watch the world go by and if it’s not peak-time, you have to space to 
spread yourself out. Riding on a bus can be like that but it's not so easy to move around.
1.2 Do you have a favourite journey? 
I used to really like the journey in June from the place I was at university in London to my home. I 
wasn’t that I disliked living in London but more because the exams were behind me and, although I 
worked during the summer, that I had nearly four carefree months in front of me. I also lived on the 
coast and that made it even more special.
1.3 Tell me about a time you felt very tired. 
I remember having a holiday that was in two parts. The first was in New York and the second was 
a beach holiday in Greece. The plan was that we flew back from the USA in the morning and then 

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flew out to Greece in the evening. The only problem was that it was from two different airports. I 
didn’t sleep on the plane flying back or flying to Greece and I ended up being awake for about two 
days.
Part 2: In this part of the test, you are going to describe what is happening in a picture. 
Then, I will ask you two questions about them. You will have 45 seconds for each response. 
Begin speaking when you hear the beep.
2.1. Describe this picture. 
In this photograph, we can see a pretty bad traffic jam. There are four lanes of traffic and it looks 
either like they are moving very slowly or not moving at all. The setting for the picture is a large 
city, I don’t think it’s a city in the Middle East or Asia because the signs are written using Roman 
lettering. Anyway, the traffic is trying to move under a bridge in the background of the photo and 
have become jammed. There are a few pedestrians in the picture but this doesn’t look a very healthy 
environment for people.
2.2. Is driving to work better than taking public transport? 
The environment answer to this question is to take public transport as it produces less pollution 
per person than driving to work. Unless you can find other people to share your journey with, it’s 
always going to be the case that public transport is greener. The other problem with driving to work 
is that parking is difficult and expensive. In my opinion, cycling is the best way to commute if you 
can and with more towns and cities making their centres pedestrianised and creating more cycle 
lanes, riding a bike is a good option.
2.3 How can we reduce the traffic on our roads? 
I think the first thing to do is to make public transport easier and cheaper, that would encourage 
fewer people to drive.