Aptis
Aptis - Forward thinking English testing
Choose Aptis to assess more people more efficiently and raise international English standards in your organisation
An adaptable new approach to testing global English from the British Council
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About Aptis
Aptis is a new and innovative global English assessment tool from the British Council. It is designed to help organisations reach more people, connect with them and raise standards of English. Aptis is an English test for adults, which can be used to assess ability in all four English skills - speaking, listening, reading and writing. It also allows organisations and individuals to develop specific English skills, with the ability to test just one skill, e.g. listening only (combined with the core grammar and vocabulary component).
Aptis is uniquely flexible and accessible; it allows you to test the skills relevant to your requirements accurately, and get results within as little as 24 hours. Aptis is also an affordable and efficient test, with fresh, relevant content, meaning more people can be assessed with minimum fuss.
Why choose Aptis?
Aptis has been developed by the British Council, a trusted organisation with more than 70 years experience in English assessment. The British Council’s status as a global leader in English testing make choosing Aptis the right decision for your organisation’s English development needs.
Aptis is used around the globe by corporate businesses, government organisations, educational institutions and NGOs. It is a business-to-business product for sale to organisations, rather than individuals, and can be used for:
- Benchmarking students or employees
- Language audits to identify training needs
- Filtering potential employees for interview
- 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 is made up of a number of components which are taken in packages rather than individually. You select the core language knowledge component (grammar and vocabulary) and combine it with separate skills components for accurate and relevant testing that meets your needs. If you wish to test a mix of skills, different components can be taken together.
There are 15 different Aptis packages available:
Listening Package Reading Package Speaking Package Writing Package Listening and Reading Package Listening and Speaking Package Listening and Writing Package Reading and Speaking Package Reading and Writing Package Speaking and Writing Package Listening, Reading and Speaking Package Listening, Reading and Writing Package Listening, Speaking and Writing Package Reading, Speaking and Writing Package Listening Reading Speaking and Writing Package By allowing you to choose which skills are tested, when, where and how, you get the best and most meaningful results for your organisation.
Aptis 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 make up the candidate’s profile of language proficiency.
This approach to scoring has the affect of giving a very accurate indication of a candidate’s ability. More accurate results help you to achieve increasingly effective and focused English training and recruitment. It also ensures standards can be raised and maintained at personal, organisational and regional levels.
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 it stops contamination of the marking, and markers are not influenced by how a candidate has performed in previous tasks (known as the Halo Effect). This also improves the speed at which an examiner can mark, keeping costs low.
Research
The British Council Assessment Research Awards and Grants
The British Council Assessment Research Awards and Grants recognise achievement and innovation within the field of language assessment and form part of the British Council’s extensive support of research activities across the world.
Read about the development theory behind Aptis in the Aptis Test Development Approach written by Barry O’Sullivan:
Aptis Formal Trials Feedback Report – Barry O’Sullivan:
Documents coming soon:
Review of Some Current English Language Tests: Information Provision
Aptis Standard-setting Report
Contact us
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