Aptis ESOL General Listening Test: Overview & Tips

Aptis ESOL General Listening Test

This post will give you an overview of what you can expect when you take the Aptis ESOL Listening Test. We also give you some helpful tips on how to do this part of the exam successfully.

We’re going to look at Aptis ESOL General here; we’ll look at both the Aptis ESOL Listening Test for Teachers and for Advanced in other posts.

(However, as with all the components of the Aptis for Teachers test, the format is very similar to the General test. The only noticeable difference is the content, which is designed specifically for teachers.  The questions relate to an educational context, dealing with themes and scenarios that teachers come across every day.) 

The practicalities

You do this listening test individually (unlike the Cambridge exams, where you take the test in a group). Headphones which are supplied by the exam centre. You’ll hear each recording twice. To listen to the recording, all you have to do is click on the ‘Play’ button.

What the Aptis ESOL Listening Test consists of

There are four parts to the Listening, and four task-types.  These get progressively more challenging. It takes approximately 40 mins to complete this component of the exam. 

All the tasks focus on different aspects of real-world listening. There are 17 recordings in total.

We’ve included screenshots of each part of the test so that you can see what the exam looks like.

So let’s have a look at the four task-types.