Aptis Writing Exam Overview - Handout for Teachers

Aptis Writing Exam Overview Eliciting prior knowledge: What do you remember about the writing exam? Discuss in pairs or 3s: 1) How many parts were there? 2) What tasks did you have to do? 3) Which parts did you find most difficult? 4) Did you have any problems with doing it on a computer? What were they? 5) What would you like to learn about the writing exam today? Note down 2-3 things.

Active listening task: Listen to your trainer’s presentation on the Aptis Writing Exam and decide if the following statements are true or false: 1) In the example shown, all the tasks are linked to the topic of a sports club. 2) Part 4 carries more marks than parts 1 and 2 combined. 3) The exam gets more challenging as you progress. 4) You can choose how much time to spend on each task. 5) You should use formal English throughout the exam.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/exams/aptis

Exam Structure

Let’s now go through the exam as it appears on the website.

Task 1 - Key Information

Example Answer ->

Task 1 is marked by an examiner, though only five pieces of information are awarded points. These five are randomly selected by the system. It is worth remembering that this task is the least valuable to the candidate, with a conversion table being used to estimate its contribution to the overall score. Even if you achieve 5 points, the maximum number of marks available is 3.

Task 2 - Key Information

Example Answer ->

Task 2 is marked by an examiner using a special, task-specific scale. The weighting for this task is even, so the maximum mark available is 5. There may be two questions here, but the total number of words expected will be the same.

Example Answer ->

Click ‘post’ after each reply. In the example exam  you have to do 3 posts in 10 minutes.

Task 3 - Key Information Task 3 is marked by an examiner. The weighting for this task means that the maximum mark available is 7. You should reply fully to each piece of input and show a good range of vocabulary.

Example Answer ->

 Example Answer

 Example Answer

Task 4 - Key Information Task 4 is marked by an examiner. The weighting for this task means that the maximum mark available is 9, making it the most important task on the paper. It’s also the most challenging. If you do it well, you could make the top grade – C (Advanced)!

Aptis writing exam