Top Tips to Help you Pass the Aptis Reading Test
In the Overview of the Reading Test you’ll find a detailed description of each of the four parts. There are also tips on how to do each task. Here are our top tips to help you pass the Reading Test.
These tips will also be useful for doing all types of public exams, not just the Aptis test. For example, Trinity ISE exams, all the Cambridge exams, IELTs, EOI, Language Cert – in fact, any exam with a reading component.
Before the exam
- The best way to prepare for each part of the test is to read as much as you can. A few minutes every day is much better than trying to read too much in one sitting.
- Read complete short texts, as this will reflect the format of the Aptis exam. A great place to start is Simple English Wikipedia. This site is for people who are learning English as a second language.
- Read graded readers – these are books especially written for language-learners. They may be simplified versions of well-known stories or original texts. One of the reasons why students don’t read very much is that they get frustrated by constantly having to stop to look words up. Choose a grade a little below your actual level, and then you’ll be able to enjoy the story. For example, the British Council has some online here.
During the exam
- In the exam you won’t be able to use a dictionary, so you need to try to guess what a word means. Look at the word in context, and use your general knowledge to make an ‘educated guess’. For example, this sentence in a text about train travel: Passengers without a ticket will have to pay a fine. From the context you can guess that ‘fine’ must be a negative thing here, a kind of penalty. Now let’s take a look at this sentence: ‘She’s won every game – she’s unstoppable!‘. Look for something similar to a word that you already know. The word that you know here is ‘stop’. The suffix ‘able’ implies that it’s possible. But now look at the prefix ‘un’, which implies an opposite meaning. So if you put it all together, you can guess that it means ‘impossible to stop (her)’.
- Answer every question. If you’re not sure, guess. There’s always a chance of getting it right! Then you’ll have be more likely to pass the Reading Test.
In my opinion these stories really help me improve my reading skills. I do enjoy reading them and doing the fruitful exercises in every time. Thank you so much.
Hi Naima, That’s great to hear! Thank you for your enthusiasm and encouragement! As we’re both teachers, we have a lot of materials that we’ve designed over the years, and it’s satisfying to put them to good use here. Please let us know if there’s anything specific that you’d like us to cover. Good luck with your studies!