APTIS – A new global English test

By Girish Sheshamani

APTIS is the first test which has been developed and administered by the British Council; a trusted organisation with more than 70 years experience in English assessment. IELTS is another popular exam which is conducted by the British Council to test the english language proficiency of a candidate.

Aptis is used around the globe by corporate businesses, government organisations, educational institutions and NGOs. It is targeted at organisations, even though lots of individuals are taking the test, to find out where they stand, with respect to various aspects of the English Language

APTIS essentially serves the following purposes:

• Benchmarking employees working in an organisation
• To identify training needs of employees
• Short listing potential employees for interview
• Identifying current employees for promotion
• To get a SWOT analysis of people seeking employment

Key features of the global test:

• Uniquely flexible and accessible
• Allows individuals to test the skills relevant to their requirements accurately
• Provides results within 24 hours
• Affordable and efficient

Aptis is a flexible and adaptable English test for adults, which can be used to assess ability in all four English skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing). It can also be customised to test one or more specific skills, which allows organisations to test the skills relevant to their needs.

Aptis can be delivered by computer, telephone, or pen and paper, and results are available within 24 hours.

Who is Aptis for?

Aptis is used around the globe by corporate businesses, government organisations, educational institutions professional associations and NGOs for:

• Recruitment – filtering potential employees for interview
• Benchmarking students or employees
• Language audits to identify training needs
• Filtering students to identify those ready for other exams
• Filtering current employees for promotion
• As a diagnostic tool to identify strengths and weaknesses of people seeking employment
• Evaluating language development projects

 There are three delivery modes available:

• Computer based
• Pen and paper based
• Telephone based (for speech based assessments)

Each Aptis paper is also available in two of these delivery modes, e.g. writing can be done online or by pen and paper; allowing you to select the most appropriate mode of delivery for your context.

APTIS Structure:

APTIS encompasses four basic test packages and their variants. Each of them contains a grammar and vocabulary test (the so-called core test) and differs in the additional component testing individual language skills.

These Listening, Reading and Writing packages can either be taken individually or can be further combined in various configurations to test relevant skills. The various options help in assessing only those language skills that are essential for different functions.

Duration of the Test:

Scoring:

Candidate performance in each skill is mapped to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

An Aptis candidate will receive a score on a numerical scale (0 to 50) for the grammar and vocabulary section, and a score on a numerical scale (0 – 50) and CEFR level (A1 – C) for each skill they take. This will give a clear and unbiased picture of a candidate’s language proficiency.

Aptis also ensures fairness of marking by having the same markers focus on specific tasks, rather than on whole test results. This has significant benefits for the test integrity as markers cannot be biased or get influenced by how a candidate has performed in previous tasks.

APTIS fee:

The cost of the test depends on the chosen module combinations. However, fees for administration of the test by the British Council are paid additionally.

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