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Aptis ESOL Advanced

Exam practice tests for Aptis Advanced

Exam Practice Tests

Our Posts page Exam Practice & Tips contains ALL our materials. But to help you find what you need more quickly, here are the links to all our Aptis ESOL Advanced Test practice materials. Aptis ESOL Advanced tests English language ability from B1 to C2 on the CEFR and is aimed at higher-level test-takers.

Aptis ESOL Advanced consists of five components: Speaking, Core (Grammar and Vocabulary), Reading, Writing and Listening tests. You’ll find practice for each of these components below.

Speaking

The Aptis ESOL Advanced Speaking Test lasts 10 minutes, and is divided into three main parts, each with different tasks. The test is graded; it gets more difficult as it progresses. We say ‘main parts’ because after your presentation in Part 3, you are asked a supplementary question.

Part 1:  Describe, compare and provide reasons and explanations

You’re asked to compare two pictures. Then you have to answer two questions about them. You will have 45 seconds for each response.

Part 2:  Discuss personal experience and opinion in relation to an abstract topic

You’re asked three questions, which remain on the screen. You have one minute to think about your answers and two minutes to talk.

Part 3: Presentation and question on your presentation
 
First you have to speak on a topic for 90 seconds. The topic stays on the screen, together with two lists of points – for and against – related to the topic. You have to choose two items from each list and give a balanced argument to represent both sides of the topic. You have one minute to prepare your argument, and then you have one and a half minutes to speak. After you finish your presentation, you’ll be asked an additional question related to it. You have to respond immediately; there’s no preparation time.

 
Here are all our Aptis Advanced Speaking Practice Tests. There’s a post to accompany each video, giving you explanations and tips to help you prepare. You’ll see that there’s more than one version of each video.  Why?  Because one is always mock-exam style, for you to do realistic exam practice on your own. Then, as with the other Aptis tests, there’s a supplementary version of each video, with sample C1 answers, ideas and suggestions.
 

Aptis ESOL Advanced Speaking Tests

Core: Grammar

In the Aptis Core Test you have to do 50 questions in 25 minutes.  The questions are divided equally between grammar and vocabulary. The grammar component of the test contains 25 questions, which means you can take up to 30 seconds per question. 

They’re always multiple-choice questions with three options to choose from.  Most of them focus on formal written English.  However, some focus on the appropriate use of grammar when speaking, including formal and informal language. You’ll find more information about this in the accompanying posts. Our practice tests are in the same format as the official Aptis ESOL Core Test.

Aptis ESOL Advanced Grammar Tests

Core: Vocabulary

In the Aptis Core Test you have to do 50 questions in 25 minutes.  The questions are divided equally between grammar and vocabulary.  The vocabulary component of the test contains 25 questions, which means you can take up to 30 seconds per question. 

There are four question-types: Word pairs, Word definitions, Word usage, Word combinations.You’ll find more information about this in the accompanying posts. Our exam-style Practice Tests cover all four parts in a way very similar to the official test (they use drop-down menus, but we’ve chosen a slightly different format here to make the exercises more directly accessible). 

Aptis ESOL Advanced Vocabulary Tests

Reading

There are four parts to the Aptis Advanced Reading Test, and four question-types. The tasks starts at B1 level and get more and more difficult as the test continues. It takes 60 mins to complete this component of the test. You’ll find more details of this in Overview of the Advanced Reading Test, but here’s a summary of the four parts:

Part 1:  Opinion Matching

You will read four people’s opinions on the same topic. Then you have to read seven statements and decide which person’s opinion matches each statement. You complete the task by selecting the correct person from the drop-down list.

Part 2:  Long Text Comprehension

You have to match an appropriate heading to each paragraph of a long text. There are eight headings, and you have to match seven of them to the paragraphs in the text. (This means there’s always an extra heading that does not fit with any paragraph.)

Part 3:  Reading for Global Understanding

You will read a short gapped text. You have to choose the right word or phrase to complete each of the five gaps. There are always three options per gap in the drop-down list.

Part 4:  Reading across Two Texts

For the final part, you will read two short gapped texts on the same topic. There are six gaps, and you have to fill them in with the appropriate phrase. Again, there are always three options per gap in the drop-down list.

Aptis ESOL Advanced Reading Tests

Coming soon!

Writing

There are three parts to the Aptis Advanced writing test, and you have 45 minutes to do this component.  The test gets more difficult as it progresses. Here’s a brief summary of each part:

Part 1: Three written responses to questions

The task consists of interacting in a social media-type written conversation in a chat room. You have received three messages and have to respond briefly to each.

Part 2: Email response

For this task you read an email and have to respond to it using the notes provided.

Part 3: Article for website publication

The third task consists of writing an article for a website that is both informative and interesting.

Aptis ESOL Advanced Writing Tests

Listening

There are four parts to the Listening, and four task-types, each more challenging than the last. It takes approximately 30 mins to complete this component of the exam. All the tasks focus on different aspects of real-world listening. We give you more details and examples in Advanced Overview & Tips, but here’s a brief summary of each part of the test.

Part 1: Identifying factual information

You will listen to monologues or dialogues and answer one question for each recording.

You can listen to the recordings twice.

Part 2: Identifying opinion and attitude

You will listen to three separate monologues and answer two separate questions for each recording.

You can listen to the recordings twice.

Part 3: Understanding an extended spoken text

You will hear a discussion between a man and a woman. On the screen you will see a number of opinions, and you need to identify who gives which opinion: the woman, the man, or both of them.

You will hear the recording only once.

Part 4: Understanding an extended story

You will hear two separate monologues and you need to select the correct answers from a table. The information in the monologue doesn’t appear in the same order as the table.

In this part you will also hear each recording only once.

Aptis ESOL Advanced Listening Tests

Coming soon!